Deal Me In

I've become a sheep. Just one of the herd. Going along with what all the popular kids are doing. I played no limit Texas Hold 'em Sunday night with Mike's Mom and Mark. As I have mentioned poker has become insanely popular all of the sudden. It seems like everybody's in on a poker game somewhere. Of course if you're not actively playing poker you can always watch any one of the dozens of tournaments that seem to be on TV almost non-stop.

Mike doesn't care much for card games. He tried to learn to play Holy with my Uncles at some long ago family function and they happen to be serious, hard core, take no prisoners type of players and, well, I think it scarred him for life. We have played card games since then, but Mike usually has a tough time absorbing all the rules so we don't play very often. It's usually a chore to get him to agree to play in the first place. Now poker to me seemed pretty complicated. I mean I have played my fair share of video poker and I understand the hands, but video poker is a world away from poker with actual cards. So imagine my surprise when Mike started tuning into these poker tournaments that were always on TV. Now Mike had never even played video poker before and certainly didn't know what a good or even a decent poker hand was. I wish I knew what the hell was going on, he'd keep saying to me. Now Mark had been playing poker with a bunch of his buddies a couple of times a week. Before we knew it Mike's Mom was joining him at the games. And she was winning to boot. Before too long Mike's bugging her to teach him how to play. His first step was to learn the hands so I had him playing video poker on the computer.

Once Mike was comfortable with the hands the discussion starts about when are we going to get together and actually play. I have to admit I wasn't much interested in playing myself. I couldn't see it being much fun. Sandi had started explaining the basics with the flop, the river, the turn and so on and I have to admit my eyes probably glazed over. I don't really know why. I love to play games, board games, card games, whatever. It's definitley my sort of an evening I just wasn't into poker. When Mike set up the poker night for Saturday I asked if he would mind if I sat the game out. As it was the puke monster made the decsion that we'd all sit out that night. The following night, however, with everyone on the mend we met to play some poker at Sandi's house. I still wasn't planning on playing, but after dinner I thought to myself, what the hell just give it a try. We played a couple instructional rounds and then we were off to the races.

Well I have to admit I really enjoyed myself. The fundamentals aren't nearly as complicated as they seemed. I mean the art of playing poker is something that will certainly get better with experience, but the basics we both picked up rather quickly. I was very impressed with Mike and how fast he got a handle on the game. I mean he still has to work a bit on his poker face. For the majority of the game he would bet pretty conservative and then all of the sudden he'd be betting 50,000 in chips. A little bit of a give away, but it made for some serious laughs. He also gets giddy like a school girl. I think I played pretty good. I wasn't the first to go out, oh no that distinction went to Michael. Even still he had a good enough time to make plans to play again next week here at the Revill Ranch and Casino.