Keeping A Straight Face At The Poker Palace

Very few games or toys from our childhood still capture our attention like a simple deck of cards.

Risk is way too much trouble and Sorry is sorry. When our kids were small we enjoyed family time and reliving our own childhood through games like Life and Parcheesi but I don’t miss them. I think I was happiest though when both of my kids learned to play cards.

My card playing experience goes back to first grade when my mother taught me to play Canasta – her favorite game. A few years later my father taught me his favorite game - Cribbage. By the time I reached high school I had found my favorite game – poker.

Weekend poker nights were a regular high school event in the 70’s for two reasons – we didn’t have video games and we didn’t have girlfriends. The next best thing was playing poker for hours while consuming large quantities of junk food.

Six or more guys would head upstairs to our attic (it’s a northern thing) carrying bags of chips and quarts of soda. Hours later, after redistributing our wealth, we would trudge three floors down trying not to wake my father who was often asleep in front of the television.

Poker was a very democratic activity in The Poker Palace, an elegant name given to my attic. Dealer’s choice was the rule which meant that the person dealing got to pick the game and the rules.

Traditionalists would call a game of 5-card stud with nothing wild. Others might go for an extended version of 7-card stud with deuces, jokers and one eyed jacks wild.

Pride was more important than losing a little money. Therefore people learned to play the various card games for a price and never asked questions. Of course some games were more expensive than others.

Nickel ante poker games such as Baseball and 7-card no peek forced players to keep paying to play long before they knew what cards they were holding.

Some games only involved three cards. One called 3-card Monte forced players to bet on a small hand with one wild card. The most dangerous game of the evening was called guts. Players held the cards above the table and when the dealer counted 1-2-3 guts, players either dropped the cards or held them. Everyone still holding cards had to match all of the money in the pool except for the winner. By far it was the most expensive and gutsy game of the night.

There was great satisfaction in winning at the Poker Palace but the financial rewards were slim. A lucky night might earn the winner 400 nickels but that’s only $20.

The stakes were much higher when I visited a real poker palace in Las Vegas many years later. I played two hands and walked away $20 lighter. I would rather lose 400 nickels in 3 hours than lose them in 3 minutes.

If I’ve tickled that urge in you to play poker, then head out tonight (Nov. 11) for the Allen Arts Alliance Casino Night. The Casino Night is part of the weekend activities surrounding the Tom Thumb Texas Stampede at the Allen Event Center.

For more information about the western style Casino Night or to order tickets call 972-727-7272 or visit www.texasstampede.org/events.

Rodeo Ready To Stampede Into Allen

It certainly was a pleasant surprise last week when I passed through Allen Station Park and came upon a herd of Texas longhorn.

Only two weeks ago I was exploring the possibility of switching careers and becoming a cattle rancher. Now here I was face to face with a 1,500 lb. steer. I just had to know more.

The herd of thirty longhorns had been transported to Allen from northwest Oklahoma that afternoon. They were in town to promote the Tom Thumb Texas Stampede which comes to the Allen Event Center on November 11-13.

After a good night’s rest, the longhorns would be driven north through the park into the Village of Allen ending at the Allen Event Center. Considering the alternative, it would be fair to say that the longhorns had a pretty good deal going on.

The longhorns came from the Chain Ranch in Woodward, OK and according to Livestock Weekly Magazine, many of them were spared from a trip to the slaughterhouse.

The ranch owner Wes Sanders picked up 44 steers at an auction and thought he could use them to promote a local rodeo. He outbid a local packing house for every one of them and brought them back to his ranch. Several days later he drove the herd 10 miles into Woodward and got statewide news coverage. That was in 1997. Today the Chain Ranch loans longhorn herds of all sizes (and their cowboys) to movie companies and communities for promotional cattle drives across the southwest.

“Our purpose in holding the cattle drive was to celebrate the Texas Stampede’s move to Allen,” explains Scott Farace, the Stampede’s vice president for business development. “It’s also about bringing a bit of Texas history back to the area. These are real longhorns and real cowboys and I think people enjoy that experience.”

Logistics are certainly an important part of driving a cattle herd through a city, according to Randy Lewallyn, director of operations.

“It looks harder than it is because longhorns are basically docile creatures. They are used to the noise and sounds of parade routes and the steers usually just need a nudge from the cowboys or the sound of whip to stay in line.”

The cattle drive, of course, is only the appetizer for the upcoming Texas Stampede. The main event will include bareback, saddle bronc riding, calf roping, barrel racing and bull riding.
Eric Swenson, a professional bareback bronc rider who recently placed 20th in world competition, compares the rodeo circuit to NASCAR.

“The professionals travel across the country during the rodeo season gaining points as they go. The season ends with the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in Las Vegas each December.”
Attending a rodeo is so different than watching one on television, added Swenson. “It’s the sounds and the excitement of the crowd that can’t be experienced any other way.”

Allen has certainly opened its doors to the Texas Stampede, says John Wroten, executive director of the Stampede.

“We’ve been overwhelmed with the support from the city and the volunteers which means it will be a great event here in Allen.”

“The move to a smaller venue will actually help the Stampede,” added Wroten. Our costs compared to the American Airlines Center are much less and we have more flexibility to expand the event. For example, the western heritage festival on November 11-13 is a new addition to the Stampede.”
The free western heritage event will include a petting zoo, pony rides, goat roping and a western marketplace.

In addition to the festival and rodeo, the Stampede will host country stars Dierks Bentley on November 12 and Montgomery Gentry on November 13.
Profits from the Texas Stampede benefit charities in North Texas, particularly Children’s Medical Center.

For more information about the weekend events visit www.texasstampede.org or call the Allen Event Center.

In the meantime, dust off those boots and get ready to party western style till the cows (make that longhorns) come home.

Beware The Crab Apples on Halloween

Halloween isn’t what it used to be. If it weren’t for the candy aisle at the grocery store and the costume stores that pop up overnight, I am not sure I’d notice the holiday at all.

It’s a holiday for little kids and once they grow up, it’s just hard as a parent to get enthusiastic about it. That probably explains why the house lights in my neighborhood are mostly dark on Halloween each year.

I knew it was fading from importance as we put out less and less decorations each year. We started many years ago with a house full of orange and black knick knacks and spooky silhouettes in the window. Now I dust off the fake front porch pumpkin and I’m done!

Halloween is this country’s second most popular holiday but has become a complicated one for parents. In “the old days” we ran home from school, grabbed a costume and something quick to eat before heading out for the night – literally.

As soon as the sun dipped, we were off knocking on doors and might cover a few miles before the 10 p.m. curfew. The only time we checked in was to drop off full bags of candy.

Today’s Halloween is no longer carefree. Parents just can’t let their kids roam outside of the neighborhood and they are suspicious of any candy that comes from strangers.

Maybe it’s time for a moratorium on Halloween but that sounds like an adult talking. Kids would not share that opinion.

Halloween has always been a weird but wonderful holiday for them. They get to beg from strangers, eat gross amounts of candy and stay out late. Halloween also differs from other holidays because it often falls on a school day. Is there a longer school day for kids or teachers than October 31st?
Our only advantage in Catholic school was that November 1st was All Saints Day – a school holiday that conveniently followed Halloween. Of course the two days are linked in history.

The holiday’s origins actually go back 2,000 years to Celtic harvest festivals and superstitions. They celebrated Samhain (sow-in) on the night of October 31 when ghosts of the dead were believed to return to earth causing trouble. Romans added their own twist to the holiday and Christians established a holy day called All Saints Day or All-Hallows Day on November 1. All-Hallows Eve gradually became Halloween according to legend.

We never dwelled on the historical significance of Halloween. We were too busy choosing a costume that would show our own individuality without exposing us to ridicule by older neighborhood kids.

The big kids were the scary part of Halloween in the city. They wore little or no costume, roamed in packs and hustled smaller kids for candy. Occasionally they would leap from behind trees and throw rotten crab apples or eggs at the weak ones.

As a ten year-old, being bullied by fourteen year-olds was bad but being seen with your parents on Halloween was worse.

Halloween was a giant but spooky step into the adult world where the rewards were sweet and the dangers could be – a little messy.