Card Shark in Training

There’s a history of card playing in my family that goes back generations.  We’re not talking Pinochle here.  My grandma taught all of us poker at an early age.  We started with Night Baseball and worked our way up to Seven Card Stud.  While we played for pennies, the games could get pretty serious.  I remember one time my brother – who couldn’t have been more than six – out bluffed Grandma.  He acted like he had nothing then laid down a Full House. 

“Why you little son of a bitch!” she laughed as David scooped up the pile of pennies in the pot.  I’ve tried to pass on this tradition to Daniel.  He’s good with math and loves flash cards, so it seemed natural to teach him Blackjack.  He liked that okay, but didn’t seem to care much for the other card games I tried to show him.  Instead, he’s more of a Monopoly player; that’s what he picks on family game nights.

However, it might have been all a bluff.  We were camping with the Cub Scouts last weekend and Daniel played a hand of Uno with one of his fellow Bears.  At first he had some trouble; holding eleven cards was a bit much.  That didn’t last long.  His turn came up and he threw them down one by one.

Wild – draw four.

Skip a turn.

Reverse.

Daniel called out, “Uno!” then dropped his last card on the pile and smiled.  “I win!”  His friend shook his head and walked away.  I guess it’s good they weren’t playing for money… yet.