If Kings Won't Do It....

Maybe a different pocket pair might.  Between our two Monday night missteps with pocket Kings at The Red Barn, there was this moment from the Sunday night National League of Poker Weekly Championship:

BLINDS: 75/150

IN THE POCKET: Q-Q

Everyone started with 10,000 chips in this tournament.  We've won a couple of pots, but lost a couple of tough ones.  We're coming back from the half-hour break with 6,980 chips.  When a chip leader raises pre-flop to 940, we don't mind calling.

ON THE FLOP: 2-9-A

We keep a small sheet of paper at our desk, to note our hands for this blog.  We try to write down these cards, but one pen refuses to work.  Then another.  Then ANOTHER!  Our opponent bets 770 while we finally find a felt-tip pen which works -- then we hastily call.  (He might be bluffing with a continuation bet, after all.)

ON THE TURN: 7

Again it takes us several pens to mark two simple strokes on a sheet of paper, to show that 7.  Our opponent is acting as tough as the paper, because he now bets 1,390 during our frustration.  Admittedly asking for trouble, we call again.

ON THE RIVER: 5

This time we use the felt-tip first -- and it struggles a little, before finally working.  Trouble is, our opponent has gone all-in with his tens of thousands of chips.

"I'll do it," we say to the computer with some annoyance.  Bad move.  Our call leads our opponent to show A-J -- and we're eliminated in 974th place.

The moral of this story?  Several possible morals come to mind, besides the need to find better-quality paper stock.  (It accepted everything we wrote before that hand.)  One moral is that we let ourselves get off-kilter emotionally -- not due to the game, but from taking notes on it.  Yes, troublesome ink pens put us "on tilt."

Believe it or not, the Bible has plenty to say about what we did -- correcting us:

The end of all things is near.  Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. - I Peter 4:7

The Moffatt paraphrase translates part of this verse: "Steady then, keep cool and pray!"  The Contemporary English Version advises instead of self-controlled, "be sensible...."  If relatively little things take control of your thinking and your emotions, you'll make bad decisions -- in poker and in life.

But here's the strange thing: the best self-control doesn't really come from yourself.  How?

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

Believers who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them should use it to govern their actions, and even their thought processes.  For instance....

In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.  Selah - Psalm 4:4

If you think you're starting to "lose it," stop and pray for God to help you find it.  Then let Him do it.  It beats ripping a tell-tale hole in a sheet of paper -- and playing poker like there are holes in your pockets.