A few weeks ago I noticed that there was a free poker tournament online so I said to myself, "If it's free, why not?" The first round of the poker tournament was 10,000 people strong. The game was No-Limit Texas Holdem. Texas Holdem is a poker game sort of like seven card stud and no-limit means you can bet from the minimum bet all the way to your entire stack of chips at any time. If you lose all your chips, you're out of the tournament. In order to advance to the next round I had to finish in 18th place or higher. The tournament would be stopped when there were 18 people left. I made it(!) and moved on to round two.
There were 1349 people in round two and in order to win ANYTHING you had to come in first place. In a poker tournament that means that you are the last person to have chips. Eventually you have to win all the chips that originally belonged to 1349 players. Second place got zero - not even a gift certificate or a cup of coffee. I outlasted the entire field of players and was very thankful to win. What did I win?
First, I won a trip to the Bahamas for two adults. Second, I won $1000 to help with air fare. Third, I won another $1000 to help pay for food (which is not cheap). (And, the hotel kicked in another $150 for food since they are raising their prices the day before the tournament starts.) Last, but really and truly not least, I won a $10,000 seat in a poker tournament that last year paid $2 Million to the winner! All this came about because I happened to notice a free tournament and decided to give it a try.
My beliefs also come into play here. While I don't know what the ultimate outcome will be and I certainly hope to be the big winner in the Bahamas, I feel the need to mention something else. I prayed during the second round many times and I visualized being victorious in a race. I saw the finish line of a foot race with the tape across the winner's chest. I also thought of the boxer's hand being held up at the end of a bout. I definitely had some mathematically unusual occurrences during the poker tournament. I had some excellent cards and I never had (what I consider the toughest spot to get out of) two kings with my opponent having two aces and more chips than me. I'm pretty sure that I had all my chips in the pot when my opponent had more chips than me about a dozen times before I made it to the final table of nine players. When you are "all-in" that many times and still prevail, that is definitely a cause for celebration, as well as being statistically unlikely.
Do I believe that God was with me in this tournament? Yes. Do I believe that means he wants me to win in the Bahamas? I don't know. I hope so. We will see. I'm sure that whatever happens, it will be a chance for me to share a little about my beliefs to those who are open. I'm not interested in creating a debate here or forcing my beliefs on someone. If you don't buy it, you don't buy it. I still live in the United States of America. Here you can have your beliefs and I can have mine. We can agree to disagree when it comes to that. However, this is an appropriate time of year to consider what this whole season is about. Like Tiny Tim said in Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol, "God bless us, every one!"
Keep walking!
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