My brother Ken really wanted to play poker. I had him and his wife, Vicki, in the coach a few nights agoto check outmy new digs. And I forced them to sit for a few moments and watch me deal the 2005 Aruba event on DVD. He couldn’t believe that anyone would fold their first two cards without seeing the Flop. I semi/sort of tried to explain that the blinds were $8,000-16,000 (or something like that) and that you needed to either make a move on the pot, or fold to conserve your chips for when you made a big hand…blah, blah, blah. He still exclaimed over the fact and didn’t really listen to what I was saying.

So…in the midst of cooking, drinking, gabbing, and hanging out last night, he kept insisting that he wanted to play. He played a little bit last year with therest of the family but we never got into what the game was all about. This time we sat down to play for fun money just to set the idea of how the game was played, what the blinds did,etc. My sis, Neomi, was also drug into the middle of it. Vickie, Monte, and I knew how to play. The five of us started, giving the novices the basics for game play. Here’s our big poker table in the woods, when we started last night:

Yesterday Ken was giving me hell because I got rid of all of my poker chips, the heavier ones that I had hauled to the campground each year, so he picked up a few boxes of the light plastic ones for us to use. It was pretty funny, they slipped and slid everywhere, but we had a great time. Within a few minutes, Kenny was the typical stereotype Vegas player that comes to town once a year to play – and after the first few hands, knows everything about pushing/prodding the other players and wants to play almost every hand. Of course he went on the novice rush also. It was so damn funny, I could barely stay in my chair. Here he is, jamming chips at the pot:

One of the reasons that I still enjoy dealing – and playing – is that I love the instant enthusiasm and energy that new people bring to the game. Of course they bring in fresh money too, that’s just a given, but if they were all grumpy farts, how would the game ever be any fun? Watching the personality display is one of the reasons I fell in love with the art of civilized war (my description of poker), is the people that make up the playing field…and the playing field is never limited by any of the qualifications/restrictions we encounter in sports and other areas of life.

Today I have a lunch date with two women, ex sister-in-laws, lots of years between our visits and life experiences, and I’m off to the shower and back to the views of the arts/crafts of Sandpoint. More later…