How to Play Basic, Old-Fashioned Poker

From when I was a kid, I played poker. I learned from my parents. After each holiday dinner, the adults played cards. Poker. Not Texas Holdem; that wasn't invented yet. Regular poker. Five card stud, nothing my wild, buy two is my favorite. Always will be; real life poker. Like Doc Holliday used to play.

As I got older, I got to join in the games. I learned how to shuffle, how to raise a bet, how to "call them" as you deal. We played for nickels in my family. The first time I brought a guy home to play, he raised a quarter. It caused quite a calamity.

I don't remember my grandfather playing. He had a gambling problem when he was young; used to lose a lot of money. Played the ponies, too. Thought he could handicap. Put the family in debt and had to give up gambling. But my grandmother, God rest her soul, used to love playing.

Many people think gambling is a vice. My family never did. But when playing with family, you play "nice." No one ever bluffed; it wasn't worth bad blood to gain a couple of nickels. I, for one, was not going to trick my grandmother into folding when I was sitting there with an Ace high.

Even my dad's side of the family played poker. Every week we would visit my great grandmother and the adults would play poker. I watched and learned. I knew a good hand from a bad one at an early age.

Then I got married. My husband at the time used to play poker with his buddies. I found out that they had laminated cards that told them what hands beat what. I immediately asked to get in the game and they begrudging let me in. I acted like a dummy, like I couldn't shuffle. The whole "helpless female" bit. And I cleaned up. I knew that anyone who had to be told that a flush beat a straight wasn't very good at poker; you should know these things off the top of your head. And, unlike playing with my family, I had absolutely no qualms at all about taking their money. Of course, I had to split it with my husband. House rules.