I played poker on Saturday.
Yep, we got the old gang back together again. Doc was down from Washington, so he and Scotty and Brad came out from Concord to play. We hadn't played in a year and a half -- since before Scotty sold his house in December, 1998. We used to get together every other week or so at his place in Concord and play nearly all night. Dad and I would come out from the City, Brad would be there, and, if he was in town, Doc would play too.
But it had been too long since we had played. A lot had happened -- Scotty selling his house, Dad's strokes, Rachel and I getting married, Doc's stroke, etc. -- but we all still wanted to play.
Since it was a special occasion, Rachel and I zipped down to Palo Alto to pick up some Fred's Steaks. On the way back, we realized that the spiffy poker table I had picked up at a garage sale was packed away in storage somewhere, and we didn't have a table to play on.
So I dropped Rachel at Mollie Stone's to get some groceries (Man cannot live on steak alone, even if it is Fred's Steak) and I flew over to Target to pick up a couple of folding card tables. (Of course, the very same tables show up in Sunday's ad for $5 less apiece.)
We got back just as the guys were arriving, so I left Rachel to unpack and show them around, while I flew off to pick up Dad. He was waiting to go, so we got his jacket, grabbed his pills, hit the head one last time, and headed back to the house.
Once there, we settled down to play.
Now, we're not serious about taking anyone's money, but we do put in $10 each. If you lose that, you go "on the county" -- you keep playing, but you don't bet. If you win, the pot is yours, and you can bet again. It prevents anyone from being knocked out of the game, and keeps the potential losses to a minimum.
Around one, we took a break for lunch. Dad and I were the only ones who had ever had Fred's Steaks, and everyone else was suitably impressed. Personally, I could eat a couple of pounds by myself, but I held back so that the others could enjoy it. Actually, the butchers at Schaub's Market (the only place to get them) say to get 1/2 a pound per person, but I always get about a pound a person. If it doesn't all get eaten, (it often does,) there will be no shortage of volunteers to take the leftovers. (And it does, of course, make killer sandwiches.)
Anyway, we had a grand time playing. We don't take things too seriously, with wild cards called freely, and games like Anaconda and Spit in the Ocean. It was a bit chilly in the Living Room, with the furnace not on, but we brought down the electric heater from the bedroom and that warmed things up.
We started playing at 11:30, and had planned on wrapping up around 4:30, but no one noticed the time until nearly 7pm. We would have kept on playing, but Scotty had a dance to get to, so we broke up at five after seven.
With $50 in the pot, Brad ended up with $20.55, Doc had $12.00, Scotty had $14.75, and Dad had $4.35. I ended up with nothing, but I didn't mind -- it was worth it, and I had more fun playing wildly than I would have if I had played seriously and had come out ahead. Oh, if you noticed that those numbers don't add up to $50, it's because it turned out we started out with $51.65 worth of chips.
You see, we had always kept the chips in ziplock bags, with $6 in blues (quarters), $3 in reds (dimes), and $1 in whites (nickels) per bag. That way, we didn't have to waste time counting out chips each time we got started, and it didn't take long to sort them out when we were done (and counting the chips anyway.) But, it had been so long since we'd played, and Scotty had moved around so much, that the bags were a little out of whack.
I should have known, of course, when I noticed at the beginning, that there were some of the "bad" chips mixed in. We had accumulated a lot of chips, of a lot of different types. There were some cheap skinny ones, a few really nice, but odd ones, and a bunch of good, solid, identical chips. The nice thing about the latter group was that they would stack neatly and be the same height for the same number of chips. If the others were mixed in, a stack of 10 would be taller or shorter, depending on the odd chips. So I had gone through and pulled out all the odd ones, leaving several bags consisting of the right amounts of only "good" chips.
Once I saw the "bad" chips, I should have known something was up. Naturally, we all blamed it on Scotty as an attempt at cheating, but in reality, it didn't really matter. I tossed in some extra change that was lying around, and sorted it out. Usually our problem is not coming up short, but ending up with extra money as no one wants to claim the spare change.
In any case, it was a blast, and Dad had a great time. I was glad he didn't walk away empty handed, (as he often does,) even though I contributed most of his $10. He had a little trouble holding and drawing cards, since with only one hand he couldn't hold them and pick out the ones he wanted to throw away at the same time. Of course, he absolutely refused to let me help him, and he was pretty quick at pulling his cards away when I tried to grab them.
We tried putting two bricks on the table that he could stand his cards between, but he didn't go for that either. Well, at least he hasn't just rolled over and died, the way a lot of lesser people would have.
Doc had had a stroke as well, but it was a relatively minor one, and he was actually doing quite well. He claimed a bit of expressive aphasia, but I saw no evidence of it. Scotty had told me earlier that he was now a little more easily annoyed, but since Doc had no problem waiting for Dad to pick out his cards on his own, I think the annoyance thing was just a natural response to hanging out with Scotty. 8^)
Anyway, after we broke up, I took Dad home and the guys headed back to the East Bay. I got Dad back and he was a bit hungry, so it was good they had saved him dinner. Unfortunately, it was pasta, which he doesn't care for. Still, he was tired, and he had a good time, and that is what matters.
I, too, had a blast.
Oh, and remember the poker table that was in storage? Sunday I spotted it behind some boxes in the dining room.