The origins of the game are lost to history today but variants such as the French Poque have been around for 300 years. The most popular strategy game in the US and probably the world today is played regularly by tens of millions in the US alone. The game is about mastering luck in which the random element of the cards dealt is compensated for by the skills involved in betting, bluffing, calculating odds, and trying to figure out what your opponent has and will do. Poker has experienced an explosive growth in popularity over the last 6 years as televised matches among the top players have been very popular. Although there are many variants such as 7 card stud and Omaha High-Low, one of the lesser known ones worldwide, No Limit Texas Hold-em has been the most televised and seen the biggest boost. The World Championship held each year in Las Vegas is open to anyone with $10,000 to enter and often features celebrities (Don't underestimate them! some like Gabe Kaplan, Sully Erna, Jennifer Tilly, and Montel Williams have had some notable results) and poker professionals, online players, and amateurs.
Contributor: Clantargh
Brooklyn, Raphael, and Casey Jones play poker. They get together talk about cars weapons family and girls.
The most popular strategy game in the US and probably the world today is played regularly by tens of millions in the US alone. The game is about mastering luck in which the random element of the cards dealt is compensated for by the skills involved in betting, bluffing, calculating odds, and trying to figure out what your opponent has and will do.
Casey always brought the beer. He was the only one with a legal ID not to mention the only one with a face that wouldn't terrify the cashier. They never really mentioned the reasons it was just kind of understood. Casey good-naturedly bragged that he was the only one with good enough taste in liquor to choose anything at the liquor store. Since Raphael's previous experience was sake and Brooklyn had only tasted mulled mead before they just rolled their eyes or threw chips at him when Casey started going on too long about it. Raphael always brought the snacks; usually several pizzas, and some chip and dip, along with a travel size bottle of aspirin for after the game. Occasionally he mixed it up and brought sushi rolls or nachos but he always brought the aspirin.
Brooklyn didn't like to carry a lot with him when he flew. It made him a little nervous. He could carry almost twice as much weight as he weighed and bend steel like a pretzel but too much weight could break most bags and if it shifted around a lot during flight (like snack food in a plastic bag) it was even worse, plus he couldn't get pizza. He already carried a walkie-talkie, a hand size pouch and a long dagger in a sheath on his belt. So Brooklyn always brought the cards and a box of poker chips from the Xanatos game room. The cards went in the pouch and he tied the box to his belt during flight with leather thongs. Anything more was at too much of a risk of falling while in flight.
Raphael sometimes told Brooklyn that was all he brought because he was to "bird-brained dumb to remem'bah to bring much else all the way across the city". Whenever Raphael started calling Brooklyn bird-brained they tended to end up wrestling across the floor and calling each other names like "lizard-breath," "over-grown bat," and "chicken lips" while trying to pin each other. Casey usually just rescued his beer off the card table and egged them on till they were through but sometimes he jumped them both and tried to make them smell his socks or his armpits which usually ended the fight pretty fast.
Today was the second Friday of the month of July and it was finally dark at ten to eleven. There was beer in the fridge chilling and the card table was set up in the tiny kitchen/living room of Casey Jones living room. His hockey stick, nine iron, and baseball bat could be seen sticking up out of the beat-up golf-caddy bag behind the bedroom door. All his dirty clothes and his shoes had been tossed on the far side of the bed. Out of sight means good enough house-keeping for now. He'd vacuumed the rug and wiped off the television. Now he just had to wait.