Or so I'm told. In my case, four queens beat a full house.
After a lovely evening spent with wonderful friends and family and having been up since one a.m., my dad and I dragged our tired carcasses into my aunt's house at nearly 10:30 last night. Bushed and beat, we planned to play maybe a few hands of poker and call it a night.
Gathered around the table, with our usual banter and bluffing, we played. And played. And played. Until the sun came up this morning. Isn't it funny that when you are with ones that you enjoy and having a splendid time, the hours seem to fly by? An hour spent playing poker with the family slips into another hour, and before we know it, we have spent the better half of a day or so around the table, trading jabs and compliments and fake sympathy and stories. Oh, the stories. The later the night gets, the funnier the stories, many told about my dear grandfather and his brothers who are no longer among us, but who relished a good poker game as much as anyone I've seen. If there is a heaven, they are up there fishing during the day and playing poker at night.
My poor cousin Coby, bless his heart, had a less-than-spectacular round or two last night. Even when he got a good hand, somebody (many times me) had a better hand. The guy just couldn't seem to get a break. But he wound up breaking mostly even at the end, as most of us did. Some of the winning hands were beauts, my four queens for example. My grandmother was one card away from a royal flush, and took advantage of her bluffing techniques to scare us away from the pot. As usual, it worked for her; she really had us going for a time. Full houses, straights, and trips seemed to be the order of the night, along with good music and laughter. There is no time I enjoy my family more than around the poker table. And, as you might have guessed already, it's not really about the cards, although you gotta love drawing to a four of a kind. It's about the people holding them.
5 comments:
Amazingly, there are a few good memories from my marriage, and many of them surround card games played from 10 p.m. at night until 5 or 6 a.m. the next morning. Boy, those were the days. I was raised in a family that played cards, and my kids and their spouses still play cards on a regular basis with friends.
Thanks for making me think of that.
Edith Ann - you're welcome. I, too, remember card games always present during my childhood. The sound of the poker chips hitting the table is a sound I will always associate with good times. I was taught to play canasta at an early age, and when mother passed away, I lost my canasta partner. Haven't played a canasta game since, nor do I intend to. But I still have plenty of family to enjoy poker with.
As a family, we also played many board games. Risk, Stratego, Battleship, Chess, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, Yahtzee, and of course, all manner of dominoes. I believe I am a very lucky girl.
Love your post on aces and eights. The Loon and I were talking about how the dead man's hand is the kind of cultural knowledge you have to live -- it isn't easily acquired.
Hey sugar, thank you for the invitation. I enjoyed your blog on card games. I was 13 when we moved to Victoria, and I had trouble making very many friends for the first year or so. As a result, I spent a lot of time at home on weekends. A good deal of that time was spent playing cards. Our game of choice was spades. To this day, I still love a good game of spades. The problem is, with the popularity of poker, I can't seem to find anyone to play spades with. I wish someone would hold a tournament or something.
anyhow, thanks again. I hope to swap some interesting stories and info.
Mr. Ocker - a pleasure to have you visit our site. Spades! We, too, used to play spades. I was taught Spades as a child, and remember many games with my grandmother and mother. I wish there were Spades players here, too....if I find any, maybe we COULD have a tournament in this area. That would really be an enjoyable afternoon for me.
Anybody out there enjoy SPADES??
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