Breaking Up the Band

What an amazing poker year it is for us. Not really in how we're playing, but what's happening to poker rooms where we've played. We've now found out another room has closed - a place we visited only once.

Prairie Band Casino in northeast Kansas has shut down its poker room, apparently to turn it into a bingo hall. When we were there last August, we finished second in a Sunday tournament. But apparently not many players showed up during the week. One man told us the "Bad Beat" jackpot there reached $250,000, but people still weren't interested.

One video we've seen online notes casinos really don't care about it, because they don't make much money from it. We'd guess that's especially true beyond tournaments. Cash games tend to have players shuffling chips (and money) between each other. The only time that changes is when a player is kind enough to tip a dealer.

Come to think of it, some poker players could learn a lesson from Prairie Band. If you're not making money and having success at it, you should minimize your losses and get out. That's true in card games, business.... and even bigger things:

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. - Isaiah 55:2

Some ministers would turn this into a commentary on eating whole wheat bread - but of course, the point is bigger than that....

Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. - Isaiah 55:3

You may be surprised to learn "souls" can die. The Bible says so more than once (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). But they can be resurrected to live again, under God's covenant plan:

And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God.... They came to life and reigned with Chris a thousand years. - Revelation 20:4

The resurrected souls gave up their lives for Jesus - and Jesus is "bread" worth the cost of your money and time:

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.... If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." - John  6:35, 51

Listen to Jesus. Take Him into your life. And your life can last long beyond this one - long after the bread served in casino restaurants runs out, and the last poker room shuts down.

A Vision of Success

"Blinds up!" the man down the table from us said as the blinds changed.... and he stood up.

Later on, that same man declared he'd "check in the dark."  And since he started it, we couldn't resist joining in the humor.

"Don't you check 'in the dark' most of the time?" we asked.

"I check in a blur," he explained. Aha.

If you haven't figured it out by now, we played poker recently with a vision-impaired man. He's apparently a regular at the poker room we visited, because the dealer was ready for him -- announcing every card as it came out on the board, while the player held his cards practically against his eyes.

The man isn't 100-percent blind, so he can play -- and he played well enough to reach the final table.  We give Prairie Band casino credit for accommodating him and his situation.  He's an example of why you shouldn't let disabilities or physical obstacles get in the way of playing poker, if it's possible to do so.

A Bible writer had something to say about this sort of thing:

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. - II Corinthians 12:7

The Bible doesn't tell us exactly what this "thorn" was. Some have guessed the apostle Paul developed partial blindness, like that man at the table had.  Whatever it was, the apostle wanted it out of his life.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness...." - II Corinthians 12:8-9a

Sometimes God heals; sometimes He does not.  Sometimes He takes us out of difficult situations, even in a poker tournament; other times He does not.  The key is to learn what the apostle learned....

...Therefore I will board all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. - II Corinthians 12:9b-10

Are you facing some kind of trial, at the poker table or away from it?  There's nothing wrong with praying about it, as the apostle Paul did. But learn to expect strength from God, even if the trial doesn't end in the way you might like.


NOTE: We'll have more to say about this man in our next post.

Poker Day 450: Leader of the Band

We've been on the road for the last few days. Call it the BPPT - Blogger's Personal Poker Tour.

Our first stop Sunday afternoon was a tournament at Prairie Band Casino, north of Topeka.  The weekend buy-in was $45.  The atmosphere was relaxed, with three full tables of players.  And the challenge for us was to stay focused on the action - especially since we had a medical emergency a couple of nights before, which put us in the hospital.

BLINDS: 10/20

IN THE POCKET: K-Q offsuit

Even though it's early in the contest, several players have been in a pushing mood.  We've held off and taken things patiently, with our starting 1,000 chips down only a bit.  This time, no one raises and we're content to call.

ON THE FLOP: 4-K-J

We have top pair and a nice kicker, so we put out a probing bet of 50.  Several players concede, but one man across from us calls.

ON THE TURN: K

Top trips now!  But does our opponent want to jump into potential trouble? We check to see. He doesn't, checking as well.

ON THE RIVER: A

This card opens a door for potential trouble, if our opponent is sitting on a straight draw. But that doesn't occur to us at this moment.  When he bets 100, we think our three Kings are still best.  We raise to 250, and he calls.

"We three Kings," we announce as we show.  The Queen apparently makes a difference, as he also shows a King.... but not his other card.  The kicker gives us a nice pot and a strong gain.

Our holdings gained well, thanks to good cards. Then we held on during a segment when the hands were lousy.  Yet we reached the final table, walking a bit of a chip tightrope -- and we survived to the final seven players, to make money!

Then the good cards started coming back, and we eliminated at least one opponent.  We made it all the way to a heads-up showdown.  But our opponent had about a 2:1 chip advantage at that point; when we dared to go all-in pre-flop with 8-4 of clubs, we were outgunned and lost.

But it was still a very good day -- with a $209 second-place payoff for about three hours of play. (We didn't ask the winner how much he won.)  That's our second-biggest poker payday ever, topped only by a night in the Florida panhandle during a 2011 church convention.  And we won a $5 bonus in "after-hours trading," playing Ultimate Texas Hold 'em elsewhere at the casino,

MINISTRY MOMENT: For the first time that we can recall, we spotted a player wearing a Bible verse on his T-shirt.  Below a patriotic message was a reference to this:

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. - Psalm 33:12

The man told us during a break he's the son of a minister.  He mumbled some of the rest of his story, about how he wound up in a casino on a Sunday afternoon.  We told him about our efforts to discuss the things of God in poker rooms; he didn't offer much of a reaction to it.

So what about that Bible verse?  Some evangelical Christians might see that as applying to the U.S. In fact, some have declared the U.S. is descended from one of the "lost tribes" of Israel.  But we'd point out something else about God's blessings....

Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right." - Acts 10:34-35

The apostle Peter was focused on ministering to Jews - but Acts 10 shows how a Gentile man named Cornelius changed his thinking. In the same way, we think God will bless and honor people who fear and obey Him in any country on Earth.

We did a detailed study into the concept of the U.S. being of the "lost tribes."  We welcome your thoughts about it -- but be warned: it's SO detailed that you might have to give up some poker-playing time to get through both parts.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 165 final tables in 450 games (36.7%) - 28 cashes.

It's our second tournament cash win in a row, and our fourth this year (one online).  But the BPPT Tour only started here; wait until you see our next post!