Killing some time this evening playing 7 Stud on a pretty good poker sim, World Class Poker With T. J. Cloutier. I recommend this program BTW. Anyhow, I got to remembering the first time I played this variant of poker. Chinook Winds Casino. Gene was at the other end of the table. I was sitting next to Elvis.

Seems like a good evening to spin a tale of a good time and good chipping. Last weekend I made it to my grandson’s 4th birthday, last of my daughter’s brood to have a birthday but I’ll see them all again at Christmas. Thanksgiving always puts me in a pretty good mood, I used to always take a run for that day and I’ve got a bunch of stories of Turkey Day on the road. Christmas journeys were more melancholy but I liked the November jobs. Good mood and good music spinning up and a good brew at hand. A winter warmer from over by the river where I deliver to the grain silos. Watched a bunch of hippy carpenters putting together the Widmer Bros. Brewery all those years ago and now I wait for winter and their bottling of Snowplow. No snow yet, dodged the load to Spokane tonight and my relief guy, Frank is going to see plenty on the road on his way home over Snoqualmie Pass tomorrow. Don’t get me started on snow traveling stories or we’ll be here a while. Seeing that wolf that time was pretty neat though.

The setting is the 2nd chip show that Jim Frederickson put on over on the Oregon coast at Chinook Winds casino. Jeez, wish I could remember a date. His first one was March 2001 and I met my first live chip collecting friend there, Steve Goodrich. Signed his book for me that day. Mel Jung was there too, trying to sell Jim a new rack for the poker room. Frederickson was the room manager. Jim treated us pretty good, salting the pot with G.O. tokens but I resisted the urge to ask him if one of the tourney tables we were at had been found down on the beach or something. So the thing went off good and Jim set up another show, pretty neat. Another poker tournament to run with it too, only this time 7 Stud was added to the Limit Hold ‘Em For a two game format.

Stud…huh? Probably found the rules on the www somewhere and had a cheesy software version to get used to the betting and such. Way, way over my head as a tyro poker player but still had a very nice time. Yep, I was sitting next to Elvis! At about 5’6” this Elvis impersonator from the Chinook Winds floor may have been a little short but he had plenty of corny jokes in him. You remember this old joke Elvis used to tell. (?) “I had to go to this child psychologist. How that kid got his degree, I’ll never know! Thank you, thank you very much.” Groucho Presley.

Stud…what? Waitwaitwait. I’ve got to Bring It In because I’m low? Bet this? You crazy? I got a deuce, a five and a Circus Circus slot card…I wanna muck! Trimble looked pretty comfy down at his end of the table but his neighbor, Rick Miner kept hoovering up my chips when I’d venture out into a HE pot. Some non-collector gal won the whole thing. Flummoxed Gene she did by playing a brilliant game of six-gapper Jack/Ten high for the victory. Not in any of the books.

Jim Frederickson put on another show in Reno and was always active up here in the PNW but he got busy in the restaurant biz and none of us have seen the guy since. Pretty good fellow though and made some friends up here for sure.

Found a very good poker book and have taken the Stud instructions to heart. You might want to hunt down this book as it’s a pretty entertaining poker read even if you’re an expert player. The Education of a Poker Player by Herbert O. Yardley. Copyright 1957 but the actual content of the book runs from the thirties through WWII. The guy played in D.C. Hollywood, London and while he was a spy for Chung Kai-Shek. Secret Spy name and everything. No fish back in those days, he teaches you how not to be a “sucker”. Antique instruction for sure but his advise puts a rein on my tendency to play Too Many Hands. Patience? I Wanna Kill Something! I’ll include his 7 Stud crib sheet following this.

I’d heard of the book as a noteworthy literary piece about poker and had a chance to pick up a copy on eBay alongside a paperback of Cincinnati Kid at an auction by Leonard Schneir. Don’t read …Kid, a terrible book in a lot of different ways. Of course the movie was truly great and I’ve spent a lot of time studying it. Figured out the big secret hidden in the movie. Been looking for something that I knew I was missing in that film and I finally found it. Pretty cool too! Thought if’n I could learn 5 Card Stud I’d get closer to Lancey and Yeller and Lady Fingers and The Shooter. Yeah, The Man was right, Kid, you’ll always be second best, you just don’t get it. Sigh.

7 Card Stud by Herbert O. Yardley

Stay If You Hold:

1. Any three of a kind and draw the limit, that is, the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th cards.

2. Two aces or two kings and draw the limit.

3. Two queens or less and draw only one card and no more unless the hand is improved. The odds for making a winning hand are made prohibitive by drawing more cards.

4. Any pair with the Ace or King, and draw one card unless the hand is improved.

5. Any three-card straight or three-card flush and draw only two cards and no more unless the hand is improved. If in 5 cards you make a 4-card straight or 4-card flush, draw the 6th and 7th card.

There you have it. Sounds slow and tight but if you play it Yardley’s way, the Japanese won’t put you up against a wall in 1942 Chungking and shoot you as a sucker!