Poker Night 311: Straight in the Middle

Our corner of the world is in drought conditions - so we didn't really mind having to turn around and grab an umbrella for our walk to Lil Kim's Cove Thursday night.  A "shower of blessing" was falling from the sky.  And a few minutes later, one fell out of the dealer's hand.

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: King-Jack of hearts

We won an early pot with two high cards (our opponents might be reading this, so we won't say which two).  Now we have strong hearts in the Small Blind -- and as best we recall, someone raises ahead of us to 200.  We call, as does most of the table.

ON THE FLOP: Qc-10c-9s

No hearts, but it's still almost a dream-come-true flop.  We hit a straight "straightway!"  But here we remember the earlier pot we won.  We bet 200 on the flop, and the table quickly folded.  This time we're first to act, so we check.

A man to our left tosses out 300.  We call, of course -- but as we do, something tells us we ought to raise.  If we don't, a third club is almost certain to come on the turn to give someone a flush.

ON THE TURN: 5d

That's a relief - a very harmless low card.  Now we decide to step forward.  We bet 500.  The man who bet a moment ago isn't fazed, and raises to 2,000.  If that's not nice enough, a man to our immediate right also raises - to 4,000.

"Thirty-five hundred more?!?!"  We say this with pretend stunned puzzlement in our voice.  Unless the other men also have K-J, our hand is in the lead.  So we think for a moment, count our chips and decide against waiting any longer.  "So I'm all-in -- 2,425 more."

The man to our left pauses to think even longer.  The man to the right speculates we have a Jack.  "He's saying what he's got," the man to the left responds.  (Not out loud, of course -- our chips are doing the talking.)  Mr. Left Side finally chooses to call.

"I've got to see that straight," Mr. Right Side says.  He calls as well.

ON THE RIVER: Ah

No flushes, no full houses -- but will we split the pot?  Mr. Left Side checks.

"I've got a King, man," Mr. Right Side says as he shows one card.

That's not good enough.  "You can call me the RiverCenter," we say in reference to our nice local concert hall, "because I'm on Broadway."  As in the top "Broadway straight."

Mr. Right Side wound up showing K-Q.  Mr. Left Side never showed what he had.  We triple our chip stack to more than 21,000.

"I tried to keep it small," we note afterward.  The big bettors stumbled onto a buzz saw.

A few losses followed that big win -- but A-J brought us another top-pair winner late in the first hour, and we reached the one-hour break with 23,500 chips.  Then in the second hour, we folded A-9 when calling an opponent's all-in bet would have eliminated him with an Ace on the turn.  But we made another strong comeback when 9-9 brought a third 9 on the flop.  The table folded to our all-in bet.

We reached the semifinal table at the start of Hour 3 with 15,500 chips (improved to 20,000 by "color up" rules).  When we saw A-J again with the blinds at 5,000/10,000, we went all-in again.  A man called us with J-9.  But a 9 appeared on the turn and the board never paired for us.

"A.J. Allmendinger lost the race," we said as we shook hands - missing the final table in 14th place.

MINISTRY MOMENT:  "Romans 12:1-2" was the message on the back of a T-shirt we spotted after our elimination.  So we asked the man wearing the shirt about that Bible reference.

"It's just an old shirt," he said - seemingly unaware of what was on his back.

"Today is the National Day of Prayer," we pointed out.  "Do you pray?"

"I did earlier - when I was playing at the table."

We really have two issues in one here.  What was the real message that man wore on the back of his shirt?

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship. - Romans 12:1

This doesn't mean putting yourselves in a fire, as Old Testament sacrifices were conducted.  After all, you'd eventually burn yourself to death.  It means living a holy, godly life.  How do you do that?  The next verse offers a hint....

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will. - Romans 12:2

To use an old-time church phrase, we need to clean up our "stinkin' thinkin'" - thinking the way this world does.  Bars which host poker nights display plenty of that thinking.  Some people smoke, drink excessively and play X-rated songs on the jukebox as if they don't care.  (We won't guess how many of them are along our line, and really do care.)

If you'd like some guidance about what "God's will" is, read the Bible study we wrote about it.  We'll get to the prayer part of our conversation in another post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 109 final tables in 311 nights (35.0%) - 17 cashes.

It seems a bit hard to believe, but only 14 months ago our final table percentage was at 40.  It's been a long slow descent since then - with only 15 reached in our last 76 poker nights (19.7%) to reach this new crossroads point.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 218 point wins in 928 games (23.5%), 71 final tables, 7 cashes plus 1 other win.  No-River Hold 'em - 5 point wins in 21 games (23.8%), 4 final tables, 1 cash win.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $79,812, up $8,805.  (At one point Tuesday, we were up more than $10,600 for the week!)