“So you must be playing Michigan Rummy?” asked the owner of the cafe as he walked over and fingered Vic’s cards. As Vic melded a few lousy groups, he asked me, “So what are the rules that you don’t put that stuff down…oh never mind.” As I shot him a dirty look, my strategy was ruined. Vic 518, Knox 501. Game to Vic.
Leaving, he says to me, let’s see those cards. I figured he just wanted to see our new KEM cards. Lord knows I impressed myself when I dropped fifteen dollars on a deck of cards.
“Pick a card, take a look at it, put it back…”
And yep, that is how it went. “It wasn’t this six of clubs was it? It was, FLIP, this six of spades!”
Shuffle…”Pick a card, take a look at it, put it back…”
After a few tricks to the delight of not only the morning customers from out-of-state, but the locals and the fellows behind the counter, he pointed to a guy in a booth sipping coffee, “That fella, he knows a few tricks that make mine look like amateur stuff…but it takes a while, you must be in a hurry, some other time…”
He certainly knew how to work a crowd, and no, of course we weren’t in a hurry.
One more longer trick by a new fellow that Vic claims was not much more than a simple math pattern but to me was pure magic, and we were out the door. Of course, the owner asked if he could play a hand or two of poker with us and we checked our pockets to make sure we still had our watches.
And yes, Monticello, is lovely.
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