The Gambler
When I was 9 and my brother was 5, my grandparents decided to teach us a game that was both fun and math-based: blackjack. This might not seem like the most wholesome of activities for grandparents and grandkids to partake in, but these are also the people that had a fully stocked neon bar in their basement and would let me watch The Beatles' Yellow Submarine.
My brother and I instantly loved everything about blackjack: the felt table, the chips, yelling "hit me!" and my grandparents loved to see a 5 year-old kid doubling-down. A couple of months later, they decided to start teaching us poker.
At first, we played 5 card draw with all of our cards face up. This obviously takes away the bluffing aspect but memorizing the order of what-beats-what was definitely more imporant. From there, we graduated to the Texas hold 'em of the time: 7 card stud.
This was my grandfather's game. When he would get that 7th card face down, he would pick up his two down cards and shuffle them a couple of times. He would then look at them all very slowly and say, "Ahh, there's the stranger." I thought he was the coolest card player ever.
He might have let us win a lot, but he was also quick to point out when we were betting foolishly. "Grandaughter [he calls me that], do you see Theodore's pair? Unless you have something spectacular you have to bet him more aggressively. Make him earn it."
After a couple of years of playing just the four of us, we decided we wanted to open up the game. So after family dinners or Jewish holidays we would flip the dining room table boards to the felt side and deal in my parents, my aunt and uncle, or anyone who happened to dine with us that night and play 7 card stud. I usually lost when we played these big games. My dad, who was unable to ever let us win anything as children, was a decent poker player and he would bait my grandfather into playing for real. My mother and grandmother enjoyed the game, but weren't about to go toe-to-toe with either of their husbands, and I was just so eager to be involved in the action that I wouldn't fold a hand.
We continued to play poker after dinner at my grandparents house until they moved to California was I was 16. As we got older, the games got a little more competitive, and a little more based in actual skill. The one glorious night that I bluffed my father out of a pot was the highpoint in my amateur poker career.
Or it was until last night when I won $80 off of seven Princeton boys playing Texas hold 'em.
Thanks Gramps!
My brother and I instantly loved everything about blackjack: the felt table, the chips, yelling "hit me!" and my grandparents loved to see a 5 year-old kid doubling-down. A couple of months later, they decided to start teaching us poker.
At first, we played 5 card draw with all of our cards face up. This obviously takes away the bluffing aspect but memorizing the order of what-beats-what was definitely more imporant. From there, we graduated to the Texas hold 'em of the time: 7 card stud.
This was my grandfather's game. When he would get that 7th card face down, he would pick up his two down cards and shuffle them a couple of times. He would then look at them all very slowly and say, "Ahh, there's the stranger." I thought he was the coolest card player ever.
He might have let us win a lot, but he was also quick to point out when we were betting foolishly. "Grandaughter [he calls me that], do you see Theodore's pair? Unless you have something spectacular you have to bet him more aggressively. Make him earn it."
After a couple of years of playing just the four of us, we decided we wanted to open up the game. So after family dinners or Jewish holidays we would flip the dining room table boards to the felt side and deal in my parents, my aunt and uncle, or anyone who happened to dine with us that night and play 7 card stud. I usually lost when we played these big games. My dad, who was unable to ever let us win anything as children, was a decent poker player and he would bait my grandfather into playing for real. My mother and grandmother enjoyed the game, but weren't about to go toe-to-toe with either of their husbands, and I was just so eager to be involved in the action that I wouldn't fold a hand.
We continued to play poker after dinner at my grandparents house until they moved to California was I was 16. As we got older, the games got a little more competitive, and a little more based in actual skill. The one glorious night that I bluffed my father out of a pot was the highpoint in my amateur poker career.
Or it was until last night when I won $80 off of seven Princeton boys playing Texas hold 'em.
Thanks Gramps!
posted by Libberash at 10:27 AM
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