Two Tulsa casinos compete against each other for poker players quite a bit. In fact, both have Sunday morning tournaments. River Spirit's "Sunrise Showdown" at 9:30 a.m. costs more, at $60 including "dealer appreciation." But that meant it offered the biggest reward - and since we won money there last year, we hoped to succeed there again.
BLINDS: 300/600
IN THE POCKET: J-J
It's been a stormy Sunday for us - with fairly big losses, but also fairly big gains. In the second hour of play, a Jack of diamonds led to a big flush win. Now with two tables left, we have good starting cards at a table of seven and about 10,000 chips. We're relatively late in the order, but we decide to call and see if others raise. They don't. About half the table is in.
ON THE FLOP: 6-6-8
Small cards look good to us. But as we recall, a man across the table mishandles his chips a bit - putting one in, then announcing a bet of 1,700. The dealer makes him take back all but the minimum 600.
"I know what he meant to do," we say a bit tongue-in-cheek, "so I'll bet 1,700." That man calls; everyone else is out.
ON THE TURN: 4
This still looks good - and now our opponent checks to us. We bet 1,700 again.
"Raise," he says - and doubles the bet to 3,400. We consider what he wanted to do on the flop, and conclude he has an 8. Therefore, our second pair tops his - and we call accordingly.
ON THE RIVER: 10
We've seen enough to win, right? Well, not so fast. Our opponent now puts out 4,000. We're still not convinced, and think he's trying to scare us away. Besides, if he happens to have a 10, we're still better.
"I only have 600 more to go all-in," we say - and we do. A shove earlier in the hour brought a good read that our A-10 was better than an opponent. He had A-5, but we wound up splitting the pot.
The opponent calls without hesitation. "I have a 6," he says - and proves it. Ouch!! This time our read was all wrong - and we wind up leaving the room in 15th place, out of 34 players.
We should have realized a couple of things here. We got burned by a hidden three of a kind early in the tournament (a Big Blind 3-10, that turned into a full house for a woman). And we should have been more careful, saving our last 600. At least that would have kept us in the game for a few more hands. One too many bad decisions cost us dearly.
MINISTRY MOMENT: We're not sure what topic they were discussing, but one poker room staff member said to another before the tournament, "You're preaching to the choir."
To which we responded: "Sometimes the choir needs to be preached to."
Our apologies for the bad grammar. But we've sung in a few church choirs over the years - and while we realize the woman's phrase is a common cliché, choirs are not filled with perfect people. In fact, neither is the community of preachers. A New Testament writer seemed to realize this well....
...You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?... You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? - Romans 2:21, 23Paul wrote these words to Jews who considered themselves morally superior (verses 17-18) - but we all have to be careful. Nothing says "hypocrite" more than someone accusing others of doing the very "wrong" that they do. How did Paul know that so well?
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst. - I Timothy 1:15Paul undoubtedly recalled his track record of persecuting believers in Jesus. But Jesus intervened in his life by striking him down on a trip to Damascus (Acts 9:1-16). Paul turned into a believer - but even believing ministers like him can face battles with sin. We'll talk about that in an upcoming post.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 183 final tables in 505 games (36.4%) - 37 cashes. Our record in Oklahoma now stands at two final tables in four games.
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