Poker Night 329: Get Lost, Will Ya?

Our city apparently had no live poker on Independence Day this year.  We joked online that having no Kings and Queens on that day seemed somewhat fitting.  But on the Fifth of July, big face cards should have been a welcome sight at Lil Kim's Cove -- right?

BLINDS: 200/400

IN THE POCKET: K-J offsuit

We've won a couple of modest pots, but nothing big and spectacular.  We start this hand in the Small Blind with about 6,300 chips.  We don't recall anyone raising, so we simply call and hope for the best.

ON THE FLOP: K-Q-9

We have top pair, a straight draw -- and we're first to act.  This seems like a nice combination for betting, so we lead for 700.  If we can "buy the pot" right now, that's fine.  And several players fold -- but a man across from us calls.  It happens to be the same man who pulled out a big pot against us last Thursday night with a straight.

ON THE TURN: 4 (as best we recall)

Ahhhh, nice and low.  That's what we want, so we bet 700 again.  Our opponent calls again.  Unlike last week, this time he's quiet.

ON THE RIVER: J

That's two pair for us -- but that's also potential trouble.  Four cards for a straight now are showing, and our opponent has confessed a couple of times already to failed "chases."  Yet this time, we sense he has even less -- perhaps simply a Queen high.  So we reach for our chips and say....

"One-thousa...."

"Don't do it!" our opponent says.  But the words are out of our mouth, and the best is official.  We expect his next words to involve folding.


"I hit a straight, man," he says instead.  He shows the 10, which has us beat.


"I tried to run you off," we respond while shaking our head.


"You didn't bet enough," the winner explains.  "I've got a big enough stack to chase with 700."  Indeed, he's right.  He started the hand with at least three times more chips than we did.  To borrow from the Occupy Movement, sometimes it can hurt to be the lower-income "99 percent."


That hand was a big blow, and we limped to the one-hour break with only 2,500 chips.  But then a second-hour, "nothing to lose" rally developed.  We went all-in with a King and won a pot when it paired.  Then we pushed 9-9, caught a third 9 on the flop and jumped back to 10,000.  But at the semifinal table, we played it safe by folding K-8 -- and missed what would have been a dominating full house.


We hung on as long as we could, but the Big Blind came for our last 1,000 chips -- and 4-3 of spades didn't bring any matches on the board.  It was close, but no final table for us, as we finished tenth.


MINISTRY MOMENT: A woman at our first table was acting very giddy at times, and the humor became a bit sexual.  It prompted a man to our right to talk about being "a born-again virgin."


"That's really a good idea," we told him.  We didn't catch the entire conversation, but we were thinking along the lines of young people choosing to become chaste again after having sex.  The "secondary virginity" movement involves a commitment to self-discipline.  But we've heard some ministers say you can't achieve that on your own:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23

In other words, these ministers would claim, you can't really have self-control without the Holy Spirit inside you.  But we've known "born-again" believers who have slipped spiritually, and committed sins.  Even apostles of the Bible may have encountered moments like that....

For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do -- this I keep on doing. - Romans 7:19

Paul went on to call himself "a prisoner of the law of sin" (verse 23).  What hope does he have?

What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord! - Romans 7:24-25

Paul realized the blood of Christ could cover his sins, and remove them from God's sight.  Have you asked God to apply Jesus's blood to yours?  If you're not sure how, leave a comment and we'll be happy to help.


UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 117 final tables in 329 nights (35.6%) - 19 cashes.


NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 247 point wins in 1029 games (24.0%),   78 final tables, 7 cashes plus 3 other wins.

For the second time in a month, we won an NLOP qualifying tournament!  Here's the decisive hand from early Wednesday morning (the game started late Tuesday night).  We lured an opponent into going all-in on the flop, when we made two pair.

But the final table was quite a roller-coaster ride, with two big drops and comebacks.  We had a six-to-one chip lead with three players left, then fell to third as our opponents kept making big hands against the wall.  But in the end, we topped 60 other players -- yet alas, qualifiers still don't pay off in cash.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games -- $80,722 (corrected from prior weeks), up $2,088.  There was an amazing moment this week there as well, but we'll hold that for another post.