Poker Night 581: Ducks or Swans?

A pocket pair in a poker tournament puts you at an advantage. A high pocket pair is even better. So what happens when it's not so high? Sometimes it leads to drama, such as what happened with us Wednesday night at Hollywood Casino Indiana....

BLINDS: 500/1000

IN THE POCKET: 2-2

We're at the final table, on a night when only 14 people entered. A first hour with only a couple of pots left us at 9,300 chips from a starting 12,000. But we regained some strength in Hour 2 when we went all-in with 10-10 and beat A-Q with a third 10 on the flop.

Now we're in the Small Blind, starting with 10,200 chips and eight players left. No one ahead of us raises. This "ugly duckling" of pocket pairs has us thinking about folding - but we choose to call. Four players are in.

ON THE FLOP: A-A-2

Hip, hip, hoo-A-A! We hit the full house jackpot, and see no reason to wait. We go all-in for 9,200 - since someone else may have a third Ace and be gunning for his own superior full house.

The Big Blind and another man fold, but a young man that some people think looks like Dale Earnhardt Jr. calls. Does he have that Ace? He turns over.... K-J! We're in excellent shape.

ON THE TURN: 3

"Drawing dead," says the man sitting as Big Blind. Indeed....

ON THE RIVER: 9

The Small Blind risk has a huge payoff. We put our opponent out of the tournament in eighth place, and jump to an evening-high 24,300!

We faced another big opportunity minutes later with Q-Q. But while others around us were pushing to get home for the night, we tried to finesse things with a raise to 8,000. A monster stack called, and an Ace on the flop followed by a King on the turn led to a bet we simply couldn't call in confidence.

We hung around after that, reaching the second break at 12,400. But our hopes ran out when we pushed in Hour 3 with A-7. A caller with K-Q (we think) hit a full house, and left us drawing dead on the river. We finished in sixth place; only the top two made money.

MINISTRY MOMENT: When we pushed in that big hand, we said we had 8,200 chips. We were off by 1,000.

"Can't even get it right, and he's the Small Blind," the Big Blind said with his tongue in his cheek. "Who can you trust anymore?"

We knew the answer to that one. "I trust in God," we told him.

In fact, the license plate on our car says that. We live in one of several states that offer "In God we trust" tags. Supporters of such things argue it's the national motto. That's true - but we think we can see through their agenda. They're trying to spread a Christian message by any means necessary. In this case, it's a good one....

In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me? - Psalm 56:4

Back to the Big Blind's question. Where do you put your trust? In government? The Bible warns:

Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. - Psalm 146:3

Oops - that also rules out everyone on Earth, alive or dead. That's because we're all doomed to die (verse 4). The only place where you can put any trust at all beyond this life is in God. As Jesus put it....

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.... And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am. - John 14:1, 3

By trusting in God, we can join with Jesus in the establishment of God's perfect kingdom on Earth when He returns. Then all can declare....

O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you. - Psalm 84:12

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 223 final tables in 581 games (38.4%) - 48 cashes. We also came close to a final table in a Poker Stars online tournament Monday night. We finished ninth out of 436 entries, in a six-per-table event.

Poker Night 575: Power Trip

A recent post here mentioned a poker pro who suggested an aggressive "three-bet" approach to pre-flop success. It sounds good in theory. But does it really work? We tested it Wednesday night at Hollywood Casino Indiana….

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: 10-10

It's the second round of blinds, and we haven't won a pot yet. This fairly big pocket pair is in the Small Blind. A man across the table from us raises to 300. We see these cards, and it's testing time.

"Raise - 675," we say.

Three other men are in the running. The Big Blind folds. The man who made the first raise calls. The third player folds. So there's no guaranteed success - yet.

ON THE FLOP: 7-4-4

A second pair, in our view - and a good-looking one, because it's low. We're first to act, and decide to keep up the pressure with a bet of 700. Our opponent thinks for a moment.... then folds.

OK, it worked! And it really worked later in the evening, when we bet with 404 after a flop of 9-6-3. That won us a big, stay-in-the-game pot. Slow growth in the first hour fell prey to bad betting on our part late. We reached the first break at 9,800 chips out of a starting 12,000.

A straight with 8-7 was part of a second-hour comeback for us. Our stack approached 25,000, but then more setbacks came including a blunder to a man with a 6-high full house. Yet we survived to the second break at 12,100, and built back to make the final table at 16,000.

Once there, we survived one all-in moment as the field dwindled. Then a young man saying some wild things admittedly distracted our focus (more on him below). But as the third break arrived, we had A-2 and an Ace on the flop. When another player bet 10,000, we went for it all with 7,100 left. But he had A-7, and the 7 played when nothing else paired.

So as we told a co-worker earlier in the day, "I'm due to lose."  No money came on this night - but it was a strong fifth-place finish on a night with 19 entries.

MINISTRY MOMENT: Our final table included a young man who sounded like a follower of conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones. For instance, he made questionable claims that the space agency NASA founded Google, and is not a U.S. government agency. He went on to say some people "want a one-world government, and it's not going to happen."

"I think a one-world government is going to come," we responded. "Only someone bigger than you and me will bring it. Jesus will set it up."

Why do we say that? Because the Bible indicates it....

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said, "The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever." - Revelation 11:18

How will this happen? Through the work of some dominating church group converting people? The Bible shows something else - the personal intervention of Jesus Christ. In fact, He predicted it....

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. - Matthew 25:31-32

The young man said he believes in a "Christ consciousness," but has his doubts that Jesus really lived in the flesh. Yet on a day of Pentecost long ago (we're still working on that counting topic from our last post), Jesus's disciple Peter declared....

"Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.... God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact." - Acts 2:22, 32

The resurrected Lord was seen by 500 people during one appearance (I Corinthians 15:6). Yet that young man at the final table needs more proof from that. We'll have more of our fascinating discussion with him in upcoming posts. But in the meantime, will you accept the promise that Jesus finally will bring a united government to a divided world?

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 221 final tables in 575 games (38.4%) - 48 cashes.

Across the Lines

We made another discovery while working on our taxes this past week. It relates to poker directly - and it comes with a confessional.

We live in Kentucky - a state with no poker rooms, as far as we know. It's famous for "the sport of kings" (horse racing), but not pocket Kings. We cross rivers into Ohio and Indiana to play poker. And while filling out an Ohio state income tax form for another reason, we found out we must pay income tax on our Cincinnati casino winnings.

That led to a guilt cloud, then a check of Indiana's income tax rules. Sure enough - we have to pay that state as well on our casino winnings in Lawrenceburg, even though we've never lived there.

To be honest, we should have thought of this before. We'd heard stories of professional athletes being ordered to pay such out-of-state taxes, when their team goes on road trips. After all, they're working in the state of the team they're trying to beat.

But we never thought of applying this to us. And we crossed state lines to win at poker, well before moving to our current area. We're not sure if the statute of limitations has run out for those states - but we apologize to the states we may have stiffed. (Don't expect casinos to tell you about this; they never have with us.)

Why are we so concerned about this? In part, because of these words...

Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.... "Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" - Matthew 22:15, 17

This was a question to Jesus, whom some people thought had come to start a rebellion against the Roman leadership. What better way to do it than with a tax protest - right? Well, keep reading....

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Some me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?" - Matthew 22:18-20

We don't think the words "In God we trust" was on that coin. But we've heard people try to argue against paying taxes, based on the government being "un-Christian" or other such things. Yet what did Jesus say to the crowd?

"Caesar's," they replied. Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." When they heard him, they were amazed. So they left him and went away. - Mathew 22:21-22

Jesus never told anyone not to pay their taxes. For one thing, you'd be breaking the law in the U.S. if you did that. For another thing, Jesus had a disciple pay a "temple tax" earlier in His ministry (17:24-28). To us, it's about obedience....

Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. - I Peter 2:17

That "king" has a small king, indicating a human leader. God puts those leaders in charge (Romans 13:1, KJV) - so if you say you fear God and not them, what does that say about you?