The "Maverick" Who Played Poker

Many people in the U.S. are remembering a Senator this weekend, using terms such as "hero." John McCain of Arizona died from cancer Saturday. He was famous for many things - but one of his most infamous moments involved poker.

Courtesy Melina Mara/Washington Post

In September 2013, McCain seemed to be distracted during a Senate hearing on Syrian policy. The Washington Post snuck a photographer behind the desks, and found him playing video poker on his iPhone. McCain  confessed to his actions minutes later by writing "Scandal!" on social media.

Check the Twitter comments on McCain's confession, and you'll find many people were appalled by what he was doing. Yet it fit the "maverick" label others attached to him - and it's ironic, considering Maverick was the name of an old TV western about poker-playing brothers.

This leads us to ask: is it good to be a maverick - in the poker world, or otherwise? It might make you famous, but is it a good thing?

Our old hardbound dictionary has these definitions, among several: "One who refuses to abide by the dictates of his group; a dissenter.... One who resists adherence to or affiliation with any single organized group or faction".

We think there are two ways to look at this. It's good to be a maverick if you're coming out of this world. Jesus Christ was the prime example of that....

"Abraham is our father," they answered. "If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you he truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things"... - John 8:39-40

Jesus was a Jew by birth (Revelation 5:5) who challenged the strict religious legalists of His day, such as the Jewish Pharisees. They indeed eventually had Him arrested and put to death. Yet that made the Lord the "maverick" of our salvation.

On the other hand, it can be bad to be a maverick if you're revolting against the ways of God in a lawless way. If that describes you, the Bible offers this advice:

Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. - Isaiah 55:7

 We noted in a 2013 post about John McCain's game that there's a right time and a wrong time to play video poker. At the wrong time, you can even sin against God:

If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as your please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable, and you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord.... - Isaiah 58:13-14

So as we remember John McCain, we ask - are you a maverick? If so, on which side? We think it's better to be a maverick for the Master.

Rage Against the Machine

As we grew up, the "pokie" was the place to avoid. It was a synonym for jail - as in the corner square on a Monopoly board.

But in Australian lingo, a "pokie" is something else. It refers to a poker machine - and a new study shows a lot of Aussies like to play them. One machine in a hotel can make an average A$59,000 per year, while in casinos they make an average A$128,600.

We'd guess pokies are popular because you can play them quickly. and walk away if you lose a lot in a hurry. But while there's a time and place for such things and we've played them online, poker machines strike us as cold and  impersonal. They're a lot like slot machines.

When we play poker, we admittedly do it with multiple motives. One of them is to engage people in conversations, which we try to lead to matters of faith:

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. - Proverbs 27:17

By talking about poker with other players, you can learn things and improve your skills. When we talk about the things of God with others.... well, our NIV Study Bible notes on this verse put it this way: "Develops and molds his character."

Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. - Malachi 3:17

Let's face it, though: you're far more likely to find "those who fear the Lord" at places other than casinos. If you want to talk deeply about the things of God, get involved in a local church congregation - especially one that is true to the Bible. (Believe it or not, many of them aren't.) And be sure to read your Bible often, so you have something to talk about.

If It Was Real: NLOP 2011

When it comes to tax returns, we don't plan to go as far as Mitt Romney - but we're thankful to report we made a little money playing poker this past year.

In live tournaments, we won $295.  In live cash games, we lost $32.  And National League of Poker play earned us $135: $55 in Sunday night video poker championships (which have been taken down in the transition to a browser-based format), and $80 from Texas Hold 'em tournaments.

But it's tempting to consider what would have happened if NLOP action was all money, from start to finish.  We did the math, and computed we spent 137,000 points to enter tournaments in 2011.  The final "bank account" would have been 281,647 - a gain of 105.6 percent.  In other words, our money would have doubled.

Of course, real-money online play evaporated to a great extent in the U.S. in April 2011.  If states can organize their own poker rooms in 2012 (which the Justice Department now seems to allow), we'll be paying close attention.
 

Five for Five

More than 500 players regularly enter the National League of Poker's weekly video poker championships on Sunday evenings. The top seven win money, so the odds of cashing are steep. Yet we've now done it three times in seven months!

After making second place in October and first place in early January, we finished fifth this past Sunday to earn five dollars. We actually tied in points, but apparently won a tiebreaker with a bigger single hand. (Sixth place also won five dollars, so there's no real disappointment either way.)





So how are we doing this -- especially since a computer deals the cards to every player, presumably at random? This big hand offers a clue. We were dealt three Aces, and held them over. Four Aces earns you 2,000 points if the "kicker card" is a 2, 3 or 4. (Higher cards mean a smaller payoff, such as 800.)

You can watch the "leader board" on the screen, and see what the target numbers are as the 100-hand tournament moves along. If someone makes a royal flush (and it happened very early Sunday), it's time to "go for broke." We only save cards which can bring us maximum scores. After all, eighth place earns the same as 508th -- nothing.

But we'd add this: we also pray for God's will to be done before a weekly championship....

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you. - I Peter 5:6-7 (KJV)

Does it always lead to a payday? Nooooo -- remember, we've missed the money 90 percent of the time since last October. But ten percent is well ahead of the overall odds. And as some preachers would say, we're glad about it.

Slump-Buster?

For the third time in seven months, we won money tonight at the weekly video poker championship of National League of Poker. In fact, it was our third "top five" finish -- fifth place out of 523 players!

How did we do it? We'll show you and reveal some of our strategy.... later this week in another post. We'll also share our thoughts on today's second week of the Heads-Up Poker Championship on NBC. But not now -- we're under time restrictions for the seventh Day of Unleavened Bread.

If It Was Real: NLOP Edition

We mentioned a few posts down that we were tempted (before the U.S. government stepped in) to plunk down some real money in online poker again. The reason for that temptation was a review of how we've fared in free tournaments at National League of Poker.

We kept track of how many "points" we earned in full tournaments since the start of October 2010. (You have to spend points to buy into almost all the tournaments; NLOP provides 1,500 per day to help you.) Here's how we've done....

MONTH // POINTS SPENT // POINTS WON // PROFIT/LOSS
October 28,750 89,111* + 60,361

November 23,000 21,713 - 1,287

December 25,500 26,743 + 1,743

January 26,500 20,883 - 5,617

February 8,250 47,081** + 38,831

March 2,000 500 - 1,500

TOTAL 114,000 206,031 + 92,031

* One point win was not recorded; we estimated.
** One second-place finish awarded us $25 cash, but no points; we estimated a 20,000 point win based on the NLOP prize matrix.

A few final tables brought big point rewards, which could make up for comparatively slow months.

In this six-month span, we won $30 in real money from strong NLOP finishes (and $80 more from video poker tournaments). At one dollar per point, we would have made a very nice living. So what should we do now -- move to Canada?

We Are the (Weekly) Champion

Only 12 weeks after we finished second in the weekly video poker championship at National League of Poker, we made it all the way to the top -- finishing first last Sunday night! The October game had 229 players, and paid us $25. This week's event pays $50, and had far more contestants at 548.





This was the hand in the 100-hand game that made the difference. We were dealt A-J-10 of spades, held them -- and K-Q came up for a 4,000-point royal flush. We scored enough points in the other hands to win by 110.

So how do you win a video poker championship -- and finish first or second twice in a three-month span? Perhaps it's time we revealed some secrets:

1. Qualify. The top 1,000 players in points each week do, and it's not that difficult if you don't lose a lot during the week. We actually finished in the top two of a "qualifier" game, so points didn't matter.

2. Pray. We always do that before we play in a tournament like this. Our income is tight right now, so we need the money. But God's hand is strong, if it's His will for us to succeed.

You will shew me the path of life: in your presence is fulness of joy: at your right hand there are pleasures for evermore. -- Psalm 16:11, KJV

If It Was Real: 220-Game Report

Before we check our live local tournament record, BREAKING NEWS from online video poker! We won the National League of Poker weekly championship Sunday night! Details are coming here shortly.

In our last 20 live tournaments, we reached eight final tables. That's about our overall average. But top-five finishes (how we compute money) weren't that frequent: twice we finished fourth, while one we were fifth. We add that to our pretend cost/return math and we have....

BUY-INS: 220 nights x $50 = $11,000

First -- 5 ($2,500)
TIE for first: 1 ($450)

Second - 8 ($3,200)

Third -- 9 ($2,700)

Fourth - 10 ($2,000)
TIES for fourth:
4 two-way ($600)
1 three-way ($67)

Fifth -- 13 ($1,300)
TIE for fifth: 3 ($150)

TOTAL -- 54 for $12,967

We're in the top five almost one-fourth of the time! But our overall return keeps sliding -- now at 17.8%. Maybe we need to buy more food at these clubs, to have more bonus chips at the start?!

Video Victory

We were eliminated from the National League of Poker 1:00 p.m. ET money game today in 95th place, out of 679. Is that bad? Well, not in this case....


....because we exited just in time to enter a 2:00 p.m. video poker tournament for money -- and we WON IT! We topped 96 other players, thanks to one wonderfully-dealt hand.


We were given A-K-Q-J of clubs, plus one "stray". We saved the four clubs, and received a 10c for a 4,000-point natural royal flush!

If we were on a poker telecast, someone might ask next what we'll do with the prize money. Well, five dollars for first place isn't much -- but we'll do with it what we'd do with $5,000: tithe on it.

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." -- Malachi 3:10

A "tithe" means a tenth. So 50 cents of our five-dollar win is set aside for God; we do this by donating to the church congregation we attend or a ministry. And if you think 50 cents is no big deal, remember these words of Jesus:

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. -- Luke 16:10

From the eternal perspective of a watchful God, 50 cents matters. We thank Him for five dollars -- and for all heavenly blessings, great and small!

One for Three

We qualified for two weekly championships at National League of Poker tonight -- not to mention the $20,000 Poker Stars TV freeroll.

The weekly NLOP game didn't turn out so well: 992nd out of 1,457. The freeroll was a bit better: 14,464th out of 33,894 (top half of the standings, at least). But the NLOP weekly video poker championship was a blessing from God -- a top-level money-winning finish!

This was a 100-hand game where you're dealt five cards, and decide which ones to hold for three more deals. Our breakthrough came on the third hand, when we were dealt three Aces. Quad Aces came at the end, for 2,000 points! Another set of quads came later, for 800 more points.

When our 100 hands ended, the standings looked like this -- as we held a 490-point lead. Could we hold on, to win $50? Seven minutes of somewhat anxious waiting followed, as other players wrapped things up and the 13-minute clock wound down....

Alas, we had to settle for second place. Another player jumped ahead of us, by earning 4,000 points for a royal flush. But second place wins us $25 -- our first money at online video poker, in a championship with more than 225 players.

We know what some of you are saying -- video poker is simply dumb luck. And we agree with that. The only "skill" involves knowing the right cards to hold. Thank God we knew!