Poker Night 369: Offside Trap

Regular players know when the poker game is free, almost anything can happen.  When it's played in a bar, the chances increase.  But when most of the players around the table are drinking soft drinks, the risk should go down -- right?  Look at what happened to us tonight at Lil Kim's Cove:

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: 7-8 offsuit

The night is young, and our stack isn't too bad.  We started with 11,000 chips (more on that later), and have lost a couple of small pots.  So we try to "get in small" with connected mid-range cards.  A man across from us raises to 200, and we join most of the players in the hand.

ON THE FLOP: 7-9-5

We have a pair and an interesting straight draw.  The play checks to us (including the man who raised before), and we test the waters by betting 200.  A couple of players fold, one calls, and the dealer shows....

ON THE TURN: 6h

"Wait!" exclaims the dealer's wife, sitting two seats to his left.  She covers the card with her hand, because two players to our right have yet to act.  They both decide to call -- and our straight disappears, because the dealer moved too soon.  That card goes back in the deck under house rules, and the deck is reshuffled.  Maybe lightning will strike twice?!

ON THE TURN (revised): A

It didn't there.  In fact, that card may give someone else the best pair.  We check -- but the rest of the table does as well.

ON THE RIVER: 10

The table checks again -- and the player to our immediate right shows a 10.  He hit the river, to take the pot.  We lost it largely due to a dealer's mistake.  It's a reminder to us of how imperfect all humans are....

As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one...." - Romans 3:10

We won a couple of nice pots later in the first hour to climb above 15,000 chips.  But a limp-in with pocket Aces crashed into another player's full house near the hour's end, and we never won a pot after that.  A forced Small Blind push with A-3 brought an Ace on the flop, but a woman across from us wound up with a straight.  On a night with only two tables, we wound up in 12th place.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "You get 4,000," one of the tournament organizers said to us as we sat at the bar before the game.

But when the bartender brought us a can of diet cola, she gave us only 2,000 bonus chips.  That brought a shrug of the shoulders from the organizer.

"I think you should get more," he said.  "You fight the good fight, climbing uphill against everybody."  As in other players buying sandwiches or buckets of beer for even bigger bonuses.

We agreed with his assessment and noted his phrasing.  "I fight the good night," we replied.  "I finish the course.  I've kept the faith."

The organizer seemed to recognize those words, but we made sure he knew the source.  "I read that in a book once."  Which book?  If you're a regular reader, you should know....

I have fought the good fight.  I have finished the race.  I have kept the faith. - II Timothy 4:7

The apostle Paul wrote those words near the end of his life (verse 6).  But he went on to declare there's more, beyond this life:

Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day -- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. - II Timothy 4:8

The Bible indicates "that day" will be a day after Paul is resurrected, with the second coming of Jesus Christ. But we recommend you don't wait until the end of your life to do what Paul did....

Fight the good fight of the faith.  Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. - I Timothy 6:12

Have you made that confession yet - putting your faith in Jesus as your Savior?

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 128 final tables in 369 nights (34.7%) - 20 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 273 point wins in 1,259 games (21.7%), 85 final tables, 10 cashes, 10 wins.  No-River Hold 'em - 20 point wins in 73 games (27.4%), 15 final tables, 1 cash/win.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $87,397, up $3,137.

Correction or Insurrection

Let's return to the "Forgotten Face-Card Foul-Up" from Thursday night's poker tournament.  We overlooked a K-Q on the board, and let another player's A-10 take a pot over our A-9 even though both of us had three Aces.

We didn't spot the mistake until minutes later.  And when we did, we realized it was too late to reset the matter and make things right.  The time to object was at that moment -- before the cards were swept up from the table for the next hand.  There's a lesson here, which could apply to many aspects of our lives.

Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court.  Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. - Matthew 5:25

Jesus is using an example of legal matters to say disagreements should be settled quickly -- on the spot, if you can.  If they fester and grow, the damage could spread.  And the final outcome could be worse than the original act.

Admittedly, in our case a trained poker room dealer would have settled the issue in only a moment.  But in a free tournament, other players at the table should notice what happened and speak up....

If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.  If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.  But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that "every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." - Matthew 18:15-16

At the poker table, the players might haggle in front of everyone else around.  Away from the table, disputes should be addressed peacefully and privately.  People have done that with us on poker nights over the years; in fact, we've mentioned a couple of those cases.

But the true test of someone's character shows in how he or she responds, when a decision doesn't go their way....

Why not rather be wronged?  Why not rather be cheated?  Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. - I Corinthians 6:7-8

Paul is writing in relation to legal action as well.  But there's a good principle in what he explains here: take the loss and move on -- and as you move on, don't do anything illegal to get even.


(Going "on tilt" at a poker table is not illegal.  It can annoy other players to pieces and make you look selfish -- which is also questionable from a Biblical standpoint -- but it's not illegal.)

In the case of Thursday night, we accepted the mistake -- and our role in allowing it to happen.  Hopefully we'll remember the lessons of it all.  And in future poker games, we'll try to avoid forgetting any faces.