“What’s your evidence for God?” Alan asked the group.
Being that it was my turn to deal, I was busy keeping count, nonchalantly flicking our “hole” cards out around the table.
Everyone else started thinking about how to best answer the question…
Alan’s always been a great host.
Agreeable music, snacks, and a mid-shelf bottle of tequila for everyone to share. It never disappoints.
Make no mistake, though. Everyone who shows up to his house for the quarterly poker game is there to win, even if it is only a twenty dollar buy-in.
Depending on how crazy things get, and how many times people rebuy their chips, the winner could walk away with three hundred bucks, if not more.
I’ve had a night or two like that…
I’ve also had the nights when I sat out, waiting patiently for my ride to finish their last hand. Losing forty bucks has always been my limit… A limit I’ve mostly adhered to over the years.
Needless to say, the stakes are just high enough to be taken seriously, but not too high to make anything other than a fun night.
Zeke, being “first to act”, quietly folded his cards. He’s the “nit” of the bunch.
Tom, on the other hand, carefully peeled the top corner of his cards up from the table, just enough to see what they would reveal.
A smirk.
“Well,” he replied confidently, “I don’t need evidence for God. I have faith…
“That’s the thing you atheists don’t get. I know God’s active in my life because of how everything works out in the end.”
He consciously straightened out his face before tossing a red chip out in front of him.
A raise.
Miriam and John both folded after him, although John still wanted in on the conversation.
“Isn’t the fact you’re alive enough to prove the existence of God?” He asked.
I nodded my head in acknowledgment of his comment before glancing down at my own cards.
A wave of butterflies took flight in my stomach.
Still, I had to play the part…
“Tom raised?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“Yep,” everyone unanimously agreed.
After taking an *appropriate* amount of time to scratch my head, I finally shrugged and said, “Well, then I don’t see why I wouldn’t… I’ll kick it up to a buck.”
A wave of energy blew through the room, as it always does whenever someone puts a blue chip down before the flop.
A few comments floated through the air along with it, like “well, I’m glad I folded,” and “why do you do that?”
But, a big smile appeared on my face nonetheless, and with a hint of sarcasm I answered, “Because God has blessed me.”
A healthy chuckle erupted around the table.
Kayla, wanting none of the action, immediately folded her cards with the look of someone who’d just caught wind of a fart.
Then, it was to Alan, in the ‘big blind’ position…
As the guy who taught half the people there how to play poker, he seldom makes a bad call.
“That’s the thing, though,” he said, glancing between the chips on the table and the cards in his hand, “you say it’s faith, and that’s great for you…
“But what about all the actual evidence we have for how things are created? You know, like how we’re all created from our parents having sex… and how the universe was created by the big bang... and about how I’m statistically favored to win this hand?”
Zeke, who was sitting to his left, started laughing at the mention of the word “sex”, before quipping, “I didn’t know our parents knew each other!”
“Oh, let’s see here,” Alan went on saying, almost to himself, as he scanned the table one last time, “what should I do? A raise… and another raise…”
“It’s a conundrum, for sure,” Tom prodded with dry wit.
“I’ll go five bucks,” Alan finally decided out loud.
He didn’t so much as blink as the chip hit the felt in front of his cards.
A shared inhale of amazement between all of us marked the moment of a real bet being made.
Then, John declared, as if purposely ignoring the amount of money that had just landed on the table, “That’s all fine and good, but still, you’re alive, and able to ask these questions in the first place!
“Why is that?
“Why are you alive?
“Why is there something instead of nothing when you open your eyes? That’s what’s important! That’s what proves the existence of God!”
Kayla subsequently chimed in with a newfound sense of courage, courtesy of the last round of shots, no doubt.
“Religion sucks,” she blurted out matter of factly.
“Like, everything bad that’s ever happened in the world has happened because of religion. They just use the idea of there being a god to control people.”
I looked over at Tom, who was obviously appreciating the cross-talk. I figured it was because he was getting a little extra time to digest the five-dollar bet in front of him.
But, the truth was that everyone was enjoying the discourse… It was a topic every human heart craves in one way or another.
Alan was so enthralled by it that he continued right on with the banter as though he’d forgotten all about the green chip he’d just thrown out.
“Yeah, Kayla, that’s true,” he said gleefully.
“Besides, why doesn’t matter! It’s how… How is it that you exist? That’s what science answers for us…
“Your father’s sperm fertilized your mother’s egg. That’s how you exist, pure and simple.”
Zeke started laughing as hysterically as he ever laughs as he repeated, “Sperm… That’s hilarious!”
“Whatever, Zeke,” Kayla joked, “you were created in a test tube!”
The mirth of the moment took more than a few seconds to pass.
When it finally did, Tom calmed down enough to focus on actually playing the game.
By that time, he was holding his cards directly in front of his face, almost like he was begging to show someone his hand.
A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. I could see that he was about to do the most “Tom” thing he could possibly do…
He burst out with, “You know what, Alan… If you’re going to three-bet me like that, then… I’m all in!”
At that, the room nearly exploded.
“All in?!” Kayla gasped.
“You haven’t even seen the flop yet!” Miriam shrieked.
“Yeah,” Tom laughed, “all in! That’s the kind of faith I have!”
At that point, everyone started cracking up.
Alan and me because we had to decide what to do with this ridiculous bet. Everyone else, because it made for cheap entertainment.
Was Tom just trying to “jam”, hoping Alan and I would fold?
Or did he want one of us to call, thinking the odds were in his favor?
As I tried to decide which it was, I slowly started saying, “I guess that’s what the Bible teaches, isn’t it?
“You just have to have faith…
“But you know what you don’t have, Tom?”
Tom smiled nervously.
Unfortunately, his smile has never been a good ‘tell’ for me… I’ve lost enough showdowns with him to know it means something different every time.
“The cards,” I continued… “You don’t have the cards.”
I waited for the fervor to die down, at which point everyone’s eyes shifted to me.
Tom was sweating like a stuck pig.
Alan was all but vibrating with nervous energy.
“I’m all-in too,” I finally said with stark seriousness written all over my face.
Now, Tom might have only had ten bucks to go in with, but Alan had closer to forty-five.
And I had Alan covered.
In other words, if he called me, then there would be around a hundred bucks in the pot. Certainly nothing to sneeze at.
It was enough to make all of us forget about debating the evidence for God’s existence…
At least for the time being.
“Guess it’s a three-way, then,” Alan happily said. “We’ll figure out the side-pot after…”
We all looked at each other in suspense before slowly agreeing to flip our cards.
Alan went first, revealing an ace-king, suited;
“Big slick…”
Not a bad hand by any stretch of the imagination. Three more spades would give him the “nuts” — the best possible flush.
He also had a shot at a promising pair, as well as a pathway to the straight. There were so many “outs” for him that he was right to be confident.
Tom let out a pregnant groan.
Not elated.
Not disappointed.
Rather, it was hopeful.
When he flipped his cards over, I could see why—
Pocket queens… Respectable hand.
I felt my heart start pounding, and sweat start dripping from the palms of my hands as though it were a humid day.
Moments like that make the whole game worthwhile…
“C’mon already,” Tom croaked, the exacerbation in his voice undeniable.
“Alright, alright,” I said with a grin.
I flipped my cards over as Alan and Tom both jumped to their feet. They leaned forward, over the table to see two rockets staring back at them…
Aces.
One of clubs, the other a diamond.
Alan let out an impassioned “arg” while Tom nearly started crying. They both might have been dominated, but nobody was out just yet…
The seven of us spent the next few minutes opining over how the rest of the hand would go:
Kings, spades or a straight draw would answer Alan’s prayers, but another ace would sink him.
A queen would put Tom back in the conversation with a beautiful set.
Anything else would make me a very happy man.
The flop came down:
Jack of clubs, two of spades, queen of diamonds.
Tom was about ready to pee himself, I could tell…
“Oh yeah! Three of a kind,” he shouted. “Boom, baby, that’s it!”
“Nice,” Alan said with forced optimism.
He and I both knew that the real money was in the side pot we had going, anyway.
Even if Tom won the overall hand, there would still be around seventy bucks between the two of us to win.
The only thing breaking the silence was Tom’s continued involuntary giggling. He was already counting his winnings in his head…
Then, like in a library at two o’clock in the afternoon, the sound of the ‘turn’ flipping onto the table like a book page came…
It showed the five of spades.
Suddenly, the back of my throat started tingling as I thought to myself, “Am I really going to lose this?”
Alan looked at me with smiling eyes as I pulled the next card from the top of the deck and burned it.
For added emphasis, I was sure to make the next card a slow-moving river…
Finally, when my arm was fully extended in front of me, Alan said, “Come ooooooon ten of spades!”
But, when I flipped the card over…
He saw the ace of hearts, instead.
The shouts and jeers and laughs and tears that followed were all part of a bigger truth that night.
Tom ended up stepping outside, where he quietly questioned his faith.
Alan was at a loss for words.
After starting at the board for almost a minute, he finally conceded, “I lost with a pair of aces… that’s crazy!”
I gathered up my winnings, reveling in the irony of Alan’s question finding its answer.
When the chips were all counted, and the rebuys were all complete, we poured another round of shots—
Miriam raised a toast:
“To whatever evidence we might find for God… It might not be in the deck, it might not be in the odds… It might not even be in the game…
“But for me, it’s in the feeling I get from being here with all of you, tonight.
Cheers to the experience of living life.”
I smiled at her and said, “Now that’s something I can toast to.”
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