It Only Takes One

At a worship service the other day, we heard a sermon which reminded us of a familiar poker phrase.  It revolved around this verse....

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. - Jude 3

The pastor said the phrase "once for all" can be understood as being given "one time."

"One time!"  How many times have you heard poker players say that -- especially desperate ones, needing something like running diamonds for a stay-alive flush?  (That happened Sunday evening at the WSOP Main Event Final Table, by the way.)  We presume that means the underdog player wants to defy the odds one time, to stay in the game.

We've heard this verse in Jude explained many different ways.  But we connect it with the next verse....

For certain man whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you.  They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. - Jude 4

Jesus came "one time" in the flesh, about 2,000 years ago.  But oh, what that one time accomplished.

....It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.... Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. - Acts 4:10, 12

We're saved from the penalty of eternal death for our sins.  But it would be irresponsible for us to respond to that gift of salvation by living in an immoral way.  What sort of thanks does that show to a holy God?

We should add that "one time" is not the only time Jesus plans to appear on the earth....

So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. - Hebrews 9:28

Many people say they only have "one time" physically to live.  But the Bible shows we face a resurrection someday to judgment (Revelation 20).  And if you're looking to Jesus and following Him, you can be saved to receive eternal life.  Good things ultimately do come to those who wait.

Good Sign? Bad Sign?

As the November Nine drama unfolds, we learned tonight from the World Series of Poker website that DearFoams is the "official footwear provider" of WSOP.

Huh?!?!

Really now - when was the last time you walked into a poker room and noticed people's shoes?  (Unless perhaps someone flings a bet off the table, and chips land on the floor.)  Aren't you far more likely to notice a player's hat?  Or a shirt?

Open question: is this sponsorship a sign of growing popularity for poker?  Or is it a sign of desperation, in terms of looking for endorsement deals?

NLOP Weekly Championship 21: The November 15

Our final table appearance online Thursday provided enough points to qualify for the National League of Poker weekly championship tonight.  While the "November Nine" battled in Las Vegas, we took on 1,409 others in cyberspace.  And we wound up with a "personality" at the table we normally don't have....

:00 IN: We open in the small blind with 6-J offsuit; we call when someone doubles the blind to 60.  The flop is 10-6-7, and the big blind bets 30.  We call with a pair.  The turn is Q.  We call a bet of 30 again, suspecting the big blind is trying to run us off.  The river is 9, and we make the same assumption when our opponent bets 30 more.  Trouble is, he has Q-J; the turn gives him a winning higher pair, and we lose 150.

:01 IN: We have K-A offsuit and the button in the next hand.  We raise to 90 and gain callers.  The flop is 3-K-9, all clubs.  We don't have a club, and make our own continuation "go-away" bet of 120.  A player calls.  The turn is 7h.  We both check.  The river is 2d, making us say: "He missed his flush."  Trouble is, our opponent bets 350.  We smell a bluff again, and call with top pair.  He shows 4-A of clubs!  He hit the nuts on the flop, and drops our starting stack of 1,000 down to 290.

:03 IN: Next hand, J-J!  Undaunted, we raise to 90 and get two callers.  The flop is Kx-7c-3c.  Everyone checks.  The turn is 6c; more checking, even with three clubs showing.  The river is 4.  Play checks to us -- but this time we hold our fire and check.  Shame on us; the Jacks win the $480 pot!  We recover to 610.

:05 IN: We have 2-7, and quickly fold.  Too bad -- two 7's show on the flop.

:06 IN: We have 9-9 and limp in middle position.  The flop is 3-8-A.  We make a probing bet of 50, and three players fold to give us $170 pot.  We've now recovered to 710.

:12 IN: We have 4-5 in the big blind, with no one raising.  The flop is 3-4-5, providing two pair!  We bet 100, and are stunned to see an opponent go all-in with much more.  We dare to call our remaining 530 -- and face an opposing hand of 2-5, for an open-ended straight draw.  The turn is an Ace!  The river is 3 -- and his straight sends us packing in only 15 minutes.

We don't know our exact final position as we write this (that's a flaw with the NLOP leader pages right now).  Suffice to say it was well down the ladder -- and it was an evening amazingly similar to our last  Sunday night championship a month ago.  We had strong hands, and tried to play them strongly in response. But when you're outgunned by a foolish-looking pusher holding 2-5, all you can do is shake your hand and hope the "law of averages" eventually turns around.

Disconnectors

The 1:00 p.m. ET online poker tournament was going well for us.  We won several big pots, survived a couple of all-in moments, reached the semifinal table in 13th place, noticed make-or-break blinds were approaching for us....

And then it happened.  Our Internet connection went dead.  We were still online -- simply not connected to the server at National League of Poker, to keep playing the game.  We were frozen.  Helpless.  And we knew we barely had enough chips to play the upcoming big and small blinds.

In short, we were frustrated.  And it wasn't the first time we've faced this problem with NLOP.  It seldom seems to happen with Poker Stars -- but with our main site for online tournament play, hiccups and outright outages are a common occurrence.  Sometimes it's due to automatic McAfee updates taking over our computer.  Sometimes it's due to calling up the wrong website in the background (we've concluded NLOP and Facebook don't mix well).  But Thursday, there was no good reason at all -- a sunny day where we should have had no interruptions.

In this frustration, we did some meditating.  Plenty of people probably feel disconnected from God at times.  The reasons could range from the death of a loved one to unemployment to unethical ministers.  Yet through it all, the Bible tells us....

Come near to God and he will come near to you. - James 4:8

The leader of a church denomination we once attended liked to say: "If God seems far away, who moved?"  While a few exceptions come to mind from the "exodus story," we don't think in most cases it's God....

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal. - Isaiah 26:4
....Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. - Ephesians 2:20b

God's ways can seem confusing at times.  In fact, some people intentionally try to bring out the confusing parts to draw believers away from their faith.  But in moments like that, we have to trust God "the Rock" to make it all clear -- on His timetable, when the time is right.  After all, what other hope beyond this life do we really have?  And in the meantime....

Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. - James 4:8b

This is how we draw near to a holy God - by repenting of our sins, and accepting Jesus's sacrifice to pay the penalty of those sins.

P.S.  When we finally regained a connection with NLOP, we were stunned to discover we were at the final table!  Somehow we must have won a pot in one of the blinds (perhaps a "walk" in the big blind) to stay alive.  But the long disconnection triggered a "forfeit" by NLOP.  Through no fault of our own, we were eliminated.

We wound up eighth out of 611 players, three spots away from "top five" prize money.  A close connection with God can lead to an ultimately greater prize - the crown of eternal life.

Poker Night 277: That Was Then

"It's hard to beat... lucky."  An ellipse was added to that sentence to replace a couple of expletives -- expletives uttered by a frustrated player tonight at Lil Kim's Cove.  One man at our table was hotter than Death Valley in July, turning all kinds of pocket cards into winning hands.  But as that man said at one point, "Any two cards are good before the flop."  The key is in waiting for the right cards to come....

BLINDS: 500/1,000

IN THE POCKET: 10-10

We've played patiently for more than an hour, and have absolutely no pots to show for it.  The chip stack has dropped slowly, and now we're dealing at a table of five with 3,500 chips left.  Mr. Small Blind already is all-in for his last 500.  So when players call to us, our decision is easy.

"I'm going all-in," we announce.  After all, remember all the pocket pairs which worked for us Monday night?  (But then again, 5-5 brought no help earlier at this table.)  Two of the remaining three players call -- a husband and wife, as it happens.  So we have three pots: a main one (1,500 for the small blind), Side Pot 1 (ours, worth 9,000 as best we figure) and Side Pot 2 between the couple.

ON THE FLOP: 2-2-Q

The wife checks.  "I'll check.  I have this pot won," the husband says.  Such big talk -- but he's the man who's been rolling.

ON THE TURN: 3

What happens when a married couple plays poker? Joint checking! (Tee hee.)

ON THE RIVER: 6

The couple checks again.

"I've got a boat," the big-talking husband says -- as he turns over Q-2!  He plays a marginal hand and hits the jackpot again.  He tops our tens to take us out.  And Mr. Small Blind never even bothers to show his cards -- then makes that quote about luck we mentioned above.

Final result: a tie for 17th place -- and a reminder that for all the talk by poker pros about the skill of the game, luck plays a big factor as well.

 MINISTRY MOMENT: "What's the battery for?" a man asked as we set an old nine-volt on the table to mark our spot before the game began tonight.  "Is it for good luck?!"

Nope.  "It's my card protector, and -- lucky battery!" we said with a laugh, knowing how silly that sounds; "It's a reminder to me that I receive power when the Holy Spirit comes."

We think this did as we should have expected -- throwing the questioner a real curve.  "Do you believe the Holy Spirit exists?" we asked to follow up.

"Yeah, I do," he said -- and then he explained the Holy Spirit connection to another man across the table.  He said he believed in that Spirit, too.  We'll have more to say about this moment in a future post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 102 final tables in 277 nights (36.8%) - 16 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 172 point wins in 758 games (22.7%), 59 final tables, 7 cashes.  UFC 3-card knockout - 3 point wins in 16 games, 2 final tables, 1 win.

We reached the final table in a 611-player "turbo tournament" earlier in the day.  There was an amazing ending to that game; look for it here Friday.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $61,657, down $1,595.

Poker Night 276: Scary to be Alone

Since we don't keep Halloween, it's been our custom for years to get out of the house on that night and avoid the trick-or-treat pressure at the door.  This year, the path led us to The Red Barn in Phenix City -- where we're thankful to report the Monday night poker crowd had absolutely no one wearing costumes.  It was poker business as usual.  But could  we gain a profit at the end of the night?  A hopeful hand came early:

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: 8-9 of hearts

We're in the small blind - and after starting with 7,000 chips (thanks to one soda buy), we've dropped to around 5,600.  With no one raising, we call our suited connectors and think optimistically.

ON THE FLOP: 4h-7s-5d (suits may not be completely precise)

There are signs of hope here: three hearts, and a belly-buster straight draw.  We check, but a player across from us bets 200.  We call, as do a couple of others.

ON THE TURN: Js

So much for a flush chance -- but the straight chances just doubled.  We check again, and call another 200 bet by the man across from us.  The optimism continues.  If a 6 or 10 comes, we're ready.

ON THE RIVER: 6s

Ready, OK!  With the straight made all the way up to 9, we offer 400.  It's admittedly a wimpy-looking bet, in hopes someone will overconfidently try to bluff us out.  Sure enough, the man who bet all along now raises 2,200!  With little hesitation, we call.  So does a man to our left.

"I've got a straight," that man says as he shows an 8.

"Make mine '89," we say with a semi-smile -- admittedly borrowing a phrase from a slogan for an alcoholic beverage of years gone by.

The man across from us then stuns us.  "Flush," he declares -- showing two spades!  (We think they were Q-10.)  We were so focused on the straight that we never noticed three spades on the board.  Shame on us; good move for him.

That knocked us down to about 2,700 chips, and made things look bleak.  But things changed from there, as several pocket pairs came our way.  K-K brought a push at the start of the second hour, and "Kardashians" (borrowing from the news of the day) held up to bring a jump to 24,500.  Then came K-K again, which lost this time -- but A-A and a push on the flop allowed another strong gain.  We held on from there to make the final table.

Once there, Q-Q came -- and that turned into another winner.  At one point, our meager 2,700 had improved to 105,000!  A few losses followed that, along with rising blinds.  A final push with 5-5 fell short of a flush by one heart, but we wound up in fourth place.  Believe it or not, that's our best local finish (not counting the trip to Florida) since late January.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We showed our "Jesus as Your Savior" coin to a player, and he agreed with the message.  We didn't really get into our avoidance of Halloween; if you're curious about it and already planning for 2012, this article might be thought-provoking.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 102 final tables in 276 nights (37.0%) - 16 cashes.  Now this is more like it: two top-five finishes in the last three live tournaments, and coming within two hands of four final tables in a row.

It's November....

There are nine.

So it's time to virtually place your bets.  Who do you think will win the final table at the WSOP Main Event?  And why?  Go.