BLINDS: 25/50
IN THE POCKET: King of clubs - 7 of clubs
We're "under the gun" - first to act, early in the action. These cards are suited. They're studly. We'll play 'em. No one raises pre-flop. Compared to what happened later, this is a nice friendly pot.
ON THE FLOP: 7-4-2 (no clubs)
We have top pair, out of three cards few professional poker players would want to play. But the Big Blind to our right seems interested, betting 250. That was our thinking, only she beat us to it. We call; about four players remain.
ON THE TURN: K
We've improved to top two pair. Yet the Big Blind turns up the pressure, anyway. Now she bets 1,500. But we feel confident, and double the bet to 3,000. A man to our left calls. Another folds; the Big Blind calls. It never crosses our mind that she might have three of a kind (maybe K-K).
ON THE RIVER: 10
We don't recall a flush threat showing here. Perhaps the Big Blind missed one, because she now checks. We check with care as well, as does the third player -- and our K-7 turns out to be a winner! The Big Blind also had two pair, but a lower two. We took a risk, and it paid off well.
A couple of other hands in the first hour were even better. We dealt ourselves A-A, which turned into a winning pair which gained us thousands of chips. A-Q became another nice winner, when a Queen came on the flop. Add to that a man who put a "heavy date" elsewhere above his big stack of chips, so he left early and shared his haul with the rest of the table.
Put it all together, and we had 34,500 chips at the one-hour break. But winning cards stopped coming after that. Our stack slowly drained in the second hour, until we faced "The Rodney" (K-9) with 7-7-9 showing on the flop. We decided to go all-in for our last 8,500 chips. A woman called with K-8 -- but then the turn and river were J-10. Not only did she make a straight, it was a diamond flush to boot. We came close to the final table, but missed in 11th place.
MINISTRY MOMENT: A man to our left at the semifinal table was impressed by our card protector depicting the Lord's Supper.
"Do you believe in Jesus?" we asked.
"Oh yes," he said. In fact, he reached into his wallet moments later -- and pulled out an identification card showing he's a chaplain!
The man admitted he had to stop doing chaplain work for a time, due to illness. But he apparently still serves as he's able, in places such as nursing homes. By doing that, he follows one of Jesus's parables:
Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.... I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." - Matthew 25:34-36Some people are in nursing homes due to sickness. But we've heard stories of a few people who felt imprisoned by such conditions. They need that "permanent peace" every bit as much as the two men who nearly had a barroom brawl tonight -- expect they need peace of mind about the future.
We believe that "permanent peace" will come only when the "prince of peace" returns to Earth -- as in Jesus:
He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning books. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid.... - Micah 4:3-4Believers in Christ will have the inner peace (for lack of a better phrase) of knowing they have eternal life. Read Revelation 20:1-6 for details about that. Is this the peace you desire?
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 112 final tables in 318 nights (35.2%) - 17 cashes.
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