A Birth day

Aria listened to Mar us and nodded as he explained what she was to do , picking up a match stick she placed it with Marcus as Ruby did the same smiling as she kept her cards low to the table.

"okay so now what we each take a turn taking a card and leaving one?" she asked as she looked around the table at their faces she knew about poker faces but until now never seen one. She could see by the eyes Ruby had a semi good hand but she could not read Marcus or Angus. " you guys have played this game before and are way good at it" she said smiling.

"For this first hand, let's all turn four of the five cards in your hand face up and lay them on the table. We'll play this open handed so you can see how this goes," Angus said. He laid his cards face up on the table. Angus's four cards that he turned up were 5 of hearts, 6 of spades, 2 of clubs, a jack of diamonds, and a jack of spades.

"He's got a pretty decent start on his hand," Marcus said. "At the start of a hand, you have the right to turn in some cards to try to improve your hand right off the bat. If we play deuces wild, I'd certainly keep the 2 because it will be a wild card. And I'd keep the two jacks. That would give him three jacks immediately. I'd risk turning in the 5 and the 6 since they're different suits. I'd hope that I could get another pair because three of a kind and a pair is called a full house, and that's a really good hand. If he doesn't get a pair, then he still has three of a kind, and that isn't entirely terrible."

Angus turned in the five and the six to Aria since she dealt.

"So, now, you give him the top two cards in your deck to replace what he discarded," Marcus said. He turned up his own hand. He had a 3 of spades, a 7 of diamonds, a queen of hearts, the ace of clubs, and a nine of spades.

"And he has utter crap in his hand," Angus laughed. "He's gonna have to work for it."

"So, I'm going to keep the queen and the ace," Marcus said, "and I'm gonna chuck everything else. You can make what's called a flush or a straight. That's a run of cards in sequence, like 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. When the cards are in different suits, they're called a straight. When they're all in the same suit, its called a flush. And, if they happen to be ace, king, queen, jack, ten. that's a royal flush. If you're not using a wild card, a royal flush is the best possible hand in the game. However, in this case, using 2's as wild cards, the very best hand in the game is the exceedingly rare 5 aces--which is all four aces and a wild card. So, you get to exchange your cards once. After this hand, then, we'll deal them out the way they should be. And that's a little different. But we wanted you to see how this all looks. Once you get your cards the way they should be, then the betting would begin. And that's challenging yourself to see whether you have the guts to throw more and more money in, believing that your hand is good enough to beat everyone elses. Now, are you completely confused?"

Aria sat and listened to Marcus explain the game she looked at him and nodded "completely lost" she said with a chuckle as she gave angus his cards laying her cards down she fount she had a jack of hearts, queen of diamonds, a king of diamonds and a three of clubs. she looked at Marcus and spoke " so what di I have?" she asked Marcus as Ruby laid down her cards to show not one pair or high card,

"looks like I'm out" she said sitting back in her chair and chuckled " rubbish hand" Aria looked to Marcus again for what she should do.

"No, but see, you have a 2," Marcus said. "That's a wild card. And, you have a 10, and 8 and a 7. You actually have a great hand. You have a fabulous start on a straight. Look here. If you use the 2 as a nine, you have 10, 9,8,7, and you need either a jack or a six. so if I were you, I'd turn in that darned 3, and see if you get something better. If you get the right card, you could take this entire hand. If not, you will end up with rubbish but that's part of the game. If you draw a nine, then, you can use the 2 as the jack, and you still stand a good chance of winning. So turn in the three, and let's see what Aria gives you as a replacement card."

"He's right. It's worth the risk. Even if you had rubbish, the rest of us wouldn't know that, so you could perhaps bluff your way to winning the hand," Angus said. "I won a thousand galleons one night on a bluff. Everyone thought I had an unbeatable hand, and they all folded, only to find out all I had was a hand full of trash."

"Okay, Aria. Give Ruby the replacement for her three and then show us what you've got in your hand," Marcus said.

Aria looked to Marcus and gave Ruby a card then turned over her own cards " okay , a two and four of clubs, six of hearts and a king of clubs." she said looking to Marcus as Ruby placed her card down with the others and smile as she saw she had a pair of threes. Aria lay down her own and saw two twos , a five and a three of hearts she looked at them and thought about what she wanted to do since she had a pair already she didn't want to chance not getting another so she decided to discard her three of heats for a fresh card that turned out to be a five of spades.

Ruby sighed and looked at Angus as she looked at her hand on the table " you think I have a chance?" she asked chuckling as she moved her cards to show him the king she held.

"Maybe," Angus said to Ruby. "Let's wait and see. Aria, hold on. You have two 2's, that's 2 wild cards. You have several options. Keep the cards in your hand and, depending on what you end up with for your fifth card, you have the chance of using the five and the two wild cards as three of a kind. That beats anyone who ends up with, perhaps 2 pair. Three of a kind always beats 2 pair. Or, if you happen to get a card that helps complete a sequence of cards, you'd end up with a straight, and that would beat almost any other hand this round."

Marcus took the top card off the deck, turned it over and laid it with Aria's cards. it gave her a seven.
"Perfect," Angus said. Marcus nodded, and he changed the order of Aria's cards so that they read 5,5,2,2 7.

"With the two fives you have, and the two wild cards, that gives you four of a kind. That means you win this hand. Well done," Marcus told her. Angus rooted through some of the extra cards left in the box that the cards had come in and found that there was a chart of what beats what. He duplicated them for Ruby and Aria.

"Here. Keep these in front of you. Almost everyone I know had to keep these little diagrams of what combination of cards beats what. but that will help you remember what to try to work for in your hand. The more you play, the more you'll just remember it automatically," Angus said. "What do you think? I know its all new, but once you get the hang of it, it really is fun. And, frankly, it can make you a better fighter because there is actually some strategy in it."

Aria saw Angus and looked at her cards then chuckled " well look at that" she said then looked to Marcus as he explained " wow nice" she added as she gathered the match sticks then the cards passing them to Ruby who shuffled them in her hands while Angus gave them cards with the combinations on for the game. " okay i think I have it , let play again" she said as Ruby chuckled.

"you created a poker monster" she said and both she and Aria chuckled as Ruby delt out the four cards to every one for the second round. Aria accioed the coffee pot and several cups she pored every one a cup and then made the fire whisky float around tipping a small amount into each coffee " it adds some spice to the coffee" she said placing her cards down and sipping her coffee.

"Irish coffee. Great," Angus said. "Perfect for a poker game. Whiskey and poker go together like best mates."

Angus and Marcus showed them the proper way for dealing poker and then showed them how to bet so they finally saw how a game should really go. Ruby won the second hand, and Aria won the third. Angus heard no sounds coming from downstairs, and it alarmed him. He got up and went downstairs to check on the kids. He came upstairs a moment later.

"You should see this," Angus said. "All five kids, laying on the floor on their stomachs, around their board game, all in their pajamas. Each of them has a pillow, and all five of them are in a dead sleep on the floor. I think we should just leave them. Cover each of them with a blanket and let them sleep. They seem happy. And even Jada is in a dead sleep between Anise and Ginger. They're safe, they're comfortable and they're all dead to the world." Marcus went downstairs, and he was pleased to see they had felt safe and comfortable and happy. He came back upstairs.

"I think they're good," Marcus said. "I checked the basement to make sure it was secure. I'm going to go check on Edward's side and tell him where Jada is so he doesn't worry. Aria, can you check this half, upstairs and this floor. You get this side, and I'll get the other."

Aria was happy she'd managed to win a game of poker and when Angus checked on the kids to find them sleeping she smiled . Ruby cleared up the cards while she heard Marcus " will do" she said and began her rounds finding nothing out of place and locking a few windows that had been left open she was soon done and the duplex was secure " okay all done" she said returning to the living room as she then lifted a sleeping Amari and carrying her to her nursery, changing her Aria placed her on hr bed and covered her letting her sleep as Ruby did the same with Caprice , both toddlers not waking.

Now back down Aria cleared up the play pen and sat down again " that was a good game , and you play it a lot?" she asked placing the toys in the toy box next to the play pen and folding the blanket up to place over the side of the pen for the future. Now clean and tidy Ruby moved to the kitchen and set the washer going to do the dishes ready for breakfast.

"shall I do a fruit salad for breakfast tomorrow?" she asked Angus " or do you have something in mind?"

"We don't play it nearly as much as we used to," Marcus said. "Nobody's had time for quite awhile, but we never really played for much money. It was mainly just for sickles. I probably still have a big jar of sickles somewhere that I kept for poker."

"I do too," Angus laughed. "I have a big liter jar upstairs in the bottom of my closet that's jammed full of sickles."

"You've got a few more than I do, then," Marcus said. "I have two pint jars. One is full and the other is about half full."

"That's because Michael cleaned your clock last time," Angus laughed.

"Oh, God, yes he did. I forgot," Marcus laughed. "That was a good game. And he brought best barbequed shrimp skewers. He could do those again anytime."

"They were good," Angus agreed. "Ruby, I think the fruit salad is good. If you want to do something in addition to it, I have a bunch of leftover pancakes in the freezer. There's a big bag of pancakes that are only about 10 cm in diameter. I have a recipe for a pancake breakfast casserole. You're basically making an egg custard, like with a bread pudding, pouring it over the pancakes, and baking it. It's a good way to not waste pancakes. I think there might be a bunch of leftover sausage patties that you could get out and simply thaw and reheat. They'd be fine that way. Or for a completely different idea, you could thaw out a bag of crumpets, split them in half and toast them, melt some cheese over the sausage patties and use the crumpets to make some breakfast sandwiches. Any of those ideas would be a relatively no muss, no fuss breakfast. Whatever you want to do is fine."