Wednesday, May 14, 2014

03/08/2014 Prompt: Diamonds

This entry is my effort to write a snippet without using any dialogue.


The Bob-Whites were three short for the night, so the remaining four decided to huddle in the warm living room, in front of the roaring fire, and wait for the thunderstorm to pass.  The cheery fire made the loud, dark night bearable since the thunder and lightning could not compete with the cheerful popping of the pine cones that had been tossed into the warm dancing flames.


By mutual consent, the four agreed to avoid charges of talking across the board, by remaining silent after making their initial ante.  However, although no sounds were made, it was easy to see by his demeanor that Mart, in full male arrogance, easily assumed that neither of the attending distaff side of the group had any chance of winning the pot.


The silence continued as play circled around the table with simple motions to indicate the choice to stand, or to ask for new cards after making discards.  Betting continued wordlessly by the laying of potato chips and crackers (at least those that Mart didn’t eat) in the pot.  Finally, first Brian, and then Honey closed their betting and folded their hands.


Mart watched Trixie closely.  His bank was about 3 times as big as Trixies and he didn’t have a great hand. Even though she returned his gaze with a steady stare of her own, he still believed that she couldn’t keep a secret to save her life. Since there was no cheshire cat grin or giggling to indicate that she was confident of her winning hand he figured there was no way that she could have as good a hand as her bets indicated.  She was bluffing, and he was ready to risk his whole stash to prove it.


Mart folded his hand in front of him and pushed his entire bank to the center of the board. He held out his hand to his sister to pass the play.   He fully expected Trixie to fold and was disconcerted when she placed her own small bank next to his.  


They stared at each other for a long minute.  Poker etiquette meant that Mart had to show his hand first, but the longer he waited the more unsure he was that he hadn’t made a grave mistake.  Finally, he layed down his hand of a full house; 7 of Hearts, Clubs, and Spades and deuce of Hearts and Spades.  Trixie didn’t move and Mart reached out with a grin to gather the pot to his side of the board.


Suddenly, Trixie reached out and placed her hand on top of Marts, and showed that she had won the game with a straight flush, Queen of Diamonds, high.

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