Fight Night at the Casino

Nevada may be famous for poker. But in Arizona, they take the game seriously. Sometimes dead seriously. And it's not simply "Wild West" history....

A fight broke out last weekend at the Talking Stick Casino poker room, outside Phoenix. (Warning: There's X-rated language on the linked clip.)  Several online reports indicate a man became upset with the dealer after he missed a big blind in a cash game. He became very loud - and moments later, someone jumped him from behind.

We don't know what happened from here, except that security personnel threw both men out. We don't know if anyone will face charges. But we do know both these people need to reveal one section of a well-read book:

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. - I Corinthians 13:4-5 (NLT)

We can see plenty of violations of this "checklist of love" in this incident. Loudly bad-mouthing a dealer certainly isn't kind. Shouting/ranting about your chip stack seems rather proud to us. And horse-collaring the man to shut him up strikes us as an act by an irritable person.

It turns out there was a second fight last weekend, at a poker room in Las Vegas. It reportedly involved one player insulting another player's daughter. That seems rude - certainly not very kind.

To be fair: poker rooms we've visited have nothing like this. There may be occasional loud discussions about the rules, but things don't go beyond that. Most players are civilized and respectful, win or lose. But these cases may reflect a deeper issue - an internal one:

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don't they come from the evil desires that war within you? - James 4:1 (NLT)

To tell the truth, we all have these desires in one form or another. We may keep things in check for a while. But sometimes they boil over - and they're ugly when they do. So here's a better approach....

So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and the will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you.... - James 4:7-8 (NLT)

Instead of letting your emotions overflow, think about good and godly things (Philippians 4:8). Be a part of the ultimate "resistance movement" - resisting sin, and being a loving example to others. Even in a poker room.

Avoiding Pride Parkway

Come to think of it, maybe there was  a Ministry Moment from our first poker tournament in Indiana. It came when we mentioned we were heading to a final table, without winning a single hand.

"That's something to be proud about," a dealer told us twice.

We really didn't think so, and quietly said so. But many players might have made it a "pride point." In fact, our new home is not far from "Pride Parkway" - a section of Kentucky State Highway 16 that leads to a Pride Park. We're not sure how those places received their names. But they're places we'd rather avoid - at least spiritually. Why?

When pride comes, then comes disgrace.... - Proverbs 11:2

Pride only breeds quarrels.... - Proverbs 13:10

A man's pride brings him low.... - Proverbs 29:23

When the Bible talks about pride, it's usually not a good thing. We heard a Christian radio preacher note the other night that Luke 14 is a chapter completely about the perils of pride. We'll let you read it, and see if you can find the reasons why he said that.

Back at the poker room, we added a few words for the dealer about the alternative to pride. The Bible speaks of that, too:

...But with humility comes wisdom. - Proverbs 11:2b

...But a man of lowly spirit gains honor. - Proverbs 29:23b

We've written here before that poker is a game that keeps you humble - or, at least, it should. How many players have bet the farm on pocket Aces, only to see an opponent with pocket 4's or worse crack them with three of a kind?

One of Jesus's apostles put it this way....

...All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. - I Peter 5:5-6

We think that means you shouldn't sit down in a poker room with a head bigger than the table. Or to put it another way, don't get stuck in Pride Park!

If we're blessed by God to have any tournament success at all, we give the praise to Him - maybe not always at the table, but certainly here.

Poker Day 533: Donut Bites

Our current situation (which we're not really comfortable posting here right now) presented us with a wide-open Sunday afternoon. And the pricey "deep stack" tournament at Kansas Star Casino might be our only opportunity to play all week. So we drove down the turnpike today, to be amazed by how packed the place was - in the poker room and outside.

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: King of hearts-King of diamonds

Even though we arrived 20 minutes before the starting time, we were third on a waiting list to play. We've barely sat down with our 12,000 starting chips, but clearly the stacks and small blinds have the full table in a betting room. So with K-K (which we call "the donuts"), we raise to 400 in late position. Three players call.

ON THE FLOP: 9d-4h-5h

So far, so good. The players check to us, so we bet another 500. As we remember it, two players call.

ON THE TURN: 6h

Now hold on here. Three hearts in a row open the door for all kinds of trouble. A man across the table seems to stir up some, by betting 800. Did he make a straight? A flush? Or both? We suspect the real answer is "none of the above," and he's testing the newcomer. So we call, since we have an overpair and our own flush draw. We're now heads-up.

ON THE RIVER: Ac

No flush, but not much more comfort. We're pleased when our opponent checks. So do we.

"I have Kings," we say. To this moment, we don't know what the opponent had. He folds, so we're left to guess it was a bluff. We win a nice pot of more than 2,000.

We won a couple of other hands, to hit a high of 14,800. Then we took our own chances with small blinds and a big stack, but they didn't work. We were 25 above our starting total at the first break.

Then in the second term, everything went wrong. A-Q missed the flop for us twice, and raising players made us fold. Pocket 8's lost as well. We endured the entire 80-minute period without winning a single hand! Our stack deteriorated to a lowly 900 at the break, leaving us one remaining hand. We tried with Q-5 of hearts, but diamonds showed up and a flush fight knocked us out.

We ended the day around 44th place, out of 79 entries. But at least we followed up on our blackjack success of Thursday night by going to a table and recovering $20 of our $95 entry fee.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "I'm an honest man," a young man said as he turned over his cards to end a hand.

"Not to mention humble," we added. This brought a few chuckles from our end of the table.

Then we remembered a story we'd heard on Christian radio. "A congregation gave a pastor a trophy for being the most humble man in town. He brought it to church the next week.... and they fired him."

That's the funny thing about humility, isn't it? The Bible says we're supposed to have it....

Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord's anger. - Zephaniah 2:3

....and yet the seeking of humility can turn into a trap. Jesus told His own story about that:

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get." - Luke 18:10-12

The Pharisee prayed, thanked God, fasted on a regular basis and tithed to the temple. Those are all good traits. But Jesus continued....

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. - Luke 18:13-14

Translation: the Pharisee prayed with a sense of pride - even arrogance toward the despised other man in the temple. The tax collector humbled himself before God, admitted his sins and pleaded for God's mercy.

It's easy to get a "big head" in a poker room when you win a tournament or make a lot of money. We should thank God for whatever blessings come our way - but be careful to do so in a humble way. Give God the glory from start to finish. The result could be even greater blessings than you expect.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 192 final tables in 533 games (36.0%) - 40 cashes. Experiment update: Down $260.

On the Diamonds

As poker hands go, a flush is pretty good. It's slightly better than a straight, because it's mathematically tougher to achieve. And it beats any pair, or even three of a kind.

In classic Texas Hold 'em, only one suit in a hand can be a flush. Other games open the door for more than one, and that's when suit rank might matter - with spades at the top, followed by hearts, diamonds and clubs.

But let's ask a silly-sounding question. If you were a flush, what suit would you want to wear? A spade might be more impressive at the table, but you won't find the word "spade" anywhere in the King James Bible. You won't find "club" there, either. But you'll see a reference to the other suits:

You have been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz and the diamond.... - Ezekiel 28:13 (KJV)

Some Bible translations replace "diamond" with "emerald" (which appears later on the King James list). But if diamond is correct, how nice it would sound to be covered by fancy jewelry. Someone was long ago.... but then:

You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned.... - Ezekiel 28:15-16

God discovered this well-jeweled being was a sinner, so He cast it out of Eden. Here's the root cause of it:

Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. - Ezekiel 28:17

Other Bible references indicate this "guardian cherub" (verse 16) was what we now call Satan, or the devil. Satan let beauty get to its head, became corrupted with sin, then was tossed away by God.

Does that mean diamonds and other jewelry are wrong? Some Christian groups think so, but they overlook another place in the Bible where diamonds come up:

And you shall make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work.... And you shall set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones.... the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. - Exodus 28:15-17 (KJV)

This breastplate was worn by ancient priests, when they did ministry service. God instructed the stones on the breastplate to be made that way. This indicates diamonds are OK, and not something to be avoided. They're as good on your body as they are in a poker room, as long as you let God position them as He wishes.


And here's the amazing thing: some people say we are to become diamonds. We'll get into that in an upcoming post.

High hand, or high-handed?

Today we reach a milestone - 1,500 posts on this blog! That's something to celebrate, much like winning a big poker tournament.

If you want to win the tournament, you'll probably need to have the highest hand most of the time. If you win a pot with a royal flush, that's the highest hand of all.

But there's another kind of "high hand" that we're thinking about right now - and so are observing Christians and Jews. It's this one....

And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the 15th day of the first month; on the morrow after the Passover the children of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians. - Numbers 33:3 (KJV)

It's easy to crack poker jokes about what this "high hand" might have been. A full house? Nope; the Israelites left their homes empty. A straight? Well, maybe - but they wandered around to get to the Red Sea.

But to be serious, we're in a season picturing the time when Israel was allowed to leave Egypt and head for the promised land. Other Bible translations say they went out "with boldness" or "defiantly." The English Standard Version says "triumphantly" - but the victory was only partially their doing.

The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. - Exodus  12:13

These were instructions from God. The Israelites did their part, marking homes with blood from sacrificed animals. Then God did His - striking dead the firstborn of all Egypt, and causing such anguish that the Egyptians were happy to get rid of a people which had been slaves.

Yet in our time, a third definition of "high hand" has developed. "Arrogant or arbitrary in manner" is how our hardbound dictionary defined someone who is "high-handed." That is something God does not want to see - even if you have a high hand at the table:

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the forward mouth, do I hate. - Proverbs 8:13 (KJV)

Arrogance is linked here to pride. God wants your attitude to be exactly the opposite, when you play poker and live your life....

But he gives us more grace. This is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." - James 4:6

Some believers go so far as to eat unleavened bread (such as matzo or crackers) for seven days - what some call the "bread of humility."

So we're really celebrating a seven-day Biblical feast, more than we are 1,500 blog posts. But we're trying to do so with the right kind of "high hand" - thankful for God providing triumphs in our lives, from poker pots to victory over stubborn sins. We humbly thank all of you who take time to read these posts, and invite you to comment on where you're reading and what we can do better.

The patience is in

So, you may be asking, what was our secret to success when we won money at a recent poker tournament in Tulsa? Believe it or not, it all started with a grocery trip.

We went to a large famous-name store at mid-morning, and came across several moms trying to keep young children in line. We told ourselves to be a good example, by staying patient with them.

Then we loaded our groceries in the car - and lo and behold, we heard a radio preacher talking about patience. Already we sensed a theme for the day.

As we drove to Tulsa that afternoon, we heard a radio host bring up the very same subject - patience! Now we knew we were getting a message from God. It became the key word on our mind during the evening tournament - and in the end, we had a top-five finish in the money.

The idea of receiving "messages from heaven" is a topic for another day. But right now let's ask: how patient are you at the poker table? Are you impulsive, looking for a quick advantage? Or do you wait for the right moment to make a move?

We think God wants us to lean on the side of waiting. Here's why....

Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city. - Proverbs 16:32

The impulsive player might go "on tilt" and lose composure after a bad beat or a tough loss on the river. There could be a comeback - but more often than not, that player makes a quick exit.

A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense. - Proverbs 19:11

You can't win every single hand in a poker tournament. "Perfect games" are for baseball, and they don't happen very often there. If a loss comes, try to minimize the setback - both in chips and in your mindset.

The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. - Ecclesiastes 7:8

That's what happened with us on a Thursday night in Tulsa. The payoff of patience came at the end, although we admittedly nearly lost it while fighting to eliminate a short-stacked man at the final table. The theme of the day helped us to humbly thank God for our ultimate success.

To quote from the radio preacher we mentioned earlier, and the broadcast in our link: "When we are patient, we put ourselves in position with God to receive God's best." Are you willing to have that patience - at the table, and in all your endeavors in life?

The Humbling Game

Forbes magazine has posted a thought-provoking interview with pro poker legend Annie Duke.  There are lessons from it for business leaders, as well as poker players.  But there's also this interesting section:

I asked Duke if great poker players were humble. “Yes and no,” she replied. “They’re very humble in the face of the game. They know poker is an unsolvable game that they can never master. But they’re not humble in the face of their opponents.”

We've said for years poker is a game that keeps people humble - and Duke verifies that here.  You can have the nicest-looking pocket Aces in the world, yet someone with 3-2 of hearts can make a straight or a flush on the flop and beat you.  It's a reminder of these wise words:

I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. - Ecclesiastes 9:11

Duke goes on to quote Phil Hellmuth: "If it weren’t for luck, I’d win every time.”  But luck can happen in poker - both for and against you.

The same thing can happen in life; we saw a news story this week of a driver who lost a tire on his car on the freeway - and it bounced over a center wall, hitting another driver and injuring him.

We've heard some ministers say a right relationship with Jesus can eliminate the "time and chance" part.  And perhaps that's where the other side of Duke's words about being humble kick in.  God actually wants us to be humble, even when opposition is staring across the table at us.

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. - Proverbs 11:2

For some people, June is a "Pride Month."  We could cite verses about the sinful nature of homosexual lifestyles - but God opposes pride of any sort.

God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. - James 4:6b

So when you face a challenge before the flop, how should you treat it?  Humbly.  Respectfully.  As you should when you're before God -- which, if you think about it, really is all the time.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. - James 4:10

Proud to be Here?

We're still thinking about the Bible discussion at a live tournament two weeks ago - the one where the tower of Babel came up.

At one point in the discussion, a young man said across the table: "You meet some arrogant people at church...."

Well, hold on.  First of all, you can meet some arrogant people at a poker table as well.  Think about the big-talking players who call opponents "donkeys" for making winning decisions (whether they seem logical or not) -- and then refuse to shake hands when they've been embarrassingly defeated.

Arrogance can happen in any walk of life, and in almost any situation.  Yet we're told....

To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. - Proverbs 8:13

God isn't really doing the talking here -- verse 12 shows "wisdom" is.  But James 1:5 indicates God is the best source to tap if you need wisdom.  So it's safe to say He doesn't think much of arrogance, whether in a poker room or a church sanctuary.  In fact, Romans 1:30 puts the arrogant in a group with "God-haters" and and people who "invent ways of doing evil."

One dictionary defines "arrogance" as a state of "unwarranted pride and self-importance."  A true believer in God should strive to avoid that.

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." - I Peter 5:5b

One way (and probably not the only way) believers can look arrogant is in the way they address people living in a sinful way.  It's one thing to point fingers.  But there's a better approach....

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.  But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. - Galatians 6:1

If believers lets you have it about a sin -- or even a perceived sin, such as even sitting inside a poker room -- keep in mind: they're not perfect, either.  But they're trying to become more perfect.  And so should you.  Admitting our imperfections before God is quite the opposite of arrogance -- and it's the best approach to take.

Remember As You Play....

All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord. - Proverbs 16:2

Be honest now -- how many times have you heard a poker player make a big move which loses, then blame himself for making a big mistake?

We've seen plenty of online games where the loser finds fault with the winner, declaring him a "donkey" for making the call. In religious circles, this behavior is known as "self-justification." We find a way to justify our own actions, even if they fail. It's an old custom, really....

So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. But Elihu.... became very angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God. - Job 32:1-2

The more humble approach is to admit we blew it. That's true if we try an all-in bluff with 7-4 offsuit -- and it's true in everyday life as well.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. - I John 1:9

To borrow an old poem: take your pride and cast it aside. Admit it when you're wrong. Admit you're human. You may be surprised to find the players around you will respect you a lot more.

Testing Time

We mentioned before Monday evening's poker tournament, we faced a test at a discount store near The Sports Page. It consisted of standing in line behind a woman who had bought a cart filled with canned goods, and wasn't able to load them onto the checkout counter very quickly.

What was the test we told a cashier at another aisle we would have flunked? It was the patience test -- and it certainly came in handy later at the poker table. We waited for the right cards and moments to make a move, and in most cases it paid off.

The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. - Ecclesiastes 7:8

A "race" occurs in Texas Hold 'em when one player is all-in, and at least two players show assorted cards (as in no pair) before the flop. But in most tournaments, you don't have to race to build up a big stack of chips. The rules are structured to allow for a certain amount of patient play -- although, of course, rising blinds can increase the pressure.

Phil Hellmuth writes in one of his poker books that if you try to play almost every hand, you are destined to lose. The "pride" of a big stack in the first hour can be broken by someone hiding a big pair in the second hour. So we take our time -- and lately we've been pleased with the results, both in person and online.

Hebrews 12:1 advises, "....let us run with patience the race that is set before us." That's good advice not only for a poker tournament, but the spiritual race which leads to eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Remember as you play....

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud." (I Cor. 13:4)

There's good advice for temperament at a poker table in the verses that follow, but we'll focus on this one.

If the person blowing cigarette smoke in your face across the table has a big chip stack and a mouth to match, take him/her on the right way. Be patient, wait for a good hand -- then try to make the most of it.

Shut up a boastful player by politely taking a big pot, and you might find other players at the table thanking you.