So while I was busy doing my stuff, my siblings, without my knowledge, were playing card games: crazy 8s, go fish, a bastardized version of idiot, maybe others. When I came in, we had enough players for Hearts, so we did that again. On the second round, I shot the moon, giving me a good lead, though I lost a lot of it on the third round from a failed repeat. (I didn't exactly have much choice.) On a later round, my older sister was dealt by me the queen of spades, and then revealed she literally had ONLY Hearts left. As in: Hearts had not been broken. And she played the highest Heart cards. All three of us tried our best, but there was nothing we could do to stop her from shooting the moon. Final score? Me, 54. Her, 50. My brother, in the 70s, and my younger sister as the game ender.
I had the queen of spades in almost every game, so I was quite aware of its usage, at times even deliberately holding onto it specifically so I would know how and when to use it. Worked out fairly well, but did have that backfire. I didn't exactly have much of a choice, though. There was no way I could have known my sister had only hearts. And we had been playing lots of black cards: a worrying number of black cards, since most of my black cards were high. I had no red cards, so the moment red was played, I got rid of it, which led to her shooting the moon.
Close game. My older sister left to shoot arrows, and she's the one who cannot tell a lie. So we used her absence to play BS. I was good at getting my lies through, except on card monopolies. My sister also got through. My brother...not so much. His lies were always called, and he also called people on things he thought were lies which weren't. The main reason I didn't win that game is that I got caught in a lie, while my sister was allowed to go free on her lie at a critical stage in the game. After that, it was just a matter of time.
What also was a close game, initially, was 5-card stud poker, between us three. This back-and-forth went on a while, with every one of us gaining and losing coins in about equal amounts, which makes sense: that game is very largely random. When we switched to Texas Hold 'Em, on the other hand...well, let's just say I spent MANY hours PER DAY in my childhood watching poker events. On multiple channels. For different events. I mean, I don't quite remember the exact hand orders (for instance, two pair versus three of a kind), and I KNOW that there's no such thing as a tie, unless the five cards on the table are literally the five best possible cards. (Even then I'm not sure.) So I don't know THOSE.
...But what I DO have, is a good strategy. I'm decent at bluffing, and good at leading people on when I'm sure I have the winning hand. The main advantages I have, though, are twofold: one, I can generally read what my siblings have (so I know their rough strength compared to mine), and two, I know how to play the odds. This allows me to make strategic bets. I don't always win, of course. But through a combination of luck and skill, I bled my sister dry, eventually.
We struggled, and at one point, I even had less chips than the other two, because I had hit a bad luck streak where even betting small, I was taking losses. (See, I never fold, so I had a 50% chance of winning most hands anyway, since one or both of them often did.) But I bounced back, and when my sister was eliminated, we called that game.
Then, we did Golf. Everyone got terrible hands. By which, I mean: sure, the person winning might have gotten a score of like six points or so, but EVERY OTHER person had a double-digit score, usually closer to 20 than to 10 at that. Now, who this person was changed each time! So the game was a bit close the whole way, with us not knowing who was at the advantage overall.
But ultimately, my brother won, with 110 points, my older sister beat me by 3 points, and my younger sister had 160-some points. So, that's taken us to this point, technically past midnight, but still part of the same entry day as far as I'm concerned. I still say I'm probably one of the better card players in the family, though we're all pretty close.
I'll see if I have anything else to talk about tonight, but I sincerely doubt it.
I had the queen of spades in almost every game, so I was quite aware of its usage, at times even deliberately holding onto it specifically so I would know how and when to use it. Worked out fairly well, but did have that backfire. I didn't exactly have much of a choice, though. There was no way I could have known my sister had only hearts. And we had been playing lots of black cards: a worrying number of black cards, since most of my black cards were high. I had no red cards, so the moment red was played, I got rid of it, which led to her shooting the moon.
Close game. My older sister left to shoot arrows, and she's the one who cannot tell a lie. So we used her absence to play BS. I was good at getting my lies through, except on card monopolies. My sister also got through. My brother...not so much. His lies were always called, and he also called people on things he thought were lies which weren't. The main reason I didn't win that game is that I got caught in a lie, while my sister was allowed to go free on her lie at a critical stage in the game. After that, it was just a matter of time.
What also was a close game, initially, was 5-card stud poker, between us three. This back-and-forth went on a while, with every one of us gaining and losing coins in about equal amounts, which makes sense: that game is very largely random. When we switched to Texas Hold 'Em, on the other hand...well, let's just say I spent MANY hours PER DAY in my childhood watching poker events. On multiple channels. For different events. I mean, I don't quite remember the exact hand orders (for instance, two pair versus three of a kind), and I KNOW that there's no such thing as a tie, unless the five cards on the table are literally the five best possible cards. (Even then I'm not sure.) So I don't know THOSE.
...But what I DO have, is a good strategy. I'm decent at bluffing, and good at leading people on when I'm sure I have the winning hand. The main advantages I have, though, are twofold: one, I can generally read what my siblings have (so I know their rough strength compared to mine), and two, I know how to play the odds. This allows me to make strategic bets. I don't always win, of course. But through a combination of luck and skill, I bled my sister dry, eventually.
We struggled, and at one point, I even had less chips than the other two, because I had hit a bad luck streak where even betting small, I was taking losses. (See, I never fold, so I had a 50% chance of winning most hands anyway, since one or both of them often did.) But I bounced back, and when my sister was eliminated, we called that game.
Then, we did Golf. Everyone got terrible hands. By which, I mean: sure, the person winning might have gotten a score of like six points or so, but EVERY OTHER person had a double-digit score, usually closer to 20 than to 10 at that. Now, who this person was changed each time! So the game was a bit close the whole way, with us not knowing who was at the advantage overall.
But ultimately, my brother won, with 110 points, my older sister beat me by 3 points, and my younger sister had 160-some points. So, that's taken us to this point, technically past midnight, but still part of the same entry day as far as I'm concerned. I still say I'm probably one of the better card players in the family, though we're all pretty close.
I'll see if I have anything else to talk about tonight, but I sincerely doubt it.
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