Normally, I won’t join my colleagues for their poker games, but today is an exception. It is Daniel’s birthday, who usually host the game. The big group first have dinner together at Abadeen Center, then head towards daniel’s place. Me and Pat went to Mondo to have icecream after dinner, Verona has a sharp eye and spoted Mondo offers free icecream to birthday boys. We phoned Daniel to tell him the good deal. He did not believe there is such a good deal, but came down anyways and got the icecream for his wife. At Daniel’s place, some of us played poker and had red wine, a very spoiled life style. Some others who don’t gamble played a much more educational game, scrabble. The poker game we play is a variation of 7 cards hi-low stub, with an option to choose go high or go low after the last card is deal. I am lucky tonight and won a small amount, but Pat taxed 50% of my profit. I start to understand the trick in this game. Going low is always better than going high, which it the reverse of other poker games. You can’t calculate your opponent’s hand when you go high, but you can easily see your odds when going low. Since the pool is split evenly between the high and low winner, the risk of going low is actually smaller. When in doubt, and your cards on the table permits, always go low. The other key is know when to fold, never chase any card. In fact you don’t need to chase any card when you are going low. Gambling is not very good after all, so I only allow myself play at most once a month, probably on the monthly long weekend gathering of the group.