BLINDS: 25/50
IN THE POCKET: Ace-Jack of hearts
We sat down at this table to begin the tournament with 7,000 chips (2,000 extra for buying a soda). Other players sat down with 30,000 or more, because they paid for food or tunes from the jukebox -- and they're already betting like big spenders, with raises in the thousands.
Realizing this, we want to pick the right moments to play. We also realize this exact same hand didn't work for us in Kansas City last week. So we try to get in small, by calling. But no -- a man across the table raises. Not to 1,000, but 5,000. He gets a caller, while other players fold ahead of us.
"I pretty much have to call this," we say -- and reluctantly take the 5,000-chip dare, committing about 70 percent of our stack.
ON THE FLOP: 5-5-4 (one 5 is a heart)
What an ugly-looking flop, especially for us. We check, but the big bettor doesn't slow down. Now he bets 20,000 -- and we have less than 2,000 left!
"I missed the flop," we confess as we fold. Apparently everyone else did, too; they fold, and the pot-winner graciously turns over his dominating pocket Kings.
Trying to join this party was expensive, and the loss handcuffed our play for the rest of the night. Potentially good hands such as A-8 and A-3 had to be folded to big raises -- although to be honest, they also would have lost. We endured to the one-hour break, but then were forced to go all-in with 9-6 in the Small Blind early in the second hour. We missed a straight draw, and lost to a pair of 7's to finish 22nd.
MINISTRY MOMENT: An elderly-looking woman sat to our left tonight. We showed her our "Lord's Supper" card protector and asked, "Do you think Jesus Christ is coming back?"
The woman said yes, but added something had to happen first. "Elijah has to come back and die, and he was taken up to heaven."
"What if I told you," we responded, "the Bible indicates Elijah has died already?"
This was news to the woman, as we suspect it would be to a lot of casual Bible readers. So we suggested she review the book of Hebrews -- but when we got home, we discovered we had our E's mixed up:
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. - Hebrews 11:5 (KJV)The key word here is translated. The Revised Standard Version substitutes the phrase "taken away." The New International Version says Enoch "was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death." Bible resources we reviewed indicate translated originally meant in Greek "transfer" or "transport." (The same word appears as "removed" in Galatians 1:6).
But we've heard some ministers say Enoch is part of a list of ancient Bible heroes, which leads up to this:
All these people were still living by faith when they died.... - Hebrews 11:13 (NIV)Based on this verse, those ministers claim when "God took him [Enoch] away" in Genesis 5:24, Enoch "disappeared" (as the Moffatt translation puts it) -- only to die later. It might be compared to kings who "took Lot" in Genesis 14:12; that was a case of hostage-taking.
Yet after reflecting on this, a lot depends on when the author of Hebrews actually starts his list of those who were "living by faith when they died." Does it begin with Abel in Hebrews 11:4? Or Noah in verse 7? We'll leave the issue open for your comments. In the meantime, we apologize to this woman for getting Enoch and Elijah mixed up -- and we'll explore what really happened to Elijah in a future post.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 123 final tables in 354 nights (34.7%) - 19 cashes.
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