It's a mix of strange and familiar

Couch is done. Good. I thought, plonking myself down on our home's most recent resident. And it seems right at home here. Then the sound of the kettle came from the kitchen, as well as Emily's voice. "Coffee coming. You want?"

"Yeah, thanks." I replied. "Then we should get into trying out this new poker set."

"My thoughts exactly."

A minute later, Emily rounded the corner from the kitchen carrying two streaming mugs. She handed me mine, along with a quick kiss, then sat down with her own.

"Alright, let's have a look." I said, setting my drink down and picking up our new addition to the games collection. When I opened it, out fell the inevitable deck of cards, a small instructions book, and several things that looked like tally counters, but they were all set to 0 and didn't seem to have any way to change the number. I picked up one of the counters, while Emily grabbed and unfolded the instructions. "What are these ones?" I asked, semi-rhetorically.

"Those would be the pot trackers." Emily answered. "They keep track of the total value of all the bets a player has made."

"How do you change the number?"

"It says... it handles itself when you make a bet. Supposedly you just announce what change you're betting, then these things decide on the value of it. Bigger changes, and changes that the other players want are all worth more. Once the game is over, the winner gets to decide what changes from the other players happen. But beyond that, it seems like just normal poker."

"What does it say about the changes after the game? And what changes can you bet?"

"Well you can bet any change for any player, but changes for other players are usually worth much less. I guess the because there's not as much risk. And about after the game..." Emily skimmed over the paper. "It doesn't seem to say anything. I'm assuming they stick around permanently."

"Well, shall we have a game?"