It was, in fact, a poker set. But to a dude like Drew Sardis, it was Christmas in July.
"Remember the Hold'em tournament we had last summer?" he asked Evan. "It was fuckin' legendary!"
Evan leaned forward over the hatchway to high-five him. "Fuckin' legendary, man."
Drew whipped back around. "You remember, right, Griff?"
"I remember hearing about it," Griffin said flatly.
He gave her a confused look, then his smile dropped. "Ah, shit. My bad, G. That was after you had to leave for tennis stuff, wasn't it?"
"Yep," Griffin said, popping the 'p.' "But no worries. All the Snaps and Instagram stories I got made it feel like I was there."
In reality she'd been on her way to a pre-season tournament for her high school team, absolutely furious she was missing out on it. Griffin loved Texas Hold'em.
"OK. Who's down to play?" Drew asked. He glanced around deviously, making a show of counting all the girls aboard. He wiggled his eyebrows. "Ooh, wait. No. Who's down to play strip Hold'em? We've got about even numbers. Who's with me?"
Evan burst out laughing.
Mary Kyle was horrified. "You're kidding, right? That's so cliché."
"On the contrary, love," Drew set the silver briefcase on the cockpit table. "Everyone always talks about playing strip poker, but then they never actually play strip poker. So, technically, it'd only be a cliché if we don't play now. Yeah?"
Matty started to argue, stopped, and cocked his head. "That...weirdly kinda makes sense."
Drew fist pumped and unlatched the silver briefcase, but Mary Kyle still wasn't sold. "Yeah, but you guys and Lauren are already at an advantage because you're wearing more clothes. Griffin's in a romper and I'm in a dress. How's that fair?"
Griffin figured Mary Kyle was only using her to prove her argument because she didn't want to play. It was still true, though. And a fair point. Hold'em and alcohol and cabin make-outs aside, Griffin had no intention of letting anyone see her underwear choice tonight. They weren't even matching.
Drew was setting out stacks of white chips. "How about we play you only strip if you wanna buy back in, MK?"
"Even then, Griffin and I should still get some kind of handicap..." she said, frowning.
Evan held up his hands. "Or, you know, you could maybe just not lose?"
Mary Kyle flipped him off, just as Lauren yelled up from the cabin, "Um, hello? I can't carry all this by myself."
"Ah, sorry, Lo." Drew turned back toward the cabin stairs to help her.
Charlie, who'd been quiet the whole time and was not the first person Griffin would've expected to be down for this, suggested, "How about regular Hold'em, but we designate certain stipulations for each chip color? Like, clothes are worth one type of chip, a shot's worth another, so on."
There was a collective pause around the cockpit as Lauren handed drinks up to Drew, like everyone was down for Charlie's idea but no one wanted to be the first to agree to it.
"I could get behind that," Drew said. "Like, you can either play a chip or do whatever's assigned to it?" Charlie nodded, and Drew looked thoughtful again. "OK, but it has to be high-stakes, and everyone has to agree on them. Savvy?"
Five minutes later, everyone was crowded around the cockpit table, each with a drink and a stack of poker chips in front of them. Drew gave them a quick, how-to-play refresher, and after they'd all agreed on the chip terms (or, in Griffin's case, didn't object to), Drew had them each Venmo him a twenty-dollar buy-in.
"OK, so here's the count," he said, holding up a white chip. "This is twenty cents, or one tequila shot." He plucked a red one up next. "This is forty cents, or—what was it again?"
"Ugh. Kiss the dealer," Lauren said begrudgingly. She, Mary Kyle, and Drew were taking up the opposite bench in front of the table. "That was your idea."
Drew Prince Eric-ed at her. "Ah, that's right. Yes. Smooch the dealer. But, it's dealer's choice, and they're allowed to say no, because we all support consent here, right, kiddos?"
Charlie scoffed under his breath.
Drew moved on to the blue chips. "Which brings us to Lauren's suggestion: blues are one dollar, or Truth or Dare. Again dealer's choice."
Griffin had wanted to object to that one. Nothing good for her had ever come out of a game of Truth or Dare. But she decided at the last second to stay quiet. Lauren probably would've taken it personally if she'd called it out, and it wasn't like Griffin was planning on using any of these extra chip stipulations, anyway.
Drew picked up his lone black chip. "And lastly, fam, and my personal favorite: five-dollars, or one article of clothing."
"Deal 'em up already," Evan said, rubbing his hands together. He'd dragged a foldable chair up from the cabin and was perched at the head of the table. "I'm ready to take all your money and then bankrupt the girls with it."
Lauren, Mary Kyle, and Griffin each groaned some variation of, "Gross."
"Hold up, Ev. We gotta do a final rules check," Drew said, shuffling the deck of cards. He snapped the bridge down, just to be extra. "Aces are high. Dealer's always left. Don't forget to move the dealer chip after each game or everyone loses a dollar. Or a secret. No boating your cards, because these look expensive."
He placed the deck in front of Griffin for her to cut, and she made sure to cut them back toward him. He smiled approvingly, then began to deal out the first hand.
"Final rule," Drew said, flicking two cards out to everyone, face-down. "Any misdeal is an automatic recall and re-shuffle. Whatever's in the pot goes back to the initial better. We good? Good."
Everyone grabbed a hand and checked their cards.
Griffin cupped her fingers over hers and peeked at the corners. A king of spades and a king of hearts. When Bo was teaching her how to play a few years ago, he'd nagged her incessantly about how bad her poker face was. Pocket kings was hell of a pair to start out with, so Griffin made sure to keep her expression as neutral as she could.
Charlie jokingly leaned over and tried to peek at her cards. Griffin pushed him back, grinning big anyway.
"OK. Matty Boy's dealer's left," Drew said, settling in. "Let's do it to it."
Matty threw in a white chip as the opening bet. Griffin threw a red one in after him.
Charlie immediately folded.
"Yikes. Not feelin' it yet, chief?" Drew said, pulling the cards into the discard pile.
Charlie just shrugged and leaned back in his seat, propping an arm on the cockpit edge behind Griffin's head. His leg pressed right up against hers under the table, and Griffin would've curled into how warm he felt if she wasn't so amped on trying to win in cards.
The bet went to Evan next. He decided he was game for forty cents.
"Wait a sec," Lauren cut in, "do I have to play a white chip or a red one?"
"Red," Drew and Evan said at the same time.
"Why did Matty get to play a white?"
Again, Griffin tried to keep her face neutral, but her eyebrows still knitted together. Lauren knew how play. And she definitely knew how to bet. Who do you think had sent all those Snaps and Instagrams of the Hold'em tournament last summer?
"Matty's got the little blind this round," Evan explained. "He guarantees a bet to start the game. Griffin's the big blind and has to double the little blind bet, so when it's Matty's turn again, he either has to even the pot back up, bet more, or fold. Keeps the game going."
"And the blinds change every game," Griffin added, hoping this could be an opportunity to get Lauren to at least acknowledge her. "Next game, Matty's the dealer, I'm the little blind, Charlie's the big, and so on."
Lauren checked her cards again and slid a red chip into the middle. "OK, I bet forty too, then."
"You call," Drew corrected gently.
"Whatever. You're up, Mary Kyle," Lauren said, and it was like Griffin hadn't even spoken.
Awesome.
Mary Kyle and Drew added their bets, and then Matty tossed in another twenty cents to even the pot.
"OK, ladies and gents! We're ready for the flop," Drew said excitedly. He picked up the deck, placed the top card face-down in the discard pile, but then paused. "Oh yeah, I forgot. Whoever's dealing, remember to burn and turn, yeah? So you burn the top card of the deck to the discard pile before you flip over the betting cards, or else it's a mis—"
"We got it, man." Evan rolled his hand to hurry him up. "Let's go already."
Unfazed, Drew happily flipped over the next three cards. He lined them up in a row in the middle of the table.
"And, here we go, fam! We've got two of a kind already and two suits on the board," Drew said, narrating the table like an auctioneer. "Bet's to Matty Boy again, who can either raise, check, or fold. Friendly table reminder that checking's when you pass your bet on to the next player."
Lauren glared over at him, then focused back on the cards.
Matty tapped the table twice with his index finger.
"Alrighty, universal check sign from Matty Boy," Drew said. "Griff?"
The two eights on the board gave Griffin an early advantage here, but she wanted to be careful first. Bo always taught her two pair was never as good a hand as people thought...
Charlie nudged her leg twice under the table with his knee. It was definitely deliberate, which meant he was either flirting with her or trying to tell her to check. Or both. Griffin pretended to mull over the cards and nudged him right back. She didn't need any help here.
He chuckled to himself.
Griffin ended up checking, and one by one, everyone still in the game followed.
"Wow, hands are that bad, huh?" Drew joked, burning the top card from the deck. "Here comes the turn..."
Drew pushed out his bottom lip. "OK, not too bad there. Matty?"
Matty checked again. So did Griffin—right as Charlie's leg started swaying against hers under the table. At first she thought he was just shifting in his seat, but then he turned it into a slow, steady rhythm, just subtle enough to keep them touching.
Evan glanced at his hand and tossed a red chip into the pot a little too hard.
"That's what I'm talking' about, Ev!" Drew said, catching the chip before it skidded off the table. "Upped forty cents. Bet's to you, Lo."
Lauren added another red to the pile. "I call?"
"Yes ma'am, you do! And so does MK over here," Drew said as Mary Kyle put in her own bet. "I think I will too, just to keep it interesting."
Matty tossed his hand into the discard pile.
"Matty Boy folds. Bet's to Griff, now."
Griffin stared at the cards, sipping her drink and trying to concentrate. Charlie was now rocking his leg into hers slowly, shifting back lazily, then pushing back against her again, and Jesus Christ—was he trying to ruin her poker face? Griffin dropped a hand under the table and clamped down on his knee, hard. She probably wasn't being subtle about it, but let's be real here, neither was he.
Charlie stopped and stretched back, folding both hands behind his head for a second. Griffin could practically hear him smirking. She shifted forward and put her elbows on the table.
OK. So. Cards.
That five of spades Drew turned was no help to Griffin's hand, and if someone else had a six and a seven as their hand, it just gave them a straight. Still, Griffin already had two pair, and Drew had one more card to turn over. She picked up two red chips and tossed them into the pot, upping the bet by another forty cents.
"Ooh. Yes. I like it, Griff," Drew said. "Bet's to Evan now."
Evan called.
Lauren scowled down at her cards, eyes flicking between hers and the ones in the middle of the table.
"Call," she said.
Mary Kyle quietly passed her hand over to Drew to add to the discard pile.
"Mary Kyle folds, but I think I'll stay in," Drew said, adding in his chip. "Pot's even, folks. Here comes the river..." He burned the top card on the deck and flipped the next one over.
Griffin's stomach swung up into her throat when she saw it.
She had a Full House: three kings and two eights. So unless someone else at the table had the other pair of eights in their hand, she was going to win the pot.
"Griff? Bet's to you."
This was where it got tricky, though. It was Griffin, Evan, Lauren, and Drew left, and all the cards were on the table. If Griffin bet too much, she might scare people into folding. But if she didn't bet enough and everyone either called or folded, she'd miss out on the potential money's worth of a Full House.
"Eighty cents," Griffin said.
Evan immediately called.
Lauren messed with her stack of reds for a second, then switched over to her blues. She threw two dollars in.
"Hot DAMN, OK. I see you, Lo!" Drew said, grinning, but then he tucked his hand in with the discard pile. "Well, I mean I see you as in, like, I respect the move, but, I'm outta here. Griff? You got a dollar and twenty cents you wanna add in?"
"Here's the dollar-twenty..." Griffin said, sliding in a blue and a red chip. She picked up two more blues and hesitated, worried it might be too much, and tossed them in. "And I raise two bucks."
"God damnit." Evan threw his hand down. "Fold."
Which meant it was just Lauren and Griffin now, and Lauren went right ahead and tossed in three more blues. They landed on top of the loose pile in the middle of the table. Another raise.
Griffin absently thumbed at her stack of reds.
Lauren had to have the straight. She would've gone all-in by now if she had the four eights, because she wasn't patient enough to wait people out. But Griffin was. And now that Lauren had raised the bet again... Griffin could go all-in her instead. Maybe that would finally get her attention.
But, did Griffin really want to do that?
Lauren would lose all of her chips in the first hand, and she probably wouldn't stick around after that. The whole point of tonight was to get everyone back together and on good terms, right?
"Raise two," Griffin said, pushing her bet into the pile.
"Whoo, baby." Drew pinched the front of his fishing shirt and fanned himself with it. "You girls are making me sweat on the first hand. Lo? Whatcha think?"
Lauren sighed through her nose, and, shockingly, her eyes tracked up to Griffin's.
"I'm all in," she said, and she pushed the rest of her chips into the middle of the table.
Griffin's stomach dropped.
"Ohhh shit!"
"Damn, Lo!"
"What the fuck? HOW? Why?"
"Comin' out guns blazing! Look at this y'all!"
Everyone was freaking out around the table, but Lauren was still looking right at Griffin. She tilted her head slightly, and the corner of her mouth curved into the smuggest grin Griffin had ever seen.
Screw this.
Griffin shoved all her chips into the middle of the table. "All in."
The boys went nuts.
Evan jumped out of his chair and Drew started singing, "Hallelujah!" in falsetto and Matty went into tabletop drumroll, announcing, "Let's get ready to rumble!"
Across the table, Lauren was still smirking at Griffin.
There was no fucking way she had all four eights. No. She was either bluffing, or she had the straight. And it would be just like Lauren to assume Griffin had the lesser hand. She'd completely ignored Griffin since she came back from California, clearly mad about something but refusing tell her what. And now here she was, going all-in on Griffin when she'd pretended to not even know how the opening bets worked.
It was bullshit.
"OK, Griff," Drew said, pretending to be out of breath. "Last to bet, first to flip. Let's see what you got."
Griffin flipped over her cards. "Full House."
The reaction from the boys was deafening, but it wasn't nearly as loud as the wide-open, shit-eating smile that appeared on Lauren's face. Her eyes flicked up from the middle of the table and locked with Griffin's again.
She flipped her cards.
Eight of clubs. Eight of diamonds.
A/N: Yeah, definitely didn't anticipate 4oJ spanning this many chapters, but here we are, and we're not even done yet 😂 Y'all know I love a good melodramatic summer holiday.
Thoughts? Confusion? Too much info dump about Texas Hold'em?
The good news is, the next chapter starts with Griffin having no chips left, so she has to resort to certain ~*stipulations*~ to buy back in hehehe. Any guesses on what you think she'll start with? 🤠
SEE U SOON, FAM.
—Alex
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Copyright © 2021 by Alex Evansley
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