Tom deals the second hand

As soon as Linda had sat back down after taking off her right shoe, Tom looked around. He shuffled the cards and held them out to Linda. The brunette took a large chunk from the top and handed it to Tom. He put it on the bottom.

“Normally the players take turns dealing.” Tom explained, “Normally the cards are distributed in a clockwise direction one at a time until everyone has five cards. However, since you are learning, I’ll do all the dealing. In order to make sure that you alternate who goes first, I’ll alternate who gets dealt to first.” Tom laid the top card in front of Cindy. The next card was laid in front of Linda. Tom set the third card in front of where he sat. He repeated giving out cards this way until each had five cards.

Tom flipped over his cards one by one until they were all face up. He called out each as he showed it to the girls.

Three of Spades

Two of Diamonds

Ace of Diamonds

Eight of Clubs

Nine of Clubs

“This hand is garbage.” Tom explained when the cards were sitting on the floor.

“Some play that Aces,” Tom pointed to the Ace of Diamonds, “Can be low or a one as well as high, greater than a king. Unless you know for sure, play it as high only. That’s what we’ll do tonight. If we were playing a regular game of poker and Aces could be low, I would consider keeping the Ace, Two, and Three in an attempt to get the straight. However, for tonight’s game, I won’t. I’ll keep the Ace and Two.” Tom slid the other three cards to the side where he would collect the discarded cards.

“It is generally accepted that you can only discard three cards, four if you have an Ace,” Tom told them, “It is often better to hide the fact you have an Ace by discarding only three cards. In this case, the Two gives an outside chance of a flush, but I am not really trying for one. Cindy.” One by one Cindy flipped over her cards. She had the Ace and Seven of Hearts, the Nine of Diamonds, and the sixes of Clubs and Diamonds.

“Obviously you’ve got a pair.” You pointed to the sixes. “Most people would keep them. Some would also keep the Ace as what’s known as a kicker. Some would keep the nine, the seven and one of the sixes in an attempt to get a flush. I wouldn’t unless the cards were hot and I was ahead.”