Winds of Change – Chapter 19
The Poker game
Jimmy points his finger at Lou "Lord but I ain't never known anyone as stubborn as you".
Jimmy stops, his eyes narrow, his frustration showing and he jams his hands in his pockets, then his dace softens and he smiles looking around the room and then into Lou's eyes. He raises his eyebrows and says "But I know how to settle this."
Jimmy takes a step closer to Lou and pulls a deck of cards out of his coat pocket.
"One hand, winner takes all" he says.
Lou thinks for a moment and frowns "Poker?" She says.
"Yes Ma'm" he says moving even closer.
"One hand?" Lou narrows her eyes and moves around the table.
"Yep" Jimmy tries not to smile, he knows that Lou is just as big a gambler as he is, she likes taking risks, the bigger the risk the more it excites her and he has her attention now.
"Winner takes all? And if you win we get married"
"Yyyyeep" 'Keep your poker face Hickok' he tells himself.
Lou narrows her eyes "If I win I get to leave….alone"
'Hummmum" Jimmy nods and puts his hands on the table.
Lou leans across the table towards Jimmy "You sure about this? I'm a better poker player than you."
Talking trash, he's got her now "Prove it" He says as tosses the deck across the room. "Teaspoon deals"
Teaspoon catches the deck "I don't know about this it seems a mite un-conventional."
Without taking their eyes off each other and in perfect unison Lou & Jimmy say "Just deal Teaspoon"
The room gets real quiet as Buck, Emily, Cody and Rachel look at one another, then back at Lou and Jimmy.
"Teaspoon are you going along with this?" Rachel asks.
"Well I reckon if it finally settles things between 'em I guess I have to" Teaspoon says with a crooked smile, taking the cards out of the box and moving towards the table.
Rachel walks over to Lou and hugs her, takes her coat, gives her a wink and says "Remember what I taught you."
"Whose side you on Rachel" Jimmy asks.
"Us girls have to stick together" she says laying Lou's coat on one of the bunks.
Cody takes Jimmy's hat and coat "We're rooting for ya Jimmy" he says glancing at Lou "but don't forget we taught her all our tricks."
"I got a few of my own Cody" he says pushing Cody away.
"Got any whiskey Rachel?" Lou asks.
"Louise?" Rachel says shocked.
"It's one hand Rachel and one shot 'sides Jimmy's gonna want to drown his sorrow after."
Buck and Emily snicker and Teaspoon tries to hold back a grin.
Rachel walks over to the cabinet and pulls out an old bottle a bit dusty and unopened. She sets it and two glasses on the table. The family looks at her in surprise and Teaspoon raises an eyebrow, a little shocked.
Rachel lifts her chin "Medicinal purposes" she says.
Lou starts to take the bottle but her hand is shaking, she hopes Jimmy didn't notice as Emily reaches over, opens the bottle and pours each player a shot. The family stands back from the table as Teaspoon sits down at the head of the table with Lou on his right and Jimmy on his left.
Buck turned to Cody "Do you think we should take their guns?"
Cody nodded "not a bad idea."
"Guns please" Buck said holding out his hands Lou and Jimmy stand up and release their gun belts and hand them over.
"Unbelievable, now I know he's serious" Cody says looking down at the two navy colts in his hands.
Teaspoon clears his throat and opens the deck "This will be a clean game, one hand, no ante and no bets." Teaspoon begins to shuffle the deck "The game is Five Card Draw; each player gets five cards and one draw. You'll cut the deck to determine who gets first draw" setting the deck on the table he turns to Lou "Ladies first".
Lou takes the cards and turns over the Jack of hearts and from the remaining cards Jimmy turns over the 9 of clubs.
"Lou will draw first" Teaspoon says shuffling the deck again. "Are you two still sure this is how you wanna go about this?" He says to his adopted son and daughter.
Lou picks up her glass and waits for Jimmy to do the same; they down the shots and together turn to Teaspoon "Deal."
Teaspoon deals each player five cards, face down. Jimmy and Lou pick up their cards and spend a few moments deciding how to play their hands.
"Two Cards Teaspoon" Lou lays two cards aside and takes the two the dealer places on the table.
"Three cards" Jimmy says setting three cards on the table.
"We're gonna play this out Texas Ranger style, cards remain on the table face down and each player will turnover one card at a time revealing your hand, one card at a time, less chance of cheatin' that way."
Both Jimmy and Lou look up at Teaspoon "I've seen ya both play." He says "Look at your cards then set 'em down."
Rachel reaches across the table and picks up the shot glasses to get them out of the way but in the process knocks over the bottle, she manages to catch it before it spills "Sorry" she said with shaky voice, she picks up the bottle and backs away from the table.
The tension in the room begins to build as the family watches the card game unfold.
Lou and Jimmy lay their cards on the table, face down and wait for Teaspoon to continue.
"Jimmy you go first since Lou got the first draw."
Jimmy, keeping his eyes on Lou, turns over the Ace of diamonds.
Teaspoon then nods at Lou who turns over her first card, the Queen of hearts.
And so it continued each player turning over one card, as each card was turned the family crept closer to the table, sweating out the game almost as much as the players did.
Jimmy's second card was the Ace of Spades.
"Pair of Aces" Teaspoon calls.
Lou turns over her second card the 10 of hearts.
"Two hearts Potential, but the pair still leads" says Teaspoon.
Jimmy turns over his third card the Ace of Hearts, as everyone in the room lets out a collective 'ooooo'.
"Three of a kind" Teaspoon says his voice showing a bit of excitement.
Lou not taking her eyes off of Jimmy and showing no expression turns over the Jack of Hearts.
Teaspoon turns to look at her and then at her potential straight flush and begins to worry as the family holds their breath "Three of a kind still leads" he says.
Jimmy turns over his next card, the 8 of Diamonds.
"No help" Teaspoon says a little more sharply than he intended and watched as
Lou turns over the King of Hearts, never wavering in her gaze as the four other voices in the room simultaneously said "Damn" knowing that she all she needs is the 9 of Hearts to fill her straight flush
Teaspoon was silent.
Jimmy slowly turned over his last card the 8 of Hearts.
Teaspoon smiled and sighed "A full house, Aces over 8's"
Lou pauses for a moment and lightly touches her fingers to her lips, Jimmy smiles a little recognizing the nervous gesture and he knew he had her, the room was deathly quiet, everyone was holding their breath and they all watched as Lou turned over her last card and then Cody whispered a curse word that had never been uttered in the bunkhouse before; Rachel's hand flew to her mouth and Buck put his arm around Emily who gasped as Lou turned over the 9 of…
Yea I know that's mean of me. I'm like that some times. I guess you just have to read the next chapter, which is the last, the end….she sniffles and sighs.
Ok so some of you may know that in the 1860's Five card and even Seven card were played with a smaller deck, somewhere between about 28 and 32 cards, not the standard 52 cards we've had since the 1880's. But dramatic license, I choose to go with the modern 52 card deck since drawing to an inside straight of any kind is nearly impossible with the old deck and well…