Winning at Love

Some players in online poker have outrageous screen names -- and that can lead to some downright bizarre heads-up matches.  We couldn't resist commenting on this recent clash....


pornking: nothin ever laid in stone
Me: Porn vs. love
Dealer: love1more wins Main Pot ($2450) with Full house, jacks full of fives
Me: Love prevails.
Me: (as it should)

Yes, you read it correctly -- "love1more" defeated "pornking."

We're not sure why anyone would want to attach "porn" to their name.  But casinos sometimes come close to the pornographic line in their advertising, with pictures of attractive and seductively-dressed women.  We've never been in a poker room where the dealers looked that sexy.  But the appeal with women has something in common with the appeal for men to gamble....

You lust, and have not; you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain.... You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. - James 4:2-3 (KJV)

Lust is a bad-sounding Bible word -- and the Bible shows nothing really good about it.  In the original Greek New Testament, this word refers to a "longing" for something.

Not all longings are bad, but some of them can be dangerous.  Long too much for (or lust after) a payday at a poker cash game, and you could wind up broke.  Lust after displays of pornography, and you can ruin a marriage or healthy romantic relationship.

We think it's better to have a longing for love -- as in the love of God.  In fact....

Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment." - Matthew 22:37-38

How do we do that?  The Bible offers several ways:

This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome. - I John 5:3
Each man should give what he had decided in his heart to give.... for God loves a cheerful giver. - II Corinthians 9:7

We invite you to search through the Bible and add to this list.  (Leave a comment with what you find.)  Then do what the apostle Paul recommends.  Instead of lusting or longing for destructive things, or even people....

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. - Ephesians 5:1-2

NLOP Weekly Championship 23: Six-Play to Sunday

National League of Poker now offers daily "six-max" tournaments, where every table has no more than six players.  We did exceptionally well in that format Saturday night, finishing fourth in a 397-player tournament.  Alas, only first place won prize money -- but that strong showing qualified us for the Sunday night NLOP weekly championship.  Yet alas again....

:00 IN: Connection problems plague us right off the bat -- again! We're not fully functioning until :10, and use a round of blinds in the process.

 

:10 IN: We have 9-K.  The flop is 9-A-4.  We make a probe bet of 40 with middle pair, and get raised 120.  We dare to call.  The turn is 3.  This time we check, and again dare to call our opponent's bet of 140.  The river is 10.  We check once more, prepared to fold -- but are delighted when our opponent checks.  He only has J-5!  Hanging tough wins us $840.

 

:11 IN: We have 8-5 of hearts in the next hand.  The flop is 9c-Ah-3h, and we call a minimum bet of 40.  The turn is 3s.  A player bets 240, and we try to call with a flush draw -- but the computer doesn't accept our click, and we're timed out!  Yet it turns out that's GOOD, because another player raises and the river is 2s.  This time server problems save us money.

 

:21 IN: We have J-10.  The flop is K-J-2.  We make a minimum bet of 60, and get callers.  The turn is Q.  Everyone checks.  The river is A, and we push all-in with a "Broadway straight."  Our opponents fold, but we win an $800 pot.

 

:23 IN: We have A-8 of clubs under the gun.... and of course, a McAfee update starts on our computer.  We're frozen from play until the half-hour break, although we can briefly see another A-8 in our possession after the blinds that we also can't play.

 

We reach the first break with 1,465 chips - tied for 351st place, with 816 players remaining out of 1,436 who started.

 

:38 IN: We have 10-Q, and call a doubling of the blinds.  The flop is 10-Q-A.... and of course, then we get disconnected again.  We never find out how the hand ended.

 

1:01 IN: After a few potentially good hands fall short at the flop, we have A-5 in the Big Blind.  We go all in, and one player calls with A-J.  Uh-oh.  A lurching connection enhances the drama.... and then come 4-8-8-9-5 right in a row.  We hit the river and somehow stay alive!

 

We stagger to the second break at 1,205 chips.  We're a lowly #289, with 332 players left.  Disconnections return twice after this point, until....

 

1:17 IN: We have K-K, and push with 855 left.  A player calls with 8-7 -- but gets 9-10-6 on the flop to make a dream straight.  The turn and river are 7-J, and we're eliminated in 241st place.

 

NLOP has been offering a Beta test of its new look for several weeks.  Maybe that's what we need to break the cycle of burps and breakoffs, which are making play quite annoying.

Cocky and Loaded

The woman had a fairly good evening playing poker.  But she fell short of the final table -- and she explained part of the reason was a friend playing next to her.

 

"He won that big pot," she told us, "and then he started playing cocky."  The betting of all those extra chips threw the woman off her game plan.

 

Of course, what's "cocky" to one person can be a simple change of strategy for another.  One way poker is like sports is that players have to adjust to changing circumstances during a game -- whether it be rising blinds or the capture of a big chip windfall.

 

Whatever changes you face and endure, it's important to keep some words of Jesus in mind....

 

I promise you that you cannot get into God's kingdom, unless you accept it the way a child does. - Mark 10:15 (CEV)

Accept it the way a child does?!  Your understanding of that phrase may depend on your own family and upbringing.  Some children can be grumpy, throwing temper tantrums if they don't get their way.  But that's not the kind of attitude Jesus means.

 

And he said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. - Matthew 18:3-4 (NIV; emphasis added)

 

In other words, it's all about humility.  If you win a big pot, you can brag to anyone within earshot about how much you deserve it or how well you embarrassed an opponent.  But the more humble approach takes it all in stride -- and Christian humility really is about giving glory to Someone besides yourself.

 

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. - Galatians 6:14

 

After all, poker is NOT 100 percent about skill and intelligence.  "One-out" river cards sometimes come.  But a mind of humility realizes that, accepting the fact that losses sometimes happen in this life.  That approach can lead to an ultimate victory later, with entry into God's eternal kingdom.

Poker Night 281: High (Card) Anxiety

The pace of a live poker tournament is nowhere close to the speed of online games.  Yet sometimes it can be faster than some players can handle.  Consider what happened tonight at Lil Kim's Cove....

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: K-Q offsuit

We're in the big blind after gaining a big blessing -- as the bartender gave us 6,000 bonus chips simply for our buying diet cola.  But we lost a lot of that early, and now have about 8,200.  And the dealer puts more of that at risk, by raising to 250.  With pretty high cards, we call.  So do a couple of other players.

ON THE FLOP: K-10-4

We reach for 300, as we have top pair and are first in line to....

"You didn't let me bet, man!" says a player to the immediate right of the dealer.  He'd put in 50, but was passed over for the raise.

We put the 300 back in our tray.  The dealer tries to cover the flop cards with one hand, and a short discussion ensues across tables about the rules.  "If you call, the flop goes back.  If you fold, the flop stays out," one player (not the tournament director) advises.

"I wanted to call," says the ignored player.  We quietly hope he doesn't now -- and after some thinking/grumbling, he folds.  Now the flop is official, and we put 300 back out.

"I didn't want you to have a King, man."  Now the dealer is grumbling.  "I've got Jacks."

"Oh.  That's too bad," we say -- then quickly realize what those words might reveal.  "But it might really be good," we add, "because I might have nothing."

"He wouldn't have bet unless he had something," says another man across from us.  (We took advantage of that mindset to win another hand later with a bluff.)  So does the dealer.  A woman to our left calls, and we're heads-up.

ON THE TURN: J

The dealer grumbles a bit louder at the potential three-of-a-kind he lost.  But we press on: "300 more."  The woman folds, and the pot is ours.  But someone wants to see what the last card would have been.

ON THE RIVER (not counting): 9

"I would've had a straight!"  A player shows the Queen he threw away.  We then show our cards -- and we would have split the pot with matching straights.  Instead, we gain around 900 chips.

We won a couple of pots, then tried to hold on from there in the second hour.  But with five players left at the semifinal table and A-9 in our hand with rising blinds, we were compelled to go all-in for our last 1,500.  The board didn't pair for us, and a man on the other side took out another player along with us.  We missed the final table by one hand again, finishing in a tie for ninth (ninth place in Big Dog Poker points).

MINISTRY MOMENT: We showed our "Jesus as your Savior" coin to the woman who took us on early in the evening.  "A man in a motorcycle club gave that to me," we said.

"We had our bike blessed," the woman responded.  It belonged to her and her ex-husband, and it was blessed at a motorcycle rally.

Does that sound strange -- having someone "bless" your motorcycle?  It's a growing trend in some religious groups to hold "blessing" services for all sorts of items, from vehicles to pets.  We have yet to find anything in the Bible specifically about blessing those things -- but Jesus set an example along that line:

He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these".... And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. - Mark 10:14, 16

We've attended many congregations which have "blessing of children" ceremonies at least once a year.  May we dare suggest young people need God's blessing much more than motorcycles?

(Some of you may be saying at this point we skipped over a verse.  Don't worry -- we'll get to that in an upcoming post.)

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 102 final tables in 281 nights (36.3%) - 16 cashes.  This makes four times since mid-September that we've missed the final table by one hand.  Had we made them all, our percentage would be close to 38.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 176 point wins in 779 games (22.6%), 60 final tables, seven cashes.

NLOP seems to be eliminating the three-card "knockout" poker tournaments, as UFC sponsorship appears to be gone.  But we'll never forget the first time we played it on a Saturday night -- and won the tournament!

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $67,207, down $1,045.

November Senior Championship: Too Many Hiccups

Poker can be a game of spurts -- with several idle hands, followed by a couple with big gains.  But in the November National League of Poker Senior Championship Tuesday night, the spurts came in other ways....

:01 IN: We have J-J, and a player ahead of us raises 160.  We call, of course.  The flop is 10-5-6.  We call a bet of 30.  The turn is 4.  We call a bet of 130, fearing someone has three of a kind.  The river is 6, and we call yet another bet of 30.  After all that, our main opponent has K-5!  The overpair gives us a big gain of $1,255.

 

:12 IN: After folding cards which would have given us a winning flush and a winning straight, we have Ax-Ks.  We raise the blind 100, to 140.  The flop is 3s-6x-2s.  A player bets 200 -- enough to baffle us, and also enough to fold.

 

:16 IN: We have 3-4 in the big blind -- and then the trouble starts.  Our connection to the game freezes.  After waiting five minutes for things to resolve themselves, we "panic" -- getting out of NLOP completely and logging back in.  The process keeps us away for 12 minutes, so we escape being disqualified.  But we miss a round of blinds -- and who knows what else.

We're functioning at the 30-minute break, with $1,490 thanks to our big win.  We're #207 out of 506 players still alive.

:34 IN: Right after the break, we have 9-4.  We fold -- and then freeze #2 begins.  We get out and in faster this time, but still lose eight more minutes of playing time and another round of blinds.  We're down to $1,265.

:43 IN: We have 3-J, and feel compelled to play to avoid disqualification.  The flop is 6-K-5, and we fold to a bet.

:48 IN: We have A-3 of diamonds.  The flop is 6d-Kd-2h, providing us a great flush draw.  The table checks.  The turn is Qh, and we call a bet of 200.  But the turn is Ks, and we must fold to another bet.  (The winning player had a Q for two pair.)  It's a serious loss.

:59 IN: We have J-5 of spades in the small blind with a small stack.  We click on "fold" -- and then freeze #3 starts, with our chip stack down to a lowly 265.

"And we slow play the fold," we see a player named Wirestringer write while our connection is hopelessly sluggish.  We can't explain, because we have to get out and into NLOP again.  Another nine minutes is lost, and we return at the end of the second break.

"Apologies to Wire and all -- disconnects beyond my control," we write on our return.  Wirestringer understands and accepts that explanation.

"You could update to IE9," another player suggests.

"But we don't use that here, do we?" we ask.  We don't even have any browsers open.  (Open question: does that really make a difference?)

1:11 IN: We antes whittling away, we push all-in with A-5 and 115 chips left.  The flop is K-7-7.  The turn is K, and we feel doomed.  The river is J -- and a player shows 7-Q.  His full house knocks us out.

Believe it or not, we finished 176th out of 1,063 players -- in spite of everything, including 29 lost minutes out of 71.  It's a pretty good finish.  But it obviously left us frustrated.

Waiting Room

The smallest gesture or briefest word can cause attention at the poker table, especially when you're in the middle of a hand.  Players are looking for "tells" of any kind, or doing "reads" to determine what you really have and how they should respond.

We wonder if that made a difference in the hand we mentioned in our last post.  A pause of about two seconds  before checking with quad Kings resulted in an opponent going all-in --then we "insta-called" to make a big gain.

The Bible offers many examples where moments of waiting led to amazing results.  We'll offer one; perhaps you can think of others....

So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick".... Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. - John 11:3, 6

Jesus was healing people all over the "Holy Land" region.  So why didn't He rush to the aid of Lazarus?  The Lord gave a hint to His disciples....

So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.  But let us go to him." - John 11:14-15

Jesus suggests He wanted to drive home a point to the disciples.  And a few days later, He made that point before a large crowd of witnesses.

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"  The dead man came out.... Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. - John 11:43-45

By waiting until Lazarus was dead and entombed, Jesus displayed His miraculous powers.  In the arts, that sort of wait is called a "dramatic pause."  God seems to have more in store, before Jesus comes again....

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.  They cried in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" - Revelation 6:9-10

It occurred to us this week that today's living believers should put themselves under that altar.  Many of them want Jesus to return with judgment and vengeance, too.  But read on....

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. - Revelation 8:1

God's timeline seems unaffected by human pleading.  But Revelation goes on to show Jesus will come again. Soon.  We don't know how soon, but soon.  In the meantime, follow the advice of a psalmist:

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. - Psalm 130:5

(P.S.  We faced our own 15-minute wait as we wrote this entry, due to Internet connection problems.  Waiting isn't easy there, either -- but wait we did.)

He Who Hesitates....

Sometimes you can be a poker "alter ego" in an online cash game, especially when no one knows who you are.  Look what we did the other night at PokerStars.net....

BLINDS: 5/10

IN THE POCKET: K-K

About five players are at this pretend table.  We make a modest raise in early position to 25.  Come on in -- and most players do.

ON THE FLOP: Q-7-8

We have an overpair and early position, so we fire a continuation bet of 50.  A couple of players call.

ON THE TURN: K

That's even better -- three of a kind.  Now we raise the temperature to 75.  Only one player calls.

ON THE RIVER: K

Whoa!!  We hit runners for quads!  So we pause a moment to plan our strategy -- then we check.

Our opponent ponders -- and takes the bait.  He goes all-in, for about 380.  Of course, we call.

:-) is what we type as we show the case Kings.  Our opponent dared to bet with a mere 3-8 for two pair.  Did that momentary wait on our part make a difference?  We'll reflect on that in our next post.