The Bigger They Are....

With all the attention being paid on the "November Nine" and the upcoming Main Event final table, you may have missed the fascinating story of a man who fell short.

Germany's Anton Morganstern was in the chip lead with 24 players remaining.  Yet he lost it all in a hurry and finished 20th -- as another man doubled up through him, not once but twice.

We don't know if Morganstern was overconfident about his chance; that would require mind-reading on our part.  But it's not the first time that a big leader has been humbled and brought down.  It happens in poker on a regular basis -- and it happened in the Bible:

Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel.... "This day I defy the ranks of Israel!  Give me a man and let us fight each other." - I Samuel 17:8, 10

The story of David and Goliath is so classic and simple, you probably heard about it from childhood.  But you may have forgotten some key points of the story.  For instance, David says....

Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. - I Samuel 17:36 (see also verse 26)

David didn't take on the giant to promote himself.  He did it because Goliath was insulting God's armies.  In a way, David stood up for God:

This day the Lord will have you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head.  Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. - I Samuel 17:46

God could have intervened to shut up Goliath; He did that with other blowhards in the Bible.  But in this case, God waited to see with the people of Israel would do -- and David did something.

All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands. - I Samuel 17:47

David only fought after someone threw down a challenge.  He didn't fight with much.  But God took David's "little" and knocked out someone big.  That can happen in poker, too.  We know, because we've been on both sides of the fight.

Read the entire 17th chapter of I Samuel, and ask where you fit.  Are you riding high, and acting too overconfident to have great success -- in poker or otherwise?  Are you a "short stack" ready to be used by God for a big purpose?  Keep in mind the man who chopped down Anton Morgenstern's big stack will sit at the Main Event final table in November -- while Morgenstern will not.