Family Fun Poker #2: A 10-Year-Old Kicked My...

A 10-year-old just kicked my ass in poker. Worse than the fact that she is young, is the fact that she’s my cousin, and I’m the one that taught her how to play.

Still on my Michigan “Vacation”, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my cousins. My aunt is planning a trip to a casino soon, so I was helping her bone up on her Blackjack. Slowly, my cousins started to join in, too. Pretty soon, my aunt was gone, all four girl cousins were there (ages 16, 15, 13 & 10) and we were playing Hold’em. I was thrilled to be the one to teach them the game!

I started by walking them through the rankings of cards: High Card, Pair, Two Pair, etc. Then we played five hands with cards face up, walking them through what would be best based on the situation. Then we played two hands where we had hid our cards until the end – and then we played for “keeps” with pennies. It was awesome.

I told the kids if they had any questions to ask, and I would help. Suddenly, Kayla, the youngest, piped up.
“Jes? What’s it called when you have numbers in a row?”
“That’s a Straight, kiddo.”
“And you can use the face cards, right?”
“Yep. And an Ace can be a “one” or come after a King.”
“But you can’t go “Queen, King, Ace, Two, Three”, right?”
“Right.”
“Ok. So what is it called when you have all the same suit?”
“A Flush.”
“And which is better? A Flush or a Straight?”
“A Flush.”
“Hmmmm… Ok.”
“Anything else?”
“Nope. I’m good.”

And she was right! The Flop came down 6h, Ks, 8h. I had Pocket Kings, so I was pretty confident with staying in. To have 3 of a kind on the Flop was fine by me!

The Turn comes up with a Kh! I couldn’t believe it! I had four of a kind on the Turn! I was incredibly excited to win against my cousins!

The River comes and it’s a 10h. I went All In and was totally confident that I had the game in the bag. I had no reason to doubt that my “four of a kind” wasn’t going to win against four teenage girls who had never played before.

So there I am, and I say, “All in.”

Slowly, each kid folded – until it got to Kayla. “I check.”

Smiling, I told her “checking” wasn’t an option, she had to “call”.
“Ok. I call. What do you have?”
“Well, kiddo – I have four of a kind. Kings.”
“Oh. Wait. Which is better, again? Straight? Or a Flush?”
“A Flush, but it doesn’t beat four of a kind.”
“But what if you have a Flush and a Straight?”

She sits down her cards and I see it: 6,7,8,9,10 – all hearts. The 10-year-old had freaking Straight Flush. She kicked my ass – and I had taught her how to play.