Poker Night 273: What's My Line?

Maybe we've been in a "final table slump" for so long because our poker strategy has become too predictable. How predictable?  Consider what our table did tonight, during one hand at Lil Kim's Cove -- and we'll even let you play along:

BLINDS: 100/200

IN THE POCKET: ?-? (Not saying yet)

We split a pot with a full house in the early going, and now have about 6,000 chips (where we started).  A woman to our right calls to start the bidding. We check our cards and are -- well, let's say inspired -- to raise to 600.

"That tells me he's got something good," a man to the right says.  "Pocket pair -- maybe jacks or better."  In fact, he folds out of turn at the sight of our bet.  But a few players call, and a couple of people at the table join in the guessing game.

"He could have pocket 10's," speculates one.

"You want to bet on it?" another says.  "Whether he has jacks or better?  I'll bet 100."  A couple of players take up the challenge -- and just like that, there's a "sidepot" on the table about our cards!  We say nothing through it all, and turn away from the players doing the talking.

ON THE FLOP: 6-Q-4 (suits won't matter)

We're first to act, and offer what some might call a continuation bet of 500.  A man to our left calls; a couple  of others keep guessing.  "Your Jacks are good," one says -- apparently in our direction.

ON THE TURN: K

Seeing a second face card, we check.  The other player checks.  The guessers think that was not the card we wanted to see.

"You realize if he mucks the cards, you lose," one man points out.  We still say nothing about all this.

ON THE RIVER: 9

OK, let's bet once more.  We offer 500.  Our opponent thinks about it for a moment.

"Here," a guesser across from our opponent says -- and tosses a green chip worth 500 toward him!  "I want to see what he has."  Given this unusual "free play," our opponent leaves it out to call.

"Whoever said pocket 10's had it right," we say as we turn our cards over.  Our opponent is left frustrated.

"I was hoping for a flush."  He folds without showing.

"So you get the sidepot...." we say to a man across the table.

"You couldn't win that, anyway!" another jokes.  Of course not.  But we're happy with the main pot, which comes to about 4,000 chips.

The post-hand "expert analysis" concluded we lowered our bets out of fear, as face cards came out.  Yes, we checked in caution on the turn -- but on the flop, we really offered 500 because we lacked a blue 100 chip to go with it.  Really.

More success came our way in the second hour, as we won back-to-back pots.  But rising blinds kept us on the edge, as the field whittled down.  Finally we saw 8-8 in the big blind with 8,000 left, and went all-in with it.  It turned into a full house, and topped an opponent with 6-6 -- but a man with a Queen paired the board with it, to knock both of us out.  We barely missed the final table, finishing tied for ninth (10th in points).

MINISTRY MOMENT: "Have a blessed evening," the Tournament Director said after writing down our name for tenth place in points.

"A blessed evening!" we answered in surprise.  "You don't hear that every day at a poker room."

"A multi-denominational blessing," the Director said.  "Even Satanists have blessings that they offer."

They do?  That was a new one to us -- but indeed, there are web pages asking Satan to bless weddings (and we assume other events as well).  Yet this weekend, observant Jews and Christians will mark a future time when Satan will be punished severely by God....

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.  He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. - Revelation 20:1-2

Verse 3 notes this is done to prevent Satan "from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended."  It's part of the deep spiritual meaning of Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement.  Click on our link to learn more about it; we'll have more to say about blessings in our next post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 100 final tables in 273 nights (36.6%) - 15 cashes.  Our live poker schedule will be different for the next couple of weeks; in fact, it might be exactly what we need.  (Keep checking here for details.)

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 168 point wins in 743 games (22.6%), 57 final tables, 7 cashes.  One-table sit-n-goes: 8-13-8-3-2. (A second and a third last weekend gave us enough points to qualify for the weekly championship tournament.)

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $59,635, down $83.

Poker Night #57: The Blown-Up Boat

We'll remember tonight's tournament at Lil Kim's Cove for a long time to come -- not because of how we played, but because of what happened in a hand we folded.

BLINDS: 100/200.

IN THE POCKET: A-8 of clubs.

We're "one off the button" at a full table. A woman two seats from us raises to 300. We join in, as do a couple of other players. The dealer, who is a college student (he wore his ID badge on his belt) folds. Yes, that will matter.

ON THE FLOP: 10-10-3, one of them a club.

With the dealer folding, we're now effectively on the button. But players ahead of us make sizable bets of 500+, and we don't risk it. So we fold.

ON THE TURN: 10.

"F***!!!!!!!" exclaims the dealer -- and he throws the deck down so hard on the table that the cards scatter from one end to the other. "I had quads, man!"

OK, so now we know nobody else does. Trouble is, no one's sure which cards to burn and turn for the river.

"I had a ****ing boat!" a player across the table says in frustration. He has pocket Queens. Another player turns over A-3, so he had hopes of an even better full house.

In Wild West poker legend, pistols might have been drawn at this point. Thankfully, that doesn't happen -- and everyone keeps their cool. Well, except the dealer is still muttering about giving up quads.

The tournament director is called over, and he agrees there's no way to sort out which card should come up next. The players still in the hand agree to divide the pot. But that doesn't mean everyone is agreeable about it. It takes a minute or two for the dealer to apologize, and the man with the Q's to quickly accept it.

Poker Quiz Time: Which Biblical "fruit of the spirit" was our dealer lacking? (The answer is coming in another post.)

As for our game: we turned A-Q in the pocket into a couple of early straights, and built a starting stack of 5,000 chips into a lead of almost 14,000. But we couldn't catch any cards after that, and our chip stack slowly drained away. We survived an all-in bet with 9-10 of spades when no one called, and held on to finish tied for 11th [CORRECTED] out of about 30 players.

The end came with a double-take out, as the college student joined us in going in with blinds at 1,000/2,000. We had A-J, but a woman with pocket 7's caught a third one on the flop to seal our fate.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We attended a funeral out of town during the afternoon, and decided to wear our suit and tie to poker night. (It works for Mike Sexton, after all.) But we put on a lapel pin which said "PRAISE JESUS."

We lost an early hand after showing what we called "almighty pair of 2's." Then at break time, we turned to the now-composed college student to our left. "This is what I really consider Almighty."

The student strained to read the pin, but he agreed with what we said. Now if the cigarette-smoking easily-frustrated young man will learn to live by it....

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 24 final tables in 57 nights (42.1%) -- 7 cashes.

YAHOO POKER TOTAL: $11,704 -- down $24.

Quiz time

Which big-time (as in TV) poker player would you guess is a committed and outspoken Christian?

Hint: He likes to talk a lot.

The answer is coming here soon....