Poker Night 364: 5-2 Pickup

As we began the Monday night tournament at The Red Barn, we remembered well what happened the week before.  The good news is that we lasted more than two hands. In fact, we lasted long enough to see some amazing things happen....

BLINDS: 10,000/20,000

IN THE POCKET: 2-5 of diamonds

If we've made it to blinds this high, we must be doing well -- and in fact, we're at the final table!  We picked up a few nice pots along the way, but otherwise played cautiously while surrounded by the usual massive stacks of chips.

We've already been dealt pocket Aces at the final table, which allowed us to quadruple our small stack to 20,000.  But now the Big Blind has come, and we're all-in by force with what some consider the worst hand in poker.  The man who took us out last Monday night bets big pre-flop to run everyone else off.  Then he shows Q-10.  Ugh.

ON THE FLOP: 4-A-4

This is a race -- and we're way behind.

ON THE TURN: 5

Not anymore, we're not!  We've paired.  Our opponent has not.  "Oh no," he says.

ON THE RIVER: 8

"Praise the Lord," we say out loud.  We escape the ax again, climbing to 60,000 chips.

Other players at the final table risked it all, with relatively limited success.  When we tried again with A-6, it was our turn to miss the pair.  That man with the huge stack eliminated us again -- but on this Monday night, we finished in fourth place.  That's our best outcome at The Red Barn since October 2011.

MINISTRY MOMENT: Parts of The Red Barn have strange air circulation.  At a semifinal table, a man to our left folded on the turn -- and as he tossed his cards into the middle of the table, a bit of air blew them face-up!  (He had K-J.)

"That must have been an act of God!" the man exclaimed.

"God can control the wind," we told him.  A writer of Psalms puts it this way....

He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind.  He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants. - Psalm 104:3-4

The King James Version indicates verse 4 refers to angels, instead of winds which can make you shiver on a November day.  But there's a famous moment in the Bible when the Son of God confirmed in the New International Version, while aboard a boat:

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boar, so that it was nearly swamped.  Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.... - Mark 4:37-38

Jesus's disciples were concerned they might drown.  Thankfully for them, they had a Passenger on board who could change that.

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!"  Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.... They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" - Mark 4:39, 41

This passage indicates Jesus has ultimate control over the weather.  Could it be that weather-related disasters hit some places because too many people fail an important test mentioned in this section?

He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid?  Do you still have no faith?" - Mark 4:40

Serious storms in life (weather-related or otherwise) can challenge anyone's faith in God.  So do you think God sends "natural disasters?"  Leave a comment with your thoughts; we'll consider that further in a future post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 126 final tables in 364 nights (34.6%) - 20 cashes.  This marked our first "back-to-back" final table appearances (much less back-to-back top five finishes) since mid-July.