Sharing Texas Hold ‘Em

Written by Nigel

The other night I went with some friends to their home town in the outskirts of the city.  Not really knowing anyone there, I was quite apprehensive that I would be bored or feel out of place.  Anyway, I went down there not expecting much.  It turned out to be an unfounded fear as the people were very friendly and accommodating.  More than that, they loved to play cards.

Unfortunately, the kind of card game they were playing was alien to me.  After a few hands, they asked me to join in so I took the chance and asked them if they have ever played Texas Hold ‘Em.  Believe it or not, they had never heard of it!  So I got pretty excited and asked them if they would like to learn.  It all began there…

We started off a bit awkwardly, with me having to explain every little thing to each of them (there were four of us initially).  After several hands, though, they got the concept well.  We did not really play for money but we used coins as chips.  As a testament to the “funness” of this game, after an hour or so, we had about 6 players at the table!  The funny thing is that I found myself losing quite more than I normally do.  Call it beginner’s luck or whatever but I had fun anyway.

Now I am not one to dwell much on things but that night reminded me of something.  Playing poker can be fun with out having to put real money at stake.