Poker Night 317: Fool Me Twice

"This is going to be an interesting table," one of the players to our right said at Lil Kim's Cove tonight.  He was right about that, for reasons he probably never expected.  The beginning of the evening especially interested us....

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: Q-Q

This is the second night of the night.  On the first one, a man to our immediate left raised to 250 pre-flop.  We were the only player to call, to "humor him".  We had K-6 of spades, missed the flop and folded when he bet after that.

Now we have more promising cards, but we limp in early position again.  The man to our left raises to 250 once more.  This time several people call.  "I'll humor him again," we say as we join in.

ON THE FLOP: 10-J-3

This flop gives us an "overpair," and we decide to exploit it right away.  We bet 400.  The raiser next to us is unfazed, and calls.  As best we recall, one or two other players stay in.

ON THE TURN: Q

Nice -- now we have three of a kind.  So turning up the heat some more, we bet 800.

"Raise," the man to our left says.  He doubles to 1,600.  Uh-oh -- did he raise with A-K to make a straight there?  Or is he bluffing to "play tough" and push us away?  The other players bail out, but we feel compelled to call.

ON THE RIVER: A

That's just about the last card we wanted to see.  A straight now is a strong possibility, but we don't want to appear weak.  So we reduce the bet to 500.  Our opponent doubles to 1,000.  We fear the worst, but we call.... and the man turns over K-J!  We had the lead on him, until he finally caught the straight on the river.

That big loss cost us a lot of chips, but we regained about 2,000 later in the first hour when we went all-in with.... uh, er.... the other players concluded we made a club flush.  (We never revealed what we had.)  But then we went on a big "chase" with a potential nut flush late in the first hour, but missed for another major drop.

A strange disqualification (a topic for another post) allowed us to improve during the one-hour break from a meager 2,000 chips to 6,000.  When 9-9 came our way in the second hour, we went for it and pushed again -- but a Queen on the flop gave another man a better winning pair.  We walked home fifth at our table of eight.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We've always been good with mathematics - so when we figured out the difference between 5,000 and an all-in bet of 2,325 in mere seconds in our head, a man joked: "You should be an accountant.... I plan to win Mega Millions tomorrow night, and then I'll hire you as my accountant."

"If you do," we answered, "you'll have to call me Monday.  I'll be busy all weekend.  It's Pentecost."

"Pentecostal?  I used to be Pentecostal," the man said.

"I'm not Pentecostal," we clarified.  "The feast of Pentecost is Sunday."

When we explained what the day involves, the man remembered some of the Biblical story about Pentecost.  In fact, he recited a few details from the book of Acts....

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.... All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.  Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.  When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. - Acts 2:1, 4-6

The disciples of Jesus became filled with something their Lord had promised in the preceding days and weeks:

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. - Acts 1:5

The man at our table said he believes in the Holy Spirit.  But we should emphasize if the Holy Spirit enters you today, there's no guarantee you'll start speaking in tongues as the disciples did long ago.  Some Pentecostals might disagree with that -- but consider what the apostle Paul wrote:

Are all apostles?  Are all prophets? Are all teachers?  Do all work miracles?  Do all have gifts of healing?  Do all speak in tongues?  Do all interpret?  But eagerly desire the greater gifts. - I Corinthians 12:29-31

The implied answer to all of Paul's questions is no.  Not everyone in the church is an apostle or prophet.  So not everyone is able to speak in tongues (or languages).  Read through all of chapter 12 to see what gifts Paul considered most important.  And if Pentecost is a new concept to you, this article explains the deeper New Testament meaning behind all the festivals introduced by God to Moses.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 112 final tables in 317 nights (35.3%) - 17 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 227 point wins in 957 games (23.7%), 73 final tables, 7 cashes plus one other win.  No-River Hold 'em - 5 point wins in 28 games (17.9%), 4 final tables, 1 cash win.

Next week will be a big NLOP week for us; we've qualified for two monthly championships, and might enter a third.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $79,146, up $2,300.