07 2017 The Nightly Gin Game

The Nightly Gin Game
by Paul Robert Sanford

Kristen and I play cards at the end of the evening.
Always gin. We don’t keep score. We talk about each hand.

Gin is a lot like life.
Kristen plays by hope and hunches as well as the odds.
As much as possible I work out the math and play the “best” card.
We usually come out about even.

When I win I always announce that it was because of either:
Superior Play or
Tremendous Luck.
Kristen explains why she won –
She Finally Got Her Card or
She Made It Work or
They Just All Came Together.

Kristen likes to hold on until she gets gin.
I like to knock, go down with 9 in bunches and an extra card
to catch her with a load of points.
Sometimes it backfires,
and she undercuts me,
but I like the excitement.
I like to think I can tell what’s in her hand by the way she picks up her cards.

Sometimes I collect face cards just for the fun of shuffling them around
and making them work in different combinations.
Kristen has an annoying habit of picking up the first card I lay down,
if it is a face card, particularly a king.
We know each other well.

We both marvel and enjoy
when either of us has a “pretty hand”
with a long run, or some lovely pattern.

We enjoy catching each other either with very few points or
A record number.
The most points you can have without matching
is 98 points
we’ve had hands in the sixties and seventies and marveled and enjoyed.

While Kristen shuffles I putter
or get a snack.
A couple of times I quickly watered my plants.