By: Paul Johnson
My brother and I have always been competitive. Even though he was five years older than me, I always tried to keep up. Whether it was sports, board games or anything else we both hated loosing with a passion. I was in middle school when my big brother taught me how to play poker. We would play for hours at a time, most of the time we wouldn’t even make wagers at all. Poker is not about the cash involved, it all about the pride. This was a perfect game for us and we enjoyed each others company during those long, dull summer days. On rare occasions we would place bets. Sometimes they would be small, wagers like pennies or nickels. There was one occasion I can remember clearly. We had decided to place large bets on a single game of poker. My brother, Jacob wanted to wager his skateboard and I wagered my Atari game system. The stakes were high and I wanted that skateboard!
My sister, Crystal was the designated dealer. We were playing seven card stud, which is one of the easiest variations of poker. There are normal rounds of betting and the stakes are relatively high. The objective is to get the best five card hand out of a total of seven cards. After the full rounds of betting, I was confident I was going to win. I had an amazing hand of cards, a flush! I was sporting great cards A, 2, 6, J, 9 all of the same suit. I was elevated and could imagine myself flying down the street on my brother’s skateboard! Soon my excitement turned to sadness. During the showdown (the last chance to show all your cards) my brother miraculously came up with a royal flush! A royal flush is almost impossible to get. I had gone all in and lost everything! My Atari system now belonged to my brother and I was crushed! After that game of poker, we never bet against each other again. That was the last time we ever played poker. I told myself I would never play poker again.
10 years later I was surfing the internet and saw an advertisement banner for mobile poker. I laughed for a few seconds as the memories of playing poker with my brother so long ago began to surface. I have always been a fan of playing games on my cell phone, but was a little cautious about playing poker on my phone. When I was younger loosing my Atari game system was a huge loss and I couldn’t handle losing again. After playing the free games for a few days I finally decided to make real cash bet. I was very excited and nervous at the same time. It was a small wager $10 table and I played very passively at first. Finally I was able to intimidate the other players and increase my bank roll to $25. I stopped there and was satisfied with the way I played. I was able to play aggressively and let out all my previous negative notions about poker.
A week later I decided to call my brother, after not speaking with him for 5 years. I told him all about playing mobile poker and how much fun it was. He was surprised I was able to recover from out last game of poker. I laughed and decided to challenge him in a game of mobile poker. He was surprised, but ready to take on the challenge as usual. We both signed on to the same no limit, Texas hold ‘em poker table and placed our bets. The entrance was $50 a piece and again, I was a little reluctant but made the bet anyways. Luckily I was dealt a pair of 9’s, also known as Popeyes. I was curious to see the flop and whether my brother was going to fold under the pressure. He called my bet and decided to raise it to $65. I was somewhat shocked, but played smart. Once the river card was shown it was a 9 of spades! I had three of a kind and went all in.
I am sure Jacob was shocked, because the next move he made was to fold! I was able to show him my cards and rake in the $65 pot. We played a few more rounds together and had a great time. With this specific mobile poker program we were also able to chat while we played. It was amusing to leave each other crass remarks and try to mess up each others game. Mobile poker has brought my brother and me closer together. I live in Boston and he live in Los Angeles, we take time each Thursday night to play a few rounds of mobile poker together. We have never been closer.