BLINDS: 50/100
IN THE POCKET: 7-10 offsuit
We won the first hand of the night, then got caught bluffing and gave back almost all our gains. Now we're in the Big Blind with about 7,000 chips. That big bettor is two seats to our left at a table of six. He's gone all-in twice in the last three hands, and made huge gains. But he simply calls here, and we're happy to call when no one raises.
ON THE FLOP: 8-9-10
This counts up to us as "top pair," not to mention a two-way straight draw. The Small Blind checks, and we try to show some strength by betting 400. Mr. Big Bet calls, as do two others.
ON THE TURN: 6
Even better! We've made our straight, so we'll turn up the heat. Now we bet 1,400.
"I'm all-in," Mr. Big Bet says. He counts out about 8,700 chips. This doesn't scare us in the least. Unless he has 7-J or Q-J for a higher straight, we're ahead -- and we really doubt he does.
"I'll call, man," a man across the table from us says. The man to his left does the same thing! Now this is a bit concerning. It's a moment right out of an online tournament -- with three players all in early in the evening.
ON THE RIVER: 5
A card which really doesn't matter.
"I've got the straight," we're quick to say. We show our 7. Mr. Big Bet then turns over his cards -- and he has a 7. The next man in line also has a 7. And so does the fourth!
"No one had a Jack," the fourth man says. Thankfully. Our great minds thought alike, and the pot is split four ways.
The problem was that we couldn't even split a pot after that. Potentially good hands lost to better ones, until we were down to 500 chips in the second hour....
MINISTRY MOMENT: We were forced to go all-in with that 500 for the Big Blind. But the blinds were at 1,000/2,000, and the Tournament Director dipped into his huge stack to make up the difference for us.
"It's better to give than to receive," we told him with thanks.
"I don't believe that, man," a player to our left said half-jokingly.
"I read in a book," we told several players, "it's better to give than to receive." Go down two posts from this one, and you'll see which book we mean -- the book of Acts.
"It depends who you're giving it to," the man to our left then explained. Do you agree with that view?
The U.S. has more than one million different charitable organizations. We've don't know of anyone who has given one dollar to each of them. (If we tried to do that, we'd go broke -- and then we'd need those charities to help us.) So indeed, giving people make choices. But consider these words of Jesus:
Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. - Luke 6:30-31
Talk about a tough standard! Give to everyone?!? Even to groups and people who do things exactly the opposite of what you believe?
Some Bible commentaries try to put boundaries on this, by claiming we should only give to those who are "proper" and are asking for "necessities." One author puts it this way, agreeing to some degree with our earlier post: "Giving a person everything they ask for isn't necessarily love." And "love" is an important word here....
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. - Luke 6:35How far you show this love and take this principle expressed by Jesus is up to you. (Your comments about it are welcome.) We personally see a need to pray long and hard for God's guidance about it -- especially since we're in a tough financial situation at the moment.
Oh, we almost forgot: we had 5-8 in the Big Blind. The board didn't pair for us. We were eliminated in 12th place.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 134 final tables in 387 nights (34.6%) - 20 cashes.
NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 282 point wins in 1,357 games (20.8%), 92 final tables, 12 cashes, 10 wins. No-River Hold 'em - 24 final tables in 94 games, (25.5%), 19 final tables, 1 cash win.
We came very close to winning money in a Sunday afternoon game - finishing 11th out of 1,086 players. Only the top seven won money, and no points were awarded. The next day we came close again, finishing 25th out of 930 players.
But with NLOP and related Zen Entertainment poker sites now in bankruptcy court, we're admittedly looking for a new online base. What do you recommend, in terms of a "free poker" site that awards money to winners?
POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $85,720, down $250. Our trips there went down, of course, after a U.S. government crackdown barred us from playing even in freeroll tournaments for money.
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