This year on December 24-25, we tried it again. This time both tournaments were at Jack Casino Cincinnati. But after a money win Monday night, this time.... the daytime tournament was canceled.
Only two other players plunked down the $80 buy-in. In fact, the poker room barely had one full table of cash game players. The managers huddled at the 11:15 a.m. starting time, then canceled the tournament. We regained our buy-in, and proceeded to add some money to that at a blackjack table.
Talk about a difference - 42 "Christmas poker" players in rural Kansas, versus only three in urban southwest Ohio. Is Texas Hold 'em simply a bigger thing in the Plains States? Or are there other factors?
Perhaps Cincinnati offers more things to do with your spare time. Or perhaps the area is more "religious" than we realized, with more people marking Christmas in some way or other. It's quite a Roman Catholic area - with at least two Catholic colleges, and Lenten fish fries which become big news items.
Long-time blog readers know we went to casinos because we do not keep Christmas. Despite what some advocates might indicate, there's no command in the Bible to keep it. And it's very likely Jesus Christ was not born in December at all....
She gave birth to her first child, a son.... That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. - Luke 2:7-8 (NLT)
When Mary gave birth to Jesus, shepherds were on the job outside. That would be chilly work in the Bethlehem in late-December. The Internet allows us to know weather conditions in that part of the Middle East, and nighttime lows right now are in the mid-40's F. It seems safe to assume conditions were the same 2,000 years ago.
But history shows shepherds were not out working in such chilly conditions. Sheep were kept in shelters, since there was little grass for grazing in winter. As Jesus would say after growing up....
So he explained it to them: "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.... Those who go in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures." - John 10:7, 9 (NLT)
Sheep need good pastureland to thrive. Would a caring shepherd settle for less? The winter shelters help explain how shepherds could do what they did after they had a supernatural vision....
When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, "Let's go to Bethlehem! Let's see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. - Luke 2:15-16 (NLT)
Lots of sheep were "left behind" - but the shepherds later returned to them (verse 20). Jesus would expect a different reaction as an adult, but that's a topic for another post.
We didn't talk about Christmas or Christ at Monday night's tournament at all. That's because the church association we attend has indicated any action toward God on Christmas is the same as keeping the day, and we're not instructed to keep man-made "pagan" days.
A lot of "customs of the season" get debated at this time of year. We invite you to study how we responded to one book about it years ago. Have a Bible ready. Have an open mind. And have a willingness to react obediently to what God shows you - as those shepherds did.
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