I had pocket snowmen and was thinking about raising the big blind, but I needed a favorable flop and some encouraging tells before I risked going all in.
A few months ago the only snowmen in my vernacular were the frozen kind; a flop was a movie starring Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck; and a big blind was something for a whole bunch of duck hunters. But not anymore. Some friends and I periodically gather around a dining-room table, divvy up chips, shuffle a deck or two, and join in the latest pop-culture rage, Texas hold 'em poker.
I feel comfortable with calling it a "rage" after the bookstore I frequent recently had a full-blown display, not of Oprah's latest selections or a holiday theme, but nonfiction accounts, how-to books, and fictional portrayals all dedicated to the typically nonliterary game of poker. If that's not enough evidence, just grab the remote and flip around. There seems to be more poker played on cable TV right now than on a riverboat meandering up the Mississippi. Something's definitely up when I find myself glued to the TV, hoping a former Beverly Hills 90210 starlet in a celebrity Texas hold 'em tournament gets the right cards and beats the guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and a character actor from a canceled sitcom.
In fact, being dealt a pair of aces - that would be pocket aces in the hold 'em vocabulary - wouldn't surprise me as much as my participation in the poker craze. My opinion has always been that card playing was either to entertain children with old maid and go fish or for the elderly to pass time with gin rummy, canasta, bridge and, yes, poker. Sure, every once in a while an offer to play would present itself, but I just didn't have the time or the interest.
Ironically, card playing is in my blood. My grandfather was known to endure 18 holes of golf with the understanding that a card game would commence in the clubhouse later. My great-grandfather, once his lungs went bad from working in the mines, opened - what else? - a cigar shop. But his main source of revenue was the after-hours card games in the back room. I can picture him peering through a tobacco haze, confidently waiting for the last card in the hand, the river card, to be the diamond or club that he needed to complete a flush and pay his salary for the week.
Not that our games rank up there with great-granddad's second job. We usually gather at someone's house trying to keep the volume at an acceptable din, and there is about as much cash in the winner's pot as we spend on pizza and beer. The banter across the table can range from lawn mowing to potty training, and not a whiff of tobacco is in the air. Actually, I think betting real money in a serious game would ruin the fun.
But don't just picture a relaxed evening with warm, friendly conversation. When the ante or big blind gets doubled and the flop - the three cards dealt face-up that each player can use - hits the table with a pile of chips in the balance, adrenaline starts flowing, grips tighten just a bit on the cards, and eyes begin to search the room for just a hint of indecision. Why the intensity? The same reason that dodgeball elicited shouts of joy or agony in grade school, or pickup basketball in high school was a battle teeming with sharp elbows and hard fouls. Nobody wants to lose; nobody wants to watch from the sidelines. Forget the few dollars that the chips represent; pride and bragging rights are riding on the next card. Let's face it - a football game on TV just isn't enough to bring my friends and me together with our hectic lives. But we make time for poker.
The bottom line is that poker isn't just for smoky back rooms anymore. It's for anyone who wants a little recreation, excitement and camaraderie that are all too hard to come by these days, unless of course the sitcom you were starring in was canceled. So feel free to insert your own poker-as-metaphor-for-life cliche here - my wife's favorite is, "Know when to hold them, know when to fold them," although I prefer "play the hand you've been dealt." I'll be looking forward to the next time I'm holding a nice combination, eyeing up my pals to see who's for real and who's just along for the ride.
