Oct 3
Rob's House

Okay, now it is November 11th and I'm more than a month late with this update, in fact, it's only four days before our next game. That means that most of what I say will be, half forgotten truths, mostly lies, or pitiful attempts at humor.

Rob reminded me this morning that the update for Rob's Big One had yet to be posted. This is the last update because sadly, Rob's Big One ended October 3rd when Dewey won the seventy-one dollars accrued by the tax man over the last year. Many are happy to see this add on to our games go but I'm not. I think it did what Rob intended, and that was to add some interest to our monthly poker games. Read the full story, including minutia you never expected- here.

About two months ago as I was heading to Rob's for a game, I found this guy standing along the highway holding a sign that read,'Will play poker for food?' Desperate for new blood, I stopped and brought him to our game. That first night was predictable, he lost more than he won. The second game he arrived with minimal funds, lost it all, borrowed from me, then proceeded to win all that he lost and then some.

Our next game, this Wednesday, is at Dwight's in Milford, and to our amazement, the buy with the sign, Brian, claims he'll be there. We thought he would drop out just as all the new guys have, given how inbred we are after twenty year. Picture six guitar players strumming on that porch in Deliverance. Not only have we developed our own language but our games have become impossibly abstruse.

I should have our rules man, Dave, explain this but since he is unavailable, I'll do my best.
See if you can follow:
Let's take a simple game we play called Criss Cross:
Start with six cards laid out in a simple cross pattern, face down on the table. Each player gets dealt four cards and must make the best high hand out those cards plus any card on the table that lies in one axis(one arm of the cross) We turn two cards over at a time and each time we do a betting rounds ensues. Did I mention the 'bad' cards? These bad cards sit at an angle, in the four quadrant spaces of the cross. If, when a bad card is turned over, you have one of those cards you have to discard it from your hand. Simple enough? I'm not done.

This is not just a high hand wins all game but a 'split pot' game. The card in the center of this cross is both 'wild and descending.' The wild part is obvious, but what does descending mean?

If a player holds a card that is the number below and the same suit as the center card, he then automatically wins half the pot. Automatically that is, if he declares correctly. To declare your intentions, whether you are going 'high, low, or both,' you must place your hand over the table with either one, two or no coins in it. At the count of three if, your intention is to go high, one coin must fall onto the table; if you are going for the center card, descending split, there should be no coin; if you expect to win the entire pot, you should then be dropping two coins. If you fail to follow these simple directions, you are out of luck. If you attempt to win both and lose either, you lose both.

Did I mention that if you happen to lose all four cards to the bad cards, the game stops and you win it all. Oh, and this game is not only called Criss Cross, but Rob's Double Death.

11-15
Dwight's

Two Jabs and an Overhand Right

I was Robbed. Everyone else had dropped out, it was just Rob and me playing 'Roids and I had three piles to his one. I couldn't be much more comfortable as I sat and counted the money that was about to be mine.Rob won the first hand and I thought, big deal, especially when on the second hand I was dealt a sure winner - a two. A sure winner but not THE winner as Rob turned over a king. The final hand I was dealt another decent card, a five, but not good enough to beat his four. Bastard.

Other stuff of note: Mark broke up four of a kind (2's) in Pass Ordinaire, Bryan in the span of two poker games changed jobs not once but twice, Dave's addition should be finished in about a month, Rob is on the dsl waiting list and for some reason Dewey no longer thinks his downstairs bathroom needs a toilet.
Okay, so he just tiled the floor.

Next game 12-13!