Poker Night 352: Money Where Your Mouth Is

After keeping the Day of Atonement/Yom Kippur, the evening plans for us were very alliterative.  We ate all-you-want buffet pizza Wednesday night to break the fast.  Then we played poker at Soho Bar & Grill, changing our weekly routine because of an upcoming event.  We needed a good night, to avoid falling below a key milepost for us.  But our table turned out to be challenging....

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: A-6 offsuit

Some big bettors are standing around our table (the tables are high, and they don't use chairs), but we've only tried and failed with one modest pot so far.  We get in small, in about the fourth hand of the evening.  No one raises, to cause problems.

ON THE FLOP: 5-6-9

We have middle pair, the best possible kicker -- and the feeling this flop is not going to thrill the table.  Indeed, the action checks to us.  So we offer 200.

"You don't bet very often," a man across from us says.  Maybe not, but we have here -- and it chases about half the players away.  No one raises.

ON THE TURN: 4h

This puts two hearts on the board, but we don't really notice that.  For one thing, we don't have hearts.  For another thing, this card is lower than our 6.  It's a bit tempting to bet again.  But we check to measure what others might have -- and everyone checks.

ON THE RIVER: Ah

As in Ah-A!  Now we have two pair, and we feel good about it.  So we bet 500.  A couple of players check -- but a man to our right who constantly seems to be on the telephone with someone raises to 3,500.

Only now do we notice the three hearts on display.  And that makes this decision very tough.  If we call and he's hit a flush, we'd lose more than half our chip stack.  But part of us wants to say he's bluffing, in an attempt to scare us away.  After a few seconds, our decision is made.

"I don't want to do it, but I'm going to fold."  We don't show our cards as we toss them away.  Our opponent doesn't show his in collecting the pot, either.

"You had A-9, didn't you?" the commenter across the table asks us.

"No, I didn't."

"I'm not going to be reading your blog, so I thought you might have the courtesy to tell me what you had."

"It wasn't A-9," we somewhat repeat.  Yes, it might be courteous to reveal our cards on the spot.  But: a) it's not required; (b) our inquisitor never asked the winner what he had; and c) we try to maximize our blog visit count as much as possible.

Maximizing our chips, however, turned out to be difficult.  We never won a hand all night, and finally went all-in in the second hour with A-5 of diamonds when the flop was 2-4-5.  But the turn was 6, giving a man with a 3 a winning straight.  We finished in about 25th place (another player was eliminated with us), so we went on to our next P on the schedule - leaving a rent payment.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We've taken a small pack of Kleenex tissues for a couple of weeks, to use as our card protector.  No, not for crying over lost pots.

"I brought this to remind me," we said to a player at our left, "when Jesus comes back to set up the Kingdom of God, He'll wipe away all tears from our eyes."

He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. - Revelation 21:4

"Do you believe the Kingdom of God is coming?" we asked the man.  He said he did.  But as much alcohol as he had nearby, we're not sure how sincere that answer was.

The next Biblical event on the calendar after the Day of Atonement symbolizes the coming establishment of God's kingdom on this earth:

Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. - Zechariah 14:16

This prophetic chapter has an ominous warning about the near-term future of Jerusalem -- but it has a happy ending, with Jesus's second coming.  If you're not familiar with the Feast of Tabernacles or the other "holy days" of God, this article may help you understand.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 123 final tables in 352 games (34.9%) - 19 cashes.

After months of fighting to stay above it, our final table percentage drops below 35 -- our lowest since our early days of live tournaments in 2007-08.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 268 point wins in 1,163 games (23.0%), 82 final tables, 10 wins, 10 cashes.  No-River Hold 'em - 14 point wins in 54 games (25.9%), 11 final tables, 1 cash win.

We asked a "final table" question in a post several days ago, and it referred to an NLOP No-River game.  The online players for a final table gathered while we were in the middle of a hand.  But we lost that hand, and wound up in ninth place.  We decided that should not count as a final table, since the start of that hand was at the semifinal table.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $86,841, down $1,580.