The Game
By John Simmonds
After thirty years of working for silicon valley technology companies selling stuff about which he had little comprehension, John relocated to the Dordogne in France and now spends his time writing, taking photographs, playing in a band, and golfing. His attempts at speaking the language are about as successful as his mastery of a decent golf swing, but he’s not complaining as he knows that given time anything is possible! Having self-published a couple of novellas and been published in some short story anthologies, he is now working on his first major novel entitled The Justice League of Didcot, which, he constantly tells himself, will be ready for publication this year.
Gambling when you can’t afford to lose is not for the faint-hearted. So when some students get together and take part in a betting game that gets out of hand, there’s likely to be consequences. It’s 1975 at Reading University, and the gambling medium of choice is three card brag. The game being played at this particular moment in time has become serious. Very serious. The faint-hearted had better prepare themselves. Unlike more complex games like poker or bridge, three card brag is simple. Deal three cards to everyone participating. Then bet or don’t bet. There are a few more rules, but essentially that’s it. To play three card brag, and to understand this story, you need to know which hand beats which. Three of a kind, or, to give it its proper name, a prial, beats everything. Three threes is the best of all. Why three threes should be the top dog is a mystery but it is, so it is. After three threes the second best hand is three aces, then three kings, then three queens–you get the drift. If you are not fortunate enough to have been dealt three of a kind, then a run (nine, ten, jack, six, seven, eight, and so forth) is next up, and if they are in the same suit, even better! After that it’s a flush – all cards having the same suit, followed by a pair. Last up, it’s the highest card that wins. There are over twenty-two thousand individual combinations of cards that can be dealt when playing this game, and the odds of being dealt a prial are nearly five hundred to one. The likelihood of being dealt the top hand of a prial of threes is much lower with odds of just over five thousand to one. Like England World Cup wins, they don’t come along very often.