Chapter 9

“You’ve taken to Bridge quite nicely,” Dolores said to James. Sunday morning and all was quiet, at least for the moment. Richard had travelled back to Texas but Rebecca was due in in the afternoon.

“I find it interesting,” James said. “Plus, there’s the other motivational aspect.”

“Meeting horny older ladies?”

“Exactly,” replied James.

She snorted and shook her head in amusement.

“Let the games begin. The progression of hands is pretty much standard, starting with high card, one pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, straight flush and royal flush.”

“The hands sound fairly straight forward, other than full house and flush. Can you explain those for me?”

“Full house is three of a kind plus a pair. Flush is all the same suit with a royal flush being ten through ace in order.”

James nodded, “Okay with you so far.”

Dolores continued her explanation while placing the cards down on the bed in various combinations to illustrate the possible hands, while giving James a nice view down the front of her uniform. The view of Dolores’ cleavage, while quite enjoyable, was nonetheless very distracting! It made it difficult to concentrate on her recitation of the rules. “Like I said, the hands remain basically the same, what changes are the ways the cards are dealt, the hands are achieved, and the betting. To keep this simple, we’ll start with the basic game of five card stud. First, look at what I’ve put down here.” Pointing to the hands as she named them, Dolores said, “In order, this would be one pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, straight flush and royal flush.” The visual aid of the hands being displayed cleared up any questions that James might have had. He took a moment to study the card groupings, while making a monumental effort to keep his gaze away from the display of attractive breast flesh the nurse was providing. “Oh ---” he paused.

She smiled, “You clicked?”

“Your cleavage?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “It’s distracting isn’t it?”

“Yes,” he nodded, “and I guess that’s the point, a distracted player can’t concentrate on what’s going on around him or her.”

“Exactly,” she smiled, “smart boy.”

“You know, I think four handed poker is much better than three handed. Margaret, why don’t you go see if Lisa is finished with her rounds. If she is, ask her if she’d like to help educate young James here?”

Dolores resumed shuffling the cards as Margaret left to go find Lisa.

“Who’s Lisa?”

Margaret came back in with a tall blonde, somewhere around 5’ 7” or 5’8”, nicely shaped and drop dead gorgeous.

Holding out her hand, the blonde said with a smile, “Hello, I’m Lisa. We’ve met but we’ve never been properly introduced. It’s wonderful to finally get to talk to you.”

As soon as she spoke a memory flashed through James’ mind, “I’ve found my prince already and there’s nothing that he or anyone else can do about it.”

“Oh.”

“Oh?”

“Lisa?”

She cocked her head, “Yes?”

“Sugar and spice and all things nice,” James said in a sing song voice.

“Huh?” She looked at Dolores and the black woman shrugged.

James chuckled, “It’s okay I had nicknames for all the women who visited me, you were sugar.”

“Oh,” she nodded.

“I had no visual reference.”

“You couldn’t see us but you could hear us?”

He nodded.

“I knew it,” she smiled. “I told them.”

James nodded.

“Yes, which means I’m aware of what you did.”

She froze, “You know?”

“Yes.”

She swallowed and looked away.

“Let’s play cards,” James said. “We’ll talk about this afterwards.”

Lisa nodded.

Dolores took over the conversation at that point by asking “Lisa, do you know how to play poker?”

Lisa nodded, “I know the basic games of poker like five card stud, draw and seven card stud, but I don’t really know too much about the rest, like Texas Hold’em.”

“That’s fine,” Dolores said, “since James is just learning. We’ll keep it simple to start so it’ll be easier for him to pick up the game.”

Margaret proposed, “Why don’t we play a few hands and see how it goes?”

James was helped out of bed, while Margaret went and got a table and some chairs. Once done, they set it up in the room and they sat down.

Dolores said, “The game’s no fun without betting, what can we use for chips?”

James looked around and said, “What about Q-tips, since there’s a jar full of them on the counter in the bathroom?”

“That’ll work as well as anything I can think of offhand. Gimme a second.” Dolores, who was closest, got up and went to the bathroom, returning with the jar in hand. “Okay, each Q-tip counts as a one, and we’ll set the ante at two. James, ante is your pay in to play the coming hand. Ante is paid before any cards are dealt to sweeten the pot. It also lets the dealer and the other players can see who is playing the hand.”

Dolores divided the Q-tips into four roughly equal piles, one pile in front of each player.

As she did this James’ mind drifted.

The sound of iron shocks is stuck in my head, The thunder of the drums dictates The rhythm of the falls the number of deaths The rising of the heights ahead

He had a tendency to that now.

‘Focus.’

James blinked back to the card game and growled.

Dolores starts the game with the announcement “Everybody ante up two Q-tips for the first hand.”

All the players added their Q-tips to Dolores’ in the center of the table and Dolores began the deal, explaining to James as she went, “Okay, first card face down, also known as the hole card, and second card face up. Highest card showing will start the bet. After the first bet, betting continues in a clockwise direction until everyone has finished betting.” After dealing everyone their hole card, she dealt their second cards face up. “James, as you can see, Margaret has a ten of hearts, you have an eight of spades, Lisa has a seven of clubs and I have a three of clubs. Now we look at our hole cards and consider our bets. Keep in mind the possible hands we’ve talked about and, at the same time, remember the cards the other players are showing.”

James lifts the corner of his hole card to find a seven of diamonds, immediately thinking “A straight, with seven, eight being a good start. My seven decreases Lisa’s likelihood of pairing.”

“Okay, Margaret is high card so what’s the bet? And since we’re teaching more than playing, no passing or checking on the bet, okay?”

This was acceptable to both Margaret and Lisa, and James had an inkling what the terms meant in relation to the game. But he wasn’t positive so he went along, figuring the explanation would come when necessary.

Margaret threw one Q-tip into the pile and told James “You have to match my bet, or raise the bet, or fold if you don’t think your cards are good enough.”

James threw one Q-tip and said “I’ll match your bet.” and glanced to Lisa who was next to bet.

Lisa simply added her Q-tip to the pile followed by Dolores who did the same.

Dolores dealt the next cards to each player calling out as she went, “Margaret gets a Jack of hearts to go with her ten, possible straight, possible straight flush, and possible royal flush. James gets a six of hearts, not much, but a possible straight. Lisa gets a seven of hearts for a pair. And dealer gets a lousy eight of clubs, possible flush. Lisa’s pair bets.”

Lisa again simply added one Q-tip to the pile followed by the other players.

The next cards were dealt, again with a running commentary by Dolores. “Margaret gets the ace of hearts, royal flush cooking there, James gets the ten of spades, possible straight still there, Lisa gets the seven of diamonds. Whooeee! We got a possible four of a kind or full house for Lisa, and the dealer gets the ace of clubs, possible flush. Three of a kind bets, Lisa.”

At this point, James noticed that Lisa’s nipples were about to pop thru her uniform top giving ample proof of her excitement.

Lisa quickly added five Q-tips to the pile, saying “Five to you Dolores.”

Dolores took a minute to think and added her five to the pile with the comment that “I’ve got to see what you have when this is done.”

Margaret tossed her five on the pile and looked at James, “Don’t let Lisa scare you out of the game, we’ve still got one more card coming.”

James replied “There’s too much for me to think about for me to be afraid. Besides, this is all between CLOSE friends, isn’t it?” as he added his five to the pile.

The other three players laughed at James’ emphasis on the word “close”.

“Okay, last card coming up. And Margaret gets the queen of clubs, there goes the royal flush, still a possible straight though. James gets the nine of clubs, still a possible straight. And “three of a kind Lisa” gets a four of diamonds, minimum three of a kind, possible full house. Dealer gets the four of clubs, possible flush. Three of a kind still bets, Lisa.”

James noticed that Lisa’s nipples were still trying to force their way into the open, and now noticed that Dolores was licking her lips as if her mouth was suddenly dry. He hadn’t noticed any changes in Margaret’s demeanor and couldn’t decide if she had nothing or was a better poker player than he’d given her credit for.

Lisa put another five Q-tips out exclaiming “Looks like I’ll get the honor of winning the first hand, and I’d like to have as big a pot as possible, so bet ‘em if you got ‘em.”

Dolores remained curious about the cards Lisa might have and decides she’s curious enough to stay in the game. “Here’s your five Lisa. What do you say, Margaret, you think Lisa’s got the winning hand?”