Poker Night 376: Color Me AQ-A

Call us scared if you wish, but we try to avoid driving on the night of New Year's Eve.  We take the warnings about drunk drivers seriously.  And since our usual Monday night poker stop is a bar, we had even more reason to be wary.  So we delayed our first live poker game this week to Wednesday.  Soho Bar and Grill has live bands, but we "faced the music" much earlier....

BLINDS: 100/200

IN THE POCKET: A-Q offsuit

We won an early pot with a pocket pair and good betting.  But after a few misses, we start this hand in the Big Blind with 6,300 chips.  Several players at this table of six have shown a tendency to raise pre-flop, but no one does it here.  So we do: "500 more."  Our raise attracts about three callers.

ON THE FLOP: 9-Q-A

"Big Blind specials" don't come much better than this!  But as we recall, two of the flop cards had matching suits.  So we get right to work, making a continuation bet of 1,000.  The remaining players call.

ON THE TURN: K

That's potential trouble, in terms of someone making a straight.  But we decide to keep our foot on the proverbial gas pedal, until someone indicates otherwise.  We bet 2,000.  That's too much for two players, who fold.  A man across from us calls.

ON THE RIVER: A

This gives us a full house, and an easy play to make.  "I'm all in," we announce -- for "1,600 Pennsylvania Avenue."  (Call it a White House?!)

"Here's your chance to take him out, and get a bounty," a man to our immediate left recommends.  Bounty tournament rules are in effect, with a 5,000-chip reward for eliminating a player.  In fact, the man who made the suggestion wound up taking an astonishing four bounties in the first hour of play.

But our opponent has some doubts about that suggestion.  "I know he's got an Ace," he says.  After pondering the decision for several seconds, he folds.  Our chip stack doubles to more than 11,000.

"I want to see what you had," the man at our left says.

"No, that's OK," we tell him politely.  Always looking for new blog readers, you know.

Our stack stayed firm until late in the first hour, when we had Ace of clubs and saw three clubs on the flop.  Chasing the flush cost us 4,000 chips -- but we missed.  That left us with 5,800 at the break.  Then in Hour 2, we saw A-J of hearts and decided to go all in again.  But the board didn't pair, and a man made a pair of 6's to knock us out.  We begin 2013 with an 18th-place finish.

MINISTRY MOMENT: For the first time in a long time, we brought our "Jesus as your Savior" coin for a card protector.  The young man to our immediate left said he agreed with the message.

"Is Jesus your Savior?" we asked.  The man said He was.  "What's He done for you lately?"

"I'm here," the man said.  "It's 2013, and I'm here."

That's a simple way to look at it -- but an accurate way:

The God who made the world and everything in it.... is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.... For in him we live and move and have our being. - Acts 17:24-25, 28

To borrow a quote from the last U.S. Presidential race: if you have eyes to read this blog, you didn't build that.  You might have the technical skill to build a computer for showing this screen, but human eyes are a testimony of God's amazing creation.  So is your life.

The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. - I Samuel 2:6

Even that far back in Old Testament times, some believers in God (in this case a woman named Hannah) seemed to have an understanding of a coming resurrection.  Revelation 20 provides details of how that process will work.  Read it carefully and ask yourself: have you secured a place in the "first resurrection," by giving your life totally to God?

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 130 final tables in 376 nights (34.6%) - 20 cashes.

Quest for Gold

Former World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jamie Gold now has his own free poker website.  But today Gold did something unusual -- making himself a "bounty" in tournaments both live and online.

The in-person bounty was at a World Poker Tour event in Jacksonville, Florida.  The online version was a "Gold N Bounty" big-prizes tournament tonight at National League of Poker (and perhaps at other websites; Gold's site and NLOP are part of the same entertainment network).  We stayed home and joined about 2,400 other players in searching for money, wherever it was hiding....

:02 IN: We have 6-4 in the Big Blind.  The flop is Q-9-J.  The table checks.  The turn is 2.  Everyone checks.  The river is 3 -- and since everyone started with a "deep stack" of 2,500 chips, we offer a flat-out bluff of 100. It works!  The table folds, and we win $190.

:07 IN: We have 10-J.  The flop is 2-3-8.  The table is playing tight, and everyone checks.  The turn is 4.  Everyone checks again.  The river is 7.  We offer a bluff bet again of 125 -- and it works again!  Massive folding wins us $210.

:10 IN: We have 10-K.  The flop is 5-9-5.  The tight table checks.  The turn is 6.  Everyone checks again.  The river is 3.  We throw out 120 -- and we're now three-for-three in bluffs!  The table folds; we gain $320.

:11 IN: The next hand brings J-J -- and this time we don't wait, raising 200 pre-flop.  A few people call.  The flop is 5-A-6.  We check, as does everyone else.  The turn is J, and we bet 300.  The table runs off; we gain $1,120 -- and we win four of the first eight pots, while someone named "Horseco" claims the other four.

:14 IN: We have 6-A.  The flop is 8-5-9, all diamonds (we don't have one).  The table checks.  The turn is Jh.  More checking.  The river is 8c.  We offer a semi-bluff 100 (since we do have Ace high) -- and our run ends when a player calls with a winning 9-7.

:18 IN: We have 9-8 in the Big Blind.  The flop is 10-9-7.  We bet the minimum 60 with middle pair, and get callers.  The turn is K.  We offer 60 again, and get doubled by another player.  We call it.  The river is J to give us a straight.  We bet 250, an opponent doubles to 500, we call with a third player -- and we all have 8's!  It's a three-way pot split; we win $900.

Nothing works for us after that until the half-hour break.  We arrive with $1,980 - tied for 947th place, with 1,229 players to go.

:47 IN: We have 10-Q of diamonds.  The flop is K-K-3, with the 3 a diamond.  The table checks.  The turn is As, leaving us hope of a straight.  An opponent bets 200, and we dare to call.  The river is 8d.  We figure we're sunk, but the opponent merely checks.  We check with resignation -- but he has a lowly 2-7!  It's a surprise win of $1,200.

A miss with 7-A follows, along with some low-quality cards.  We survive to the one-hour break with 1,455 chips.  With 702 players remaining, we're well down the list at #625.

1:08 IN: We return from the break with K-10 offsuit.  We call, knowing it's about time to make a move.

ON THE FLOP: 5-8-K

This could be the moment -- and an opponent bets 560 to provoke a response.  We have 1,130 left, and go all-in.  The big bettor calls -- but he shows K-7, so we're in the lead!

ON THE TURN: 7

"Noooooooooooo" we say aloud -- and write moments later.  Our foe hit a second pair!

ON THE RIVER: 9

He won the race.  We're shown the door in 651st place, out of 2,404 entries.  If someone claimed the bouty on Jamie Gold along the way, we couldn't find it in the long list of standings.  He never even stopped by our table to say hello.

The Wanted Man

"This is a progressive bounty tournament," the director announced Thursday night at Lil Kim's Cove.

One of the players had a bounty on his head. Take him out of the game, and you'd receive a 5,000-chip bonus. Only then, you would become the bounty player -- and whoever took you out would get 10,000 bonus chips. The bounty would go up from there.

It reminded us a bit of playing tag, on the grade school playground. Only problem: the original marked man kept surviving -- reaching the final table with a huge stack of chips.

What do you think of this idea?

Poker Night #78: A Different Kind of "Thriller"

"Michael Jackson" were the first two words we heard as we walked into Lil Kim's Cove for tonight's tournament. A woman was on a cell phone, telling someone about the singer's sudden death. It was the talk of many in the club. But the players were there for poker -- and this hand brought a play some could call "Human Nature"....

BLINDS: 200/400

IN THE POCKET: K-10

We won an early pot with pocket Aces, so we have about 9,000 chips. A call is affordable, and several players join in.

ON THE FLOP: Q-J-9

A room-service straight! The only problem is that we're first in line to bet. At the back of the line, we could create something in reaction to other players.

We decide to go big, which goes against our usual game plan -- "3,500."

"That's a bold bet," says the woman to our immediate left who has folded. (She eventually builds an enormous chip stack by eliminating several players.)

"K-10?" a man to her left asks. (He's folded, too.) We pretend to ignore him. Only one man, who may not have heard that, chooses to take us on.

ON THE TURN: Q

A pair on the board opens the door for a possible full house. But we refuse to back out of the throttle -- "3,500 more." The other man calls.

ON THE RIVER: 5

Seemingly harmless -- but why does that other player keep calling? We slow down slightly and bet 3,000.

"All I have is 1,525," that man says. He calls, going all-in.

"You guessed I had K-10?" we say to the man who posed the question. "You're right" and we show it. Our opponent had A-10, and missed the straight. It's a bounty tournament, so the knockout earns us a 5,000-chip bonus -- on top of the 8,500+ the opponent had.

That was the high point of the night for us, as good cards didn't come often after that. We held on to take 10,000 chips to a nine-player final table. But on the first hand at the final table, our pocket Aces were stymied by another player who went all-in and wound up with three 9's.

P.S. There was NO "Michael Jackson luck" for us during the tournament tonight. We really don't believe in such things -- so when we were dealt J-5 of hearts at one point in the night, we folded a "Jackson-5" hand. It would NOT have won.

MINISTRY MOMENT: The NBC Sports online poker room frustrates a lot of players by occasionally kicking them out due to computer "latency" problems. (In our case, automatic anti-virus updates can do it.) During a tournament earlier in the day, one player wrote: "JesusChrist got booted for a f***in 10 mins."

"I've been booted, too," we respond. "And I like Jesus Christ." No one responded to that.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 34 final tables in 78 nights (43.6%) - 8 cashes.

We've made six final tables in the last eight, eight in the last 12 -- and let the record show we were the only player to make the final table both Wednesday and Thursday night this week.

YAHOO POKER TOTAL: $13,211 - RECORD HIGH, up $129.

NBC SPORTS POKER TOTAL: Five-player games - 17-20-2-3-5; cash tournaments - 4 final tables in 52 games (7.7%), no cashes.

Our best result yet there occurred last Friday -- an 8th-place finish out of 146 players. We've wound up in the "top 25" in four of the last ten tournaments.

Poker Night #75: The Quicker Picker-Upper

"Should we make it a bounty night?" the tournament director asked at the start of tonight's game at Soho Bar & Grill. Moments later, he decided the answer was yes -- and it had nothing to do with paper towels.

The bounty rules awarded a gold bonus chip worth 5,000 to anyone who eliminated another player. But why settle for one, when you can have a double play?

BLINDS: 200/400

IN THE POCKET: 6-4 of spades

We're in the big blind -- and with several players calling, we can check our way into the hand.

ON THE FLOP: 7s-8s-Jh (not exactly sure about the third card)

There's straight and flush potential for us -- not to mention a combination of the two. The small-blind woman in front of us bets 500. We call, as do one or two others.

ON THE TURN: 5d.

The least of the three options, but we'll take it. The woman playing first now merely checks. Sorry, that won't do -- we bet 500. Another woman across the table then goes all-in, adding about 1,350 more. The woman playing first only has about 550 left, but she goes all-in as well. Our call is obvious.

"Straight, 4 to 8," we say as we turn up our cards. The first woman in line only has a King high, and she's sunk. The other woman appears to have a pair of 8's.

ON THE RIVER: 2c.

The straight works up -- and it's a double takeout, earning us 10,000 bonus chips!

At one point our stack reached 25,000. But with the blinds rising into the thousands, another player with even more made two big all-in pushes against us after the flop. We made a smart laydown with A-K which didn't pair. But the second time, we smelled a bully bluff and called with A-J. We were wrong, as the opponent had 9's and 7's while we never made a pair. Final position: 19th place -- ending our long run of final tables.

MINISTRY MOMENT: A big bet that we called early prompted a man to our left to say, "Jesus."

"He's my hope of salvation," we respond. (Check I Thessalonians 5:9, if you're not sure about that.) The man says nothing more.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 32 final tables in 75 nights (42.7%) - 8 cashes.