Family Fun Poker - #3

Recently, my nephew turned five and we took him to one of those children’s fun play places that are owned by a monkey, a rabbit, a mouse, or some other ridiculous animal.

There were three of us adults, for the single five-year-old child. Adults got to ride free, with the child, and since it was slow, all of us adults got to ride. Honestly, I think there were times that we had more fun than Xander did.

However, in addition to rides, Xander got excited every time he saw those bright yellow tickets come out of those machines. I don’t know if he realized how much it was costing to get just a few tickets, to turn into a few dollar store prizes, but his excitement was contagious, and pretty soon all of us were on the mission to get as many tickets as possible.

Immediately, I headed over to basketball, my sport of choice, and started bringing in tickets like crazy. Greg was attacking the Star Wars and Ski-ball games, while our friend, Rhen, tackled a bunch of other random games.

Greg and I were walking to see what other games they had, and we decided to sit down at an interesting looking game, “Pokereno”. The concept was simple: You get a ball and roll it down a slanted plain. At the end are 25 holes, each large enough to fit the ball, and labeled with various suited cards, 9-A, plus a Joker spot. The goal was to roll the balls down trying to get anything from two pair through a Straight Royal Flush. You got five chances to roll the ball, unless you got the same hole twice, in which case you get to roll again.

When Greg and I sat down to the game, we really didn’t know what to expect. However, once we started playing, and realized how simple it was, we were having the time of our lives! Rhen ended up playing more than the two of use combined, I think, and ultimately, almost all of our bright yellow tickets came from Pokereno.

A simple game that was surprisingly fun, it’s nice to have a game like Pokereno to get the whole family into the poker spirit!