Is there such a thing as a "friendly" game of cards with the "Oldies"?

[El Presidente]

My Grandfather taught me how to play cards. I remember the intensity of those games...he always wore dark glasses when playing poker....at the kitchen table...and he would SLAM his winning hand on the table while taunting me with an in chair "shimmy"....hands raised in triumph.

I was eight.

Playing cards with my mum and dad is akin to the James Caan film "Rollerball". Every hand is life and death. Victory by anyone else but them comes with accusations of cheating. Mind you I have seen their chip piles magically increase whenever I go to the bathroom

And so on the weekend I played cards with Di's parents. They make my parents look like the Dalai Lama.

Seriously, two of the loveliest people you could ever meet. However put a pack of cards on the table or a Bocce ball in their hand and it is the Western Front. There is no hand or play that goes unquestioned. There is no leaving the table. Like Lawrence of Arabia...."No Prisoners! No Prisoners!"

I surely can't be the only one! Do all oldies play cards as if it their life depended on it!

[Habana Mike]

That's what the youngsters in the neighborhood say when I sit down at the table......

[CoCigarSmoker]

I've never been hammered by the oldies, but I tell you what! I am horrible at poker, no joke, no lies. And I'm up front about it. Still after I toss my 20$ in the pot and the cards are delt, I sure as hell try like the dickens! I don't have a clue about some 7/3 off suit, but I'm gonna play like I do lol.

In the end, I tell me friends, I host poker night for one reason.....cigars and scotch. Couldn't give a Eff less about winning or poker lol.

Cheers,

Seth

[Fuzz]

Play mahjong with my aunts. If you think you're good, be ready to hand over the keys to your car... or house.

[CoCigarSmoker]

I'd love to learn how to play Mahjong!

Seth

[khamy]

I've never been hammered by the oldies, but I tell you what! I am horrible at poker, no joke, no lies. And I'm up front about it. Still after I toss my 20$ in the pot and the cards are delt, I sure as hell try like the dickens! I don't have a clue about some 7/3 off suit, but I'm gonna play like I do lol.

In the end, I tell me friends, I host poker night for one reason.....cigars and scotch. Couldn't give a Eff less about winning or poker lol.

Cheers,

Seth

Maybe your not playing the correct stakes to make winning poker part of the holy trinity.

In the name of cigars, scotch

and winning poker.

Amen.

[cris77]

got taught how to count cards by my grandad, also with dominoes, etc..so yes they are deadly serious

[madbunny]

full on at the inlaws house ,the mother inlaw and me vs wife and father in law,game on

[Ken Gargett]

My Grandfather taught me how to play cards. I remember the intensity of those games...he always wore dark glasses when playing poker....at the kitchen table...and he would SLAM his winning hand on the table while taunting me with an in chair "shimmy"....hands raised in triumph.

I was eight.

Playing cards with my mum and dad is akin to the James Caan film "Rollerball". Every hand is life and death. Victory by anyone else but them comes with accusations of cheating. Mind you I have seen their chip piles magically increase whenever I go to the bathroom

And so on the weekend I played cards with Di's parents. They make my parents look like the Dalai Lama.

Seriously, two of the loveliest people you could ever meet. However put a pack of cards on the table or a Bocce ball in their hand and it is the Western Front. There is no hand or play that goes unquestioned. There is no leaving the table. Like Lawrence of Arabia...."No Prisoners! No Prisoners!"

I surely can't be the only one! Do all oldies play cards as if it their life depended on it!

my grandmother taught me various games of cards. i made her play as hard as she could. no chance i was interested if it was some friendly game. i used to make her work real hard for a win. ditto grandfather on the dad's side re chess.

dad played poker every week with his mates, very successfully. neither of us would ever give the other an inch. where's the fun otherwise?

did get me in some trouble.

was on a cub's camp for 3 days once and it bucketed. parents asked what we did. i said we played cards for three days. seemed harmless. they hit the roof. how dare some irresponsible parent allow their child to take cards. etc etc etc. they quietened down a bit when i pointed out it was them who allowed their child to take the cards. but didn't i cop it. although nowhere near as much as the first time australia ever made the soccer world cup - i was 13 or 14. every kid in the school was convinced we would win the thing. idiots. so i ran a book based on the odds given in the paper. and every kid backed australia (bar one bastard who had the sense to see how ridiculous it all was). cleaned up. somehow the folks found out. didn't matter how often i pointed out that dad played for dosh every week and that was the example he set, i copped merry hell. sorry - seem to have gone a smidge off piste.

[JohnS]

My brother-in-law was always keen to beat everyone in my family at card games, especially canasta.

Interestingly, when he wanted to play me in other games such as Words For Friends, he wasn't so keen after a few losses.

I can't say that my father's generation cared to show me cards...they (i.e. my father and uncles) just played games on Sunday get togethers from memory with each other.

[Troels]

Always try to act fair and friendly - except when Playing, any game. As said, the fun i the game rely on engagement.

Does anyone play the board game "diplomacy" ? - no dice, so thinking, negotiating and manipulation through 10-15 hours of intense gaming makes the scene for a lot of emotions

[NJP]

We play Euchre and the partnerships are always men V women, one old and one young pairs. They are playing for sheep stations and no love lost with the winning celebration. The cheating that's has been going on since I was a child makes me still look side ways at the old farts. The berating, insults and the soul destroying dumping of the partnership before the next game was hard as a kid. Now, I just remind them that they won't need to go to a home for care as long as they can touch their toes( I'll acept shins) I'll clean them up with a hose on the front lawn.

[anacostiakat]

I applaud competiveness!

[Guest rob]

Some of the biggest arguments our household ever saw was over traditional Italian card games Briscola and Scopa and Tressette.

Usually we played team games, with my dad and I paired together..... and we would argue like cats an dogs about each other's poor decision making. We didn't like losing!

[Guest rob]

Oh, and my brother lost a tooth, when my cousin threw a dice at him after losing a game of cards!

[sengjc]

I can relate to this as I partake in the odd game or two of mahjong (Chinese "poker" with tiles) every so often with my wife's parents or her aunts/uncles. Particularly ferocious this lot when there's money at stake.

[MIKA27]

I clearly remember my folks and grandparents playing cards every Friday night.

All sitting around the table, cigarette smoke filled the air to a point where you could cut it with a knife, the look on their faces looked a little like the show-down scene in The Good The Bad and The Ugly Rather than guns firing at the end, the winner would slam their hand down and mockingly nod and smile at the others. Supposed adults?