Poker Day 438: Hearts On Fire

Our last scheduled poker tournament for 2014 found us plunking down 60 more dollars at Arrowhead Poker, and winning the first hand of the day with K-10 when a King came on the flop.  But then a string of losses -- including a fold on the river when we had a pair of 10's and an opponent with nothing ran us off with a 3,000-chip bet.

We needed a big comeback at some point, and hoped the right cards would provide it....

BLINDS: 2,000/4,000

IN THE POCKET: A-9 of hearts

We start this hand with the Dealer button at a six-handed table, holding 42,000 chips.  No one is raising -- and even though these cards are pretty big, that's fine with us.  We call, and about four players are in.

ON THE FLOP: 7h-7c-8h

Talk about a big flush draw.-- not to mention 60 percent of a straight flush.  A man who moved over from the other table in this two-table tournament a few minutes ago puts out 10,000.  Other players ahead of us fold.  This man bet us off a hand with a big wager moments ago, but we can't really afford to move aside now.  We call in hope.

ON THE TURN: 3h

Hope is rewarded!  And our poker face must be working well, because our opponent takes a look at our chip stack before acting.  Now he bets 20,000.

"All-in - 28,000" we announce.

The opponent doesn't really hesitate.  He calls, and the dealer takes a moment to sort out the chips.  Then comes our cliché line, as we show our heart flush:

"You can call me Planters - because I've got the nuts."

Our opponent turns over 7-4.  He has three 7's, but we need to dodge a full house.

ON THE RIVER: 5s

We do!  It's a big gain for us, to around 110,000 chips.

Other big hands came for us -- including A-K, which brought another Ace on the board.  That provided enough pad to last through bad blinds, and we reached the final table with 50,000 chips.  Then A-Q brought an Ace on the flop, and we built our stack to a high of 190,000.

But rising blinds eventually did us win, and we were forced to go all-in with Q-3 in the Small Blind.  The board didn't pair for us but did for a woman down the table.  We finished with a strong fifth-place finish, then sat disappointed as the last four players split up the prize money.  They each won $105. We received.... well, a few slices of free pizza and drinks.  But it was still our best finish since late October.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We showed our "Lord's Supper" card protector medallion to a grandfather at the final table. (At least we assume he was, from the Gramps" shirt he wore.) He seemed surprisingly amused by the portrayal of Jesus on the back, which we keep face-down.

"What do you think of Jesus?" we asked Gramps.

"I think he was the Prince of Peace."

We agreed, because the Bible agrees:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. - Isaiah 9:6

You may have heard that verse sung countless times during Handel's Messiah, especially in December.  But you may be asking a question -- where's the peace?  Why didn't Jesus end all wars, violence and hostility?


If you're asking that, maybe you haven't experienced the peace Jesus personally talked about....

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid. - John 14:27

The Lord went on to say, "....in me you may have peace" (John 16:33)  We think it means peace of mind, knowing what follows this life.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. - Matthew 5:9

Do you consider yourself a "son of God"?  Jesus hints here one way to prove it is to be a peacemaker -- making peace with other people, instead of stirring up difficulties.  That phrase brings up another part of our conversation with Gramps; we'll get to that in a future post.


UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 156 final tables in 438 games (35.6%), 25 cashes.  Our next post will wrap up our 2014 poker activity