Chapter 1

In Texas Hold’em each player is dealt two cards (sometimes referred to as hole cards) and is able to combine them with community cards. The community cards are dealt in three rounds. First, three cards are dealt on the flop, then one card on the turn, and a final card on the river. The players may bet pre-flop and after any of the rounds just mentioned. The idea is to get your opponents to fold or to have the best hand consisting of five cards which may consist of 3, 4 or 5 community cards and 2, 1, or 0 hole cards respectively.

Additionally, one player acts as the dealer. This position is referred to as ‘the button’ and this position rotates clockwise one player after each hand. In a casino game, you still have somebody referred to as the dealer or the button, but a casino employee actually deals for the entire game.

The two players to the left of the button are the small blind and big blind and must pay predetermined amounts prior to receiving any cards. These blinds go into the ‘pot’. This is the amount of chips that may be won by the players.

After the blinds are paid (posted), play continues clockwise around the table, starting with the player to the left of the big blind. Each player may call the current bet, raise, or fold. If the bet is raised, any previous player who has not already folded may call the current bet, raise or fold. If only a single player is left because the other players have folded, that player has won the money in the pot, otherwise, the play continues to the flop round.

When the pre-flop round of betting is complete, and there are at least two players left, three community cards are turned over. This is the flop. Betting starts with the player, still in the game, left of the dealer. This player may check, or bet. The remaining players may check (if no previous player bet), call a previous bet, or raise. If only a single player is left because the other players have folded, that player has won the money in the pot, otherwise, the play continues to the flop round.

When the flop round of betting is complete, and there are at least two players left, one community card is turned over. This is the turn. Betting starts with the player, still in the game, left of the dealer. This player may check, or bet. The remaining players may check (if no previous player bet), call a previous bet, or raise. If only a single player is left because the other players have folded, that player has won the money in the pot, otherwise, the play continues to the river round.

When the turn round of betting is complete, and there are at least two players left, one community card is turned over. This is the river. Betting starts with the player, still in the game, left of the dealer. This player may check, or bet. The remaining players may check (if no previous player bet), call a previous bet, or raise. If only a single player is left because the other players have folded, that player has won the money in the pot, otherwise, the players still left in the hand show their hole cards and the player with the best 5 card hand wins the hand. Note that it is possible for multiple players to have the same best hand. In that case, the pot is split between the players with the best hand.

“So how much did you win tonight, Dad?” My parents had just finished their weekly poker game and Dad was putting away the poker chips.

“Hey, aren’t you going to ask how much I won?”, my mom interjected.

“Nope. I saw you buy in more than once,” I replied with a smirk on my face.

“I’ll have you know that I still came out ahead, young man. I made three dollars!” My mom countered.

I chose to ignore my mom. “How much Dad?”

“Um, something like twenty bucks,” he answered.

“Man, you took everybody’s money tonight. I don’t know how you get so lucky.” That was Sam. Sam was one of my Dad’s best friends and a regular at the poker game. He was sitting at the folding table that my parents used for poker and sipping on his bottle of beer.

“I keep telling you poker is only partly luck. It really is a skill game. I could give you some hints”

“Whatever, Mike. Your luck is gonna run out one of these days,” said Sam as he waved his hand dismissively at my Dad.

“So ... how about you guys let me play next week?” I asked. My parents had been having their poker game for a couple of years now and I had asked in the past but they had always answered that they would let me play when I was older. Well, I had turned 16 a couple of weeks ago and had gotten my driver’s license last week, so I was hoping if they trusted me with a car that they would trust me to do a little gambling.

“Hmm, the gambling age is 21,” my Dad said.

“It’s just a home game dad. I’m not going to try to go out to the casino any time soon.” This was the first time my parents hadn’t immediately said no. I was hopeful. I had been watching the poker games for a while, and it seemed like a lot of fun. It also seemed like an easy way to make a few bucks if you were any good at it - my dad almost never lost and he usually won relatively big. The maximum buy-in was five bucks, although you could rebuy if you busted out, and the blinds were and 1 and 2 cents, so making twenty bucks was a pretty good return.

“What do you think Michelle?” My Dad asked my Mom.

“Well...”, my mom considered for a few moments, “I guess if we limited him to his weekly allowance as the max he could spend each week that would be okay. It’s just a home game so I don’t see the harm in letting him play.”

“Yes!” I exclaimed. My Dad believed in an allowance of half a dollar per year of age so my weekly allowance had just gone up to eight dollars a week. That was enough for slightly more than one and a half buy-ins. I figured that should be more than enough unless my luck ran exceptionally bad.

Everybody had bought in for five dollars and it was the first hand of the night. The blinds had been posted and it was up to me. I looked down at my hand and saw

7♥ 2♥

Well, I knew that wasn’t a good hand. But I had been waiting a long time to play and at least the hand was suited.

“I raise. Make it 10 cents.” I announced.

“Look at that. First hand ever and he’s already raising. Must have a monster hand ... or he wants us to think he does,” said Grandpa Jim as he called pushed some chips into the middle.

Grandpa Ted and Sam called. Phil, another one of my parents’ friends, took a drink a drink of his Mountain Dew and considered for a few seconds and then reluctantly called too. Christy, Phil’s girlfriend, and the dealer this hand, immediately called. It looked like nobody was scared of my raise.

My mom was in the small blind, so she was already in for a penny and she decided to call the additional nine cents.

The action paused for a few moments when it was my Dad’s turn. He looked around the table and announced “Raise. Make it a dollar all-day”.

“Shit,” said Grandpa Jim and you could see several people around the table had already decided to fold.

A dollar all-day meant my dad had made the bet a total of one dollar. Crap! I didn’t know if my dad had a legitimate hand or was just trying to steal the pot because it was big. I considered shoving all-in, in case my dad was bluffing but decided just to call. I knew I was being stubborn by refusing to fold my first hand pre-flop. I pushed the remaining 90 cents of chips into the middle.

“Looks like somebody ain’t scared of you Mike,” said Grandpa Jim.

“I tell you. Kids these days. They have no respect for their parents,” replied my Dad.

“After seeing the cards you play, I’ve got no respect for your raises either. I call,” said Sam as everyone before him folded. The remainder of the table also folded, so it was just me, Sam and my Dad.

The flop came:

7♠7♦J♦

Yes! I had trip 7s. Now I just had to decide the best way to get money out of Sam and my dad. There were a few dollars in the pot, so I decided to bet a buck.

“One dollar,” I announced.

Sam immediately called and my dad hemmed and hawed for a while but decided to call.

The turn came and the board was:

7♠7♦J♦2♣

Oh my gosh! I had a full house - 7s over twos. I was fighting to keep the smile off my face. Since they had called a dollar last round, I decided to go with it again.

“One dollar”

Sam again immediately called. My dad again thought about it but again decided to call.

The river came and the board was:

7♠7♦J♦2♣5♣

At this point, I decided that if they came along this far they might go for a bigger bet.

“I’m all in,” I said. “That’s um-”

“Two bucks”, my dad finished.

“Yeah, that seems right,” I said as I finished counting my chips.

This time Sam thought about it for a while and called but then my Dad immediately called.

I proudly turned over my 7 and 2 and showed my full house, while Sam threw his hand down in disgust and showed pockets 10s.

“Looks like your boat has got some leaks, Jake,” said Grandpa Jim after my dad turned over his hand. He had pocket Jacks and a full house also, only his boat was better than mine - Jacks over sevens.

“Damn. Of all the luck.” I threw my cards down and pulled out three bucks so could I buy in again.

I’d like to say my luck changed after that. And I guess it kind of did. I still lost everything, but it took the rest of the night for me to lose it.

I sat down with my friends, Trey and April, at lunch. Trey had been my best friend for a few years now and we shared almost all of our classes together. He was super smart and you could tell he was destined to go places. He was first in our class of over 300 kids and while he wasn’t exactly popular he seemed to get along with everybody regardless of what clique they belonged to.

I’m not exactly sure how it had happened but April had started hanging out at our lunch table last year. I secretly had a crush on her. She had a slim body and a cute face. I was too shy to ask her out and I also worried that the differences in our races would cause issues. She was black and I was three-quarters white and one-quarter Asian - Korean to be specific. I was probably just making excuses for being chicken though because it never seemed to cause any issues with our friendship.

“So how did your big poker game go?” Trey asked as he pulled his lunch out of his lunch bag.

I looked down at my lunch from the school cafeteria and I wasn’t sure if the look of disgust that came on my face was more from the thought of how I did in the poker game or from the mystery substance that was the lunch I got served.

“Not well. Not well at all. I lost eight bucks. Man, my dad makes it look so easy. Although I did get really unlucky on my first hand, I got a boat and my dad got a better boat”

“A boat?” April asked.

“He means a full house - three of one card and a pair of another, like three kings and a pair of aces,” said Trey.

“Oh, is a full house good?” April asked again.

“Yeah, only quads - I mean 4 of a kind, and straight flushes are better,” I replied.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll get better,” said April.

“Well, at this point I’ve got nowhere to go but up.”

Four weeks had gone by and I had lost over 30 dollars - $31.82 to be exact. My dad had one losing session where he lost about two dollars but the rest of the games he won between 15 and 30 dollars.

It was Saturday and my dad and I were sitting around watching college football. During a commercial break, I decided to ask my dad for help with my game.

“Dad, what am I doing wrong?”

“Not studying enough and not doing homework,” my Dad replied. My parents gave me a hard time about my grades, even though they were okay because I coasted by. I had a 3.9 GPA but honors and advanced placement classes counted for an extra point so my maximum possible GPA was like 4.5.