False Alarms, True Sense

Our last post mentioned the moment of fear we had driving to a poker night. A tire warning light started flashing as we crossed a high bridge. The last thing we wanted was a flat tire there - especially on a cold winter evening.

Thankfully, a tire store was still open on the other side of the bridge. There we learned a flashing light really means a "sensor battery" to monitor the tire had failed - not the tire itself. So we could drive on to the poker room with that knowledge.

Have you ever faced something liked that, when playing poker? You sense trouble in the middle of a hand - perhaps by how an opponent is betting or a "tell" you're perceiving. It could be right. Or you may discover it was all a bluff, to scare you out of a big win.

Some people say you should run at the first sign of danger. Others say you should "curse the torpedoes - full speed ahead." We consulted a famous book filled with wisdom for the best approach you should take....

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have.... pierced themselves with many sorrows.... man of God, so run from all these evil things.... - I Timothy 6:10-11 (NLT)

This is interesting - if your "spidey sense" (to borrow from an old cartoon) indicates trouble, you should check yourself. Why would you plow on? Because you're greedy for a big pot, or want to get even with someone for an earlier pot? If that's the motive, the Bible recommends running the other way.

Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts... - II Timothy 2:22 (NLT)

(For some people, this could mean not playing poker at all - but that's not really our topic here.)

But you may be convinced that moving forward is the right thing to do. (For instance, it's easy when you have a nut flush.) If so, move ahead:

And the Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward...." - Exodus 14:15 (NKJV)

At this point, God was intervening to pull a nation out of Egypt - even splitting the Red Sea in two to do it (verses 21-30). He can back your wise decisions as well. He can even come to your rescue when a decision appears wrong; we've seen this happen in tournaments more than once.

In the case of our warning light, we stopped for advice from an expert. Obviously, that's not allowed in the middle of a poker hand - but we've seen blackjack dealers offer some from time to time. And after a hand or tournament, it's worth pursuing....

The godly offer good counsel; they teach right from wrong. - Psalm 37:30 (NLT)

So feel free to comment - what was the biggest moment you've ever had in poker where your sense of trouble was right, and you had a "great lay-down"? Or even a bad one?

Poker Night 507: The Price of Courage

At the church convention we're attending, the most personal impact has come from men's morning meetings. One of the topics Monday was "courageous leadership." We reviewed the story of David slaying Goliath (I Samuel 17) - then went to a casino Monday night and tried to apply the lesson.

Choctaw Casino-Durant in southeast Oklahoma has become a place with an international poker reputation. Its nice enclosed upstairs room has been used for WPT events, and the WSOP circuit arrives there in late October. But on a federal holiday, our $70 total buy-in gave us only about 16 opponents plus a couple who did a re-buy. Would we have enough courage (and wisdom) to get a big finish?

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: A-A

Small early efforts have missed flops. An aggressive player at the opposite end of the table has chased us off a couple of pots. But now we've hit a big moment: the best possible pre-flop hand and lead position at a table of seven. With about 5,600 chips, we limp in and hope for raisers - but there are none. About five players are in.

ON THE FLOP: Jc-9h-7c (second suit may not be precise)

So far, so good - except two of these cards are clubs. We want to stop potential flush-chasing. So when the blinds check, we try to show we mean business by betting 250. Two men call; the two blinds fold.

ON THE TURN: J

Uh-oh.... potential trouble. The board pairs. Is someone sitting on a Jack, for three of a kind? Since we're back in the leadoff seat, this is a perplexing moment.

To look courageous and test the mettle of the opponents, we raise the bet to 500. A man to our left calls. But the other man raises to 1,200. Deep inside, we sense big trouble - but there's been a little bluffing at the table, so we dare to call. But now, the man to our left re-raises to 2,500! And he gets called!

We conclude both men are serious. "I don't think so," we say as we fold. Are we right?

ON THE RIVER: 4

This card doesn't seem to matter. The man to our left goes all-in - and gets called again!

So what do they have? The man to our left shows J-9! The man to our right has J-7! It's "boat over boat," and the J-9 wins a huge pot.

"I'm glad I got out of that," we say.

"What did you have?" a man to our right asks.

"I had them topped before the flop," is all we reveal. We'll save the deeper lesson in courage for another day - but we fell behind on the flop, and an attempt at an even larger "go-away" bet would have only hurt our cause.

That was the sort of night we had. We split one pot with K-10, then won an all-in Big Blind bet right before the one-hour break. But we only had 2,325 chips from a starting 7,000 at that break. And when we pushed with A-Q early in Hour 2 and were called by A-J, an Ace on the flop was followed by a Jack on the river. We missed the final table by finishing in 13th place.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We showed our "Lord's Supper" card protector to an older man seated to our right. He recognized the image on it, then asked, "Is that a precious metal?"

We tried to steer things in a more godly direction. "Jesus's blood was precious, wasn't it?"

At that point, a new hand started. We're not sure if he grasped what we said. But perhaps you've wondered about that. Why do people consider the blood of Jesus "precious"? It comes from this verse:

It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless lamb of God. - I Peter 1:19 (NLT)

An online dictionary defines "precious" as "of high price or great value.... highly esteemed for some spiritual, nonmaterial or moral quality...." Here's why the blood of Jesus fits that description....

For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver.... - I Peter 1:18  (NLT)

No, the ransom paid to save us was Christ's blood. While we are all sinners, Jesus was not (I John 3:5). He was a perfect sacrificial lamb (John 1:29), whose blood can remove your sins in God's eyes (I John 1:7). Have you turned your sins to God, to have Jesus remove them from your record?.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 184 final tables in 507 games (36.3%) - 37 cashes. We're now two-for-three in making final tables and the money, in games during church conventions.

Poker Night 340: Power Points

"You're playing a little different tonight," the man to our left said at Lil Kim's Cove.

"Sometimes you have to dare to be different," we answered -- recalling a religious radio broadcast we heard the other day.  The preacher actually encouraged people's praise to get a little wild.  And there were times when we did the same thing, by taking on a couple of players known for big bets....

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: A-A

Who wouldn't go wild at the sight of that?  And we're in the Small Blind, so we're very late in the betting order.  But the players ahead of us only call.  Our circuit's version of the Notorious BIG (as in big raiser) sits in the Big Blind -- so what will he do in response to us?

"I'll raise this time," we say -- and add 1,000.  That's relatively modest for some of these players, and we really don't want people to run away from the hand.  Most of the table calls, including Mr. Big.

ON THE FLOP: Q-10-8

So far, so good.  Now we're first to act, and we make a continuation bet of 1,000.  In a surprise move, Mr. Big folds.  Two players call, including the dealer.

ON THE TURN: J

Uh-oh.  That's potential trouble, because anyone with a 9 now has a straight.  But we decide to be as "bold as a lion" (to borrow from Proverbs 28:1) and bet 1,000 more.  Our opponents aren't fazed, and call again.

ON THE RIVER: Q

"Now what are you gonna do?" the dealer asks.  That's a touch trash-talky, since a pair of Queens is showing.  Is someone hiding a third one?

We quietly check.  "That's what I thought you'd do," the dealer responds.  The woman in order between us checks.  The dealer hesitates, perhaps looking for a sign from us.

"I'll check," he decides.

"I have Aces," we say as we show.  The woman doesn't show her cards, but concedes.

"I've got trips," the dealer says -- turning over 10-4.  Uh, no he doesn't.  He was joking, and we are winning a big pot which puts us close to 19,000 chips.

"I should have gone all-in," Mr. Big mumbles to himself.

"He would have folded," the man to his left says about us.  "Because he's a good player."  A third-hand compliment is still a compliment, and we thank him for it -- but the way the table was playing, we're not so sure about his conclusion.

We took on that big pre-flop raiser twice, after he added thousands.  In the first case, we had A-9 which led to both cards pairing by the turn.  A 5,000-chip bet at that point ran him off.

But at the end of the first hour, we re-raised him 5,000 with pocket Kings.  He called, talking about having a pocket pair.  Then he checked after an ordinary-looking flop, only to go all-in on the turn.  We considered it a bluff, called for our last 9,975 chips -- only to discover he had A-2, and the board included 3-4-5.  His big gamble paid off, and eliminated us in 12th place.

Bottom line: fighting fire with fire can be a dangerous thing.  We waited for good moments with potentially big hands to take on the big bettors.  But high rewards also carry high risks, and our opponent simply caught the cards he needed.

MINISTRY MOMENT: The betting was so large that at one point while we were dealing, a man offered 6,000 at a pot.  We announced the bet as matching "man's time on the earth before Jesus comes back."

No one responded to that statement -- and we think it was because they didn't understand it.  Some religious  groups say the Bible clues point to a 7,000-year plan of salvation for man.  Take this verse...

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. - II Peter 3:8

A common understanding of this verse is that time means nothing to a God who has no beginning or end of days.  But some believers in a seventh-day Sabbath see a deeper meaning, when they compare this verse with others.

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God.... Let is, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. - Hebrews 4:9, 11

The idea is that after man's free will (influenced largely by Satan) runs Earth for 6,000 years, Jesus will return for the seventh 1,000 years:

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge.  And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God.  They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands.  They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. - Revelation 20:4

This thinking admittedly can be dangerous, because some ministers have used this formula to jump to conclusions about the exact date for the second coming.  One minister predicted Jesus would return in late May of this year -- but He did not, and that minister now awaits sentencing for tax fraud.

We refuse to set any dates here for Jesus's return.  After all, the traditional Jewish calendar indicates we're only in the year 5772.  Could the Lord's second coming really be more than 200 years away?

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 121 final tables in 340 nights (35.6%) - 19 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 258 point wins in 1,097 games (23.5%),  81 final tables, 10 wins, 9 cashes.

The point percentage at NLOP may be misleading for awhile, because the big-money daily midday game we often play is now a "freeroll."  You don't pay points to enter, and you don't get points for finishing well -- it's all about making the final table and winning money.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $81,598, up $1,020.

4-ti-2-de

Our last post focused on a hand where our dream of a flush was close on the flop -- but a big bet by an opponent ran us off, because the flush-making card came on the river.

A poker tournament can be filled with emotional tests -- including the moments that can test your courage. If you commit a lot of chips to a potentially big hand, do you hang tough when someone challenges you with a big bet? With potentially an all-in bet? Or do you step back from the edge of the diving board?

We're talking about times that test your courage. And the Bible offers several cases where people are en-couraged by God to have courage.

"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous.... Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." -- Joshua 1:6-9

God tells Joshua to be courageous four times in this chapter (and two times before that, in Deuteronomy 31). I've read that over the years and concluded Joshua must have had a "fraidy-cat," easily-scared personality. Otherwise, why would God use this language over and over? The apostle Paul gave similar advice centuries later:

Be on your guard; stand firm in the truth; be men of courage; be strong. -- I Corinthians 16:13

A minister in Florida has put it well: Christianity isn't for cowards. We're reaching the conclusion that successful poker isn't, either.

So we ask: what advice would you offer for building courage -- in yourself or others?