My best game was double-deck pinochle, always for funsies...I never really caught on to poker, but Acey Deucey was a game I couldn't get enough of...There was seemingly always a game going in the barracks, and I was known to get roped into a few...
In those days we were paid once a month, and having just sewn on my sergeant's stripes, my paycheck that month was a whopping $340.00 including my separate rations...I had maxed out my monthly ration of cigarettes that day, but could get more during the month by borrowing a non-smoking buddy's ration card...
I had just finished a delivered-to-the-barracks pizza, and was on my way to town for some beer drinking, when I spotted an Acey Deucey game through an open barracks door...Naturally I thought I'd sit in for a few hands...For some reason, nobody could seem to get a winning hand, and the pot looked like it had a few hundred dollars in it...
Toward the end of one run of the deck I drew a king and a deuce...I knew I had seen all the aces and deuces dealt already...I was pretty sure I had seen all the kings and decided to bet the pot...I once again proved why I shouldn't be allowed to do my own thinking where large amounts of money are involved...I drew a king...
After adding up what was in the pot, I emptied my pockets and walked out of the room with three dollars left to last a month...I later learned another GI who could count better than I could won the pot with almost seven hundred in it...
I not only didn't get to town that night, I ate ketchup sandwiches for a month, and field-stripped discarded cigarette butts for pipe tobacco until the following payday...From that day forward, every time I saw a barracks card game, I'd walk in, throw a dollar in the pot and walk out...
I shudder to think what would have happened if I had ever tried drugs...
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