I Played It Like Yahtzee

Every one was winding down after a long day of swimming, BBQing, and visiting with over 100 family members at a reunion in Minford, Ohio in summer of 1989. It was dusk, I was sitting on a picnic table talking to my sister when I looked over and saw my Uncle Chuck shuffling cards at a table with my dad, cousins, and other uncles. I saw all of them putting money on the table and wondered what was going on. I got up and walked over to them, "What are you guys doing?" My dad blew out his cigarrette smoke and said, "This heres a man's game, you best go back to what you were doin." My Uncle Chuck peered over his glasses to my dad and said to him, "Now Kenny, I'm still the eldest in these parts and I'll put your pigeon toed ass over my knee boy, let the child learn to play if she likes," as he winked at me and patted his knee for me to sit down.

As I sat he said to me, "This here game is what we call Poker, 5 Card Draw to be exact. Have you ever played some Poker?" I looked up in to his eyes and said, "No sir". He asked me if I had ever played Yahtzee and I told him that I played it all the time. "This game is like Yahtzee, you got your pairs, 3 and 4 of a kind, Straight, and Full House, but in Poker you also have a Flush and that is all 5 cards have to be the same suit, and a Flush beats a straight but not a full house. You got it?" "Yes sir." He then went on to tell me how they played with money, putting in .05
for an ante and then .10 once they see their cards and .25 after they draw for different cards.

I watched them play for about half an hour when I asked if I could start to play also. My dad gave me a $5 advance on my allowance, all in quarters, dimes, and nickels. I played 5 Card Draw with them for 3 hours and ended up winning $45 and paid my dad the $5 back. At the end of the night my Uncle Chuck said to me, "I think you was a bluffin me child, you knew how to play Poker, you did real good for not playing before." I laughed as I said, "I played it like Yahtzee, I guess I was born to be a good Poker player since I whooped all of you." They all laughed as my Uncle motioned for me to go over to him, "Keep it up Missy, you can make some good money in Poker, not just in quarters and dimes either."

I never played another game of poker until after I saw Scotty Nguyen win his bracelet, seeing his win changed my life!