BLINDS: 1,000/2,000
IN THE POCKET: A-2 of spades
We've won a few pots, and reached the final table on a two-table night. Now after the first break, seven players remain (as best we recall) and our stack has jumped to about 40,000. These are sort-of suited connectors, so we dare to try them with no one raising. Three players are in.
ON THE FLOP: Kh-9s-3s (spades not precise)
A big flush draw is tempting. But a man across the table from us bets 5,000. We pay the price and call; everyone else steps aside.
ON THE TURN: Ah
That's not it - but it's not bad, either. We now have top pair, even with a lousy kicker. Our opponent raises the stakes to 10,000. We suspect he has an Ace, but the flush draw still is compelling. So we call again.
ON THE RIVER: Ks
Never mind Powerball - we just hit the jackpot! But our opponent apparently thinks he did, too. He goes all-in right away, with more chips than we have.
We admittedly should have paused for a moment to think this through. Even though we have the best flush, a pair is on the board. What if he has A-K for a full house? That's a very pushable hand. But we didn't stop to think; we made our flush, so we must be OK. We dangerously call after about two seconds.
"Do you have the nuts?" we ask in a fake puzzled way. Then our opponent throws his cards "I dare you" style in our direction - K-Q of clubs! He has only three of a kind.
"I do have the nuts," we say - and modestly turn over the cards in front of us.
Our opponent's face suddenly looks frustrated. It's almost as if he never saw the flush threat - because if he had, he wouldn't have pushed. But he winds up taking a big loss, and we double up to the 90,000 chip range.
We developed the biggest stack, and used them carefully - using a "bully bluff" only once (or was it twice?!) to add to the lead. Finally we came down to heads-up play, with a chip lead of more than three-to-one!
We were dealt A-K. Our opponent had A-9 and went all-in. We called, of course -- BUT running 9's came on the turn and river, to keep him in the game! He built back his stack from there, and eventually took the chip lead.
Had he offered to "chop the money" at any point (only two players were paid), we were prepared to bail him out and accept it. Now in a trailing position, we offered a chop in humility - and he accepted, saying he was ready to do that all along. (He'd been distracted by something on his ear buds.).We wound up with $54, one dollar more than our last trip to Nikki's in late December!
MINISTRY MOMENT: "That's the most unusual card protector I've ever seen," a man to our left said at the start of the evening. Jackpot again - our little pack of salt started a discussion.
"I brought this to remind me that I'm supposed to be the 'salt of the earth'," we explained. "Jesus said that. What do you think of Jesus?"
"NO NO NOOOO!" two men to our left said out loud. They didn't want to go there. "Ask us what we think of [Tim] Tebow."
How interesting. They'd rather focus on a former pro football player who is a witness for God, than the original "son of God"....
...Who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. - Romans 1:4
Jesus called Himself" "the Son of Man" many times while He walked the earth. But others testified in the New Testament for what Jesus really was, and still is - the Son of God.
But the reaction of the table to our mention of Jesus made us think of another Bible passage. It comes right after God uttered the Ten Commandments to Moses:
When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die." - Exodus 20:18-19
The Israelites were more comfortable with an intermediary for God. It seems some people are like that today. Tim Tebow has become their modern-day Moses, and they'd rather see a godly example through him - or maybe look for character flaws to tear down. Do you think that's the right approach? Offer a comment if you'd like, and we'll get back to this in another post.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 174 final tables in 461 games (37.7%) - 32 cashes. We thank God for three cashes in our last four tournaments, earning more than $170 since late November.
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