Breaking Up the Band

What an amazing poker year it is for us. Not really in how we're playing, but what's happening to poker rooms where we've played. We've now found out another room has closed - a place we visited only once.

Prairie Band Casino in northeast Kansas has shut down its poker room, apparently to turn it into a bingo hall. When we were there last August, we finished second in a Sunday tournament. But apparently not many players showed up during the week. One man told us the "Bad Beat" jackpot there reached $250,000, but people still weren't interested.

One video we've seen online notes casinos really don't care about it, because they don't make much money from it. We'd guess that's especially true beyond tournaments. Cash games tend to have players shuffling chips (and money) between each other. The only time that changes is when a player is kind enough to tip a dealer.

Come to think of it, some poker players could learn a lesson from Prairie Band. If you're not making money and having success at it, you should minimize your losses and get out. That's true in card games, business.... and even bigger things:

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. - Isaiah 55:2

Some ministers would turn this into a commentary on eating whole wheat bread - but of course, the point is bigger than that....

Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. - Isaiah 55:3

You may be surprised to learn "souls" can die. The Bible says so more than once (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). But they can be resurrected to live again, under God's covenant plan:

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 came to life and reigned with Chris a thousand years. - Revelation 20:4

The resurrected souls gave up their lives for Jesus - and Jesus is "bread" worth the cost of your money and time:

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.... If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." - John  6:35, 51

Listen to Jesus. Take Him into your life. And your life can last long beyond this one - long after the bread served in casino restaurants runs out, and the last poker room shuts down.

A Moment in Time

In a recent post, we mentioned a Biblical skeptic we met at a poker night. He wants to see "tangible evidence" of God's existence. And he claimed people "existed" somehow before they were born.

Let's take the second statement first. If you believe in an "immortal soul," this man would be tough to answer. Some Christians tend to talk about a soul living forever into the future -- but what about the past?

Our search of the Bible has concluded both sides are wrong in their thinking, and we have NOT always "existed." Consider what happened at creation:

And The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul. -- Genesis 2:7 (KJV)

Note man became one. He wasn't always one. God may have a plan to create humans with souls in eternity past -- but there's no evidence from the Bible He actually had the souls. God must have created them.

Our skeptic said, "When you die, you won't know anything after that." In one sense, the Bible backs up that skeptic's claim....

For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. -- Ecclesiastes 9:5

This statement is true because of sin. Souls that sin die (Ezekiel 18:4), and all of us have sinned (Romans 3:23).

Yet where did King Solomon (who wrote Ecclesiastes) get the idea of "no further reward?" Doesn't the Bible talk about a reward for believers when Jesus comes back? Yes -- in fact Jesus does:

"Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done." -- Revelation 22:12

Some Bible commentaries explain Solomon's statement by saying the dead have no further reward in this human life. It actually comes later.

And that "later" brings us back to the skeptic's first comment. Many religious writers have offered various proofs of God's existence. The most compelling one to us involves radioactivity. If the Earth has decaying uranium that's billions of years old, how could life on Earth ever develop long ago?

But as we said to the man originally, matters involving God and eternal life ultimately are matters of faith. Some poker players have faith they'll hit a straight or flush draw after the flop -- except they're sometimes disappointed. Christians need faith in God's plan all the way to the river, because....

....Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he reward those who earnestly seek him. -- Hebrews 11:6

We've heard some ministers put it this way: if you believe in God and nothing happens after you die, there's no penalty. If you refuse to believe and something does happen after you die.... well, we shudder to think what you might face. Which one would you consider the safer bet?

Sunday Rewind: Hand (and Soul) History

A prior post included a poker player's unusual explanation of souls. He claimed his soul was own, passed down to him from his parents.

If we were talking about DNA and genetics, that might make sense -- but souls? Can you simply pass one on from parent to child, the way some people "pass the deal" to another player moments after sitting down at the table?

Perhaps we should start by defining what a soul is. Using the Bible as our defining point, it can mean a living being. Or it can mean the consciousness which gives a being life.

Who was first to have a soul? Adam? No - the Creator of Adam. Isaiah 1:10-14 indicate God has a soul. While His is immortal, ours is not.

"The soul who sins is the one who will die," says Ezekiel 18:4. Uh-oh -- Romans 3:23 indicates we've all sinned. So are all souls doomed? Not at all. Revelation 20:4 shows the souls of Jesus's followers will come back to life, and reign with the Lord 1,000 years!

This might be a new subject to some of you -- and it's certainly a complex one. We wrote a Bible study article about souls several months ago. We pray it will help you make sense of where souls start, and where they can potentially finish.

Poker Night 169: Four Times Better

It had been six weeks since we spent a Wednesday night playing poker at Soho Bar & Grill. But the way our schedule for the week turned out, we went there this week after skipping the Red Barn.

Soho is a much more competitive place to play -- with five or six tables going at once. A big early loss took away half our stack, making it look like we wouldn't survive table #1. But then a double-up came with A-K. A couple more big wins followed, including a full house from 2-2. And then....

BLINDS: 1,000/2,000

IN THE POCKET: 9-9

Only three tables remain in action. We have about 35,000 chips. Other people might push with this rather high pocket pair, but we merely call when our turn comes. No one raises.

ON THE FLOP: 10-9-9

Are you kidding me?!?!?! Quads on the flop!!! But yes -- this looks familiar, and we were burned not long ago in this position.

Yet the Big Dog Poker rules haven't changed -- you can't claim 5,000 bonus chips for quads unless the hand reaches the river. So we turn on the deadpan poker face, check and hope. About three other players in the hand check as well.

ON THE TURN: A

As we recall, a possible straight flush became impossible at this point. So we have a winner for the moment. A big-talking guy to our right bets 4,000. We look at our pocket cards carefully, in nothing more than an acting job -- then politely call. Everyone else ponders and folds, as we sip a little soda.

ON THE RIVER: 4

The man to our right thinks for a moment, then decides: "8,000."

We could have gone all-in here, to really tempt our opponent into a disastrous mistake. But we want to leave no doubt about the quad bonus -- so we say quietly, "I'll call."

"He's GOT the f**king NINE!!!" the man exclaims before we can finish counting our eight 1,000-dollar chips. He walks away from the table and halfway across the room, a bit like Phil Hellmuth on a bad day.

"Come here," we say quietly to the opponent. "I want you to see this."

After a moment of venting, he returns to the table for show-and-tell time. "I didn't have just one nine...."

"Quaaaaaads!" the rest of the table shouts. We don't. We take the pot and the bonus with a smile. Our opponent didn't show his cards, but admitted later he had A-10. (Another man noted we were downright nice, in not eliminating him. Call that another lesson of Memorial Day.)

That big gain helped us reach the final table -- something we haven't been able to do at Soho since last November. But another early exit happened there, as we went all-in pre-flop with A-K. The board didn't pair, and a man beat us with a pair of 10's. Yet we left satisfied with ninth place -- and a reminder that quads do win most of the time.

MINISTRY MOMENT: The discussion at one table turned to noisy players, and one man across from us recalled a game the week before. "I wanted to be like Kurt Cobain," he said, "and blow my brains out. I know that's a bad comparison...."

"Kurt Cobain sold his soul to the devil," someone else said.

As the discussion continued and we took the deal, we said: "It's better to be soul-ed out for God -- to give your soul to him."

The man who brought up Cobain took issue with that idea. "My soul belongs to me. It's mine."

"Who gave it to you, then?" we asked.

"My parents did."

Hmmmm -- what do you think of that explanation? Our thoughts will appear in an upcoming post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 69 final tables in 169 nights (40.8%) -- 11 cashes.