Turn Over Your Shoulder

A stranger walks into a saloon and gets a drink. He sees a poker game and asks if he can play. He's told to take a seat. It's a no limit 5-card draw game and he's a pretty good poker player. After about an hour of so-so hands, he draws Aces full and makes a sizable bet. The old guy across from him raises all-in and the stranger calls. The old guy lays down 23457o and reaches for the chips.

"Whoa, there. I've got Aces-full."

"Yeah, but I've got a wild cat.", says the old guy.

"A wild cat? What the hell is a wild cat?"

"A wild cat is 23457 off-suit." Like this, "Says the old man."

The stranger starts to burn and says, "I've played a lot of poker, but I've never heard of a wild cat."

"Well, if you've played a lot of poker, you oughta know that you should learn the house rules before you play. And this here's a house rule."

At that, the old guy points to a sign just over the stranger's right shoulder. The sign says,

"House Rule - Wild Cat is a 23457 off-suit and it beats everything"

Being a gentleman and an honorable gambler, the stranger takes his lumps and settles back for more poker.

Several hours later, the stranger is dealt 23457o. He bets and the same old guy raises him the pot. Without the slightest hint of a tell, the stranger raises all-in. The old guy calls and lays down an ace high flush, and reaches for the poker chips.

"Whoa there! I've got a wild cat.", says the stranger as he lays down his cards.

"Nice hand.", says the old guy as he scoops up the pot. "What did I tell you about house rules?", as he points to a sign over the stranger's left shoulder.

"House Rule -Wild Cat - Only Good Once a Night"

Things aren't the way they were before

"Excuse me, what do you do for a living?"
"I'm a professional poker player."
"Pardon me?"
"Well, basically what I am doing is play poker games in poker rooms or join poker tournaments at casinos. In fact, as time moves on, I barely leave my home nowadays for that online poker makes lives of people like me much easier."
… Faint …

The above scene may occur if you happen to move in a new city and invite your neighbors to your house-warming party and start a conversation with one of them. In fact, to cater to the ever-increasing and diversifying need of today's job-seekers, here is a list of 5 kinds of cool jobs that you may have never heard before and maybe worth a try.

1. Odor Tester
This one is pretty odd, but some chemist has to make sure that all of those deodorants and anti-perspirants are operating properly to keep their users free of funk.

2. Snake Milker
If you ever get bitten by a poisonous snake you'll be grateful these people know how to work with animals. They are responsible for getting the venom out of snakes to make the anti-venom. Be honest, which one of you thought that snakes had actual milk glands?

3. Dice Inspector
With one false move of a single die a person can lose quite a bit of money on those craps tables. The dice inspector checks for proportionality, specific angles, and blemishes. I guess if dice are not perfect they can't be the reason for you going broke in the casino.

4. Braille Translator
Someone has to modify all sorts of texts and convert them to Braille for the blind. This can include novels, music, textbooks, and brochures. There is nothing wrong with making things more accessible for the blind and this one sounds like it's a quite useful job, but it does sound tedious.

5. Citrus Fruit Dyer
Have you ever passed by the lemons at the supermarket and though to yourself, damn that's some good looking citrus! Well it might be because there commercial farmers out there who dye the fruit a more vibrant color to hide the ripeness of the fruit.

"Share our similarities, celebrate our differences." The quote says so. For me, I am happily reading rock-paper-scissors theory to build up my poker strategy pool—I have some unexplained reasons to believe that luck works and I will be good at this field. Because my nightmare is that when I face the final judgment and Saint Peter says this to me,"You have to run a poker game. And deal." LOL

Against My Will

You know the game called Omaha? Have no idea? It's OK. I can explain it in just a few easy steps (I am assuming you all know its big brother Texas Hold'em).
What you do is get four cards. Doesn't matter much what they are because nobody really looks at them anyway. Next, they put three cards on the board. It doesn't matter what they are because nobody really pays any attention to the flop either. Then one more card for the turn and another one for the river. Same betting scenario as before. Doesn't really matter much what they are, except, for a few of the poker players that may have "cheated" and looked at their hole cards. These players may now fold if they have absolutely no outs. (Mostly bad sports.) Now, at the showdown, everybody turns over their cards and helps the dealer figure out who has the best poker hand. You MUST play two cards out of your hand so this usually takes a while and the winning hand is usually found out after a little bit of searching by all of the players and a partially confused dealer. The dealer now pushes the pot to the wrong player and everybody yells at him and he smiles glibly and says, "Oh yeah, sorry" and then sends it in the right direction. Then, after all of that excitement dies down, everybody lets out a collective sigh of relief and gets ready to wind up and do it all over again.

That's it. Hell of a simple poker game, right? For me, I won't blame if you label it as lame due to my lame introduction.

P.S.
I was bluffed at an online poker room last night. Refused to go in there anymore, at least a week I swear. If there are some unpleasant words mentioned in my article about the poker rules, forgive me. I don't mean it.

Top gun—Blackjack

Sometimes I love being in the crowd, enjoying the feeling of thinking while others are yelling. That's when I play in the pit, that's the charm of casino game, among which Blackjack is my favorite. The following is a simple-version of know-how about it.


Blackjack is partly based on luck, so don't expect to win every time. Compared with poker games (Texas Hold'em, Omaha, etc.), the way to play Blackjack is easy. All you need is a dealer (you can do that if it's played at home), some people, a deck of cards, and some poker chips (really optional and unnecessary when you play at online casinos). First of all, the dealer serves TWO cards to each person, face down. When people say HIT ME, you give them a card. If they pass the number 21, they lose. If you win with a black jack (it consist of an ace, a jack, queen, king, or the 10 card), you beat everyone, and the house wins. If you pass the 21 limit, you lose, and the players may win. If you play with poker chips, when you win, you take the chips (or if someone else won, they take the chips).

Quiz: I do not recall what it is called if two people have the same number (like you have 19, and someone else has 19).

P.S. My mind is like an open high way. Every thought can lead very far or nowhere.