Recognize the title?

Perhaps you’re singing the remainder of the chorus to Kenny Roger’s The Gambler. It is a song I learned at an early age. It references an understanding of when you have a solid hand in poker. Something I also learned early in life. Like, really early.

In a previous piece, I wrote about how and why, I learned to read at an advanced rate.  It was a combination of access to increasingly challenging material and lack of anything better to do.  Once I learned the skill of reading meant I could unlock more adventures, I was hooked.

Math, that other basic function we learn as children, well, that was a different educational path entirely. 

My aptitude with numbers, I presume, is partly genetic.  My father and brother both excel working with numbers.  Mind you, they both are gifted artists whereas I am not qualified to play Pictionary, so genes only take you so far.

Think back to how we are first introduced to numbers in western society.  Typically, we start by identifying what numbers are, stating them in the correct order and understanding what they represent.

Where did you learn this if you were a small child in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s and not yet old enough to attend kindergarten?

Down on Sesame Street of course!

Watching Sesame Street I learned to sing along while an animated ball bounced around and progressed through a pinball machine:

One-two-three-four-five. Six-seven-eight-nine-ten. Eleven. Twelve.

Sadly, that was as far as the pinball, and the song, went.

For context, for me to understand numbers represented a quantity of things, Sesame Street gave us Count von Count.  Our friendly, if tireless, vampire who could not resist counting everything to the annoyance of his friends. 

So far, so good. 

Now, how does a small child learn to apply numbers, actual basic mathematics skills, before starting school and before home computers?

The fancy way, was via The Little Professor, a device that looks like an old man wearing a graduation cap who swallowed a calculator, and prompted children with basic math statements which, when answered correctly, kept the prompts coming.  Incorrect answers resulted in ‘EEE’ and the everlasting shame of not knowing what 6 + 7 equals. Remember, that damn pinball machine stops at twelve.

The other less fancy method, looked upon favourably by members of the education industry, is using flash cards.  Those oversized cards that display the numeral and have the corresponding amount of dots to aid in addition or subtraction. 

You know what else looks like this? A deck of playing cards. 

3 Quick Math Lessons via Poker

Looked upon less favourably by educators, yet found in virtually every household, especially back then, a deck of playing cards taught many basic and advanced mathematical functions.  It also prevented the need for a babysitter if the kids could join in on some grown-up games.

Counting 

The obvious one-to-one replacement for flash cards, at least up to and including the ‘ten’ card.  I was able to use these to perform basic addition.  I remember in grade one, a few classmates struggled with the transition when counting between ten and eleven, or nineteen and twenty.  When the numbers themselves undergo significant changes in pronunciation that are tricky at that age.  My challenge was not saying “nine-ten-jack-queen-king” as I learned early on my primary school teachers did not want to hear my numerical prowess was acquired playing poker.

Example: The correct answer to the question, What is 8 + 8 + 5 + 5 + 5 = ? is 31.

Not a full house.

Pattern Recognition

Setting aside numerals for a moment, a deck of cards teaches basic pattern recognition. In addition to representing a quantity , each card also represents a suit: hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds.  As a kid, I learned to see the cards in my hand in two different ways. Which meant that even if, for some reason, the numbers didn’t add up to much, I understood my five diamond cards meant I was likely in contention to win that round with a flush. That’s something!

Algebra

Basic algebra teaches us to solve for X.  That is, we replace an actual number in a mathematical with an abstract element which represents, or stands-in, for that number. 

E.g. 7 + 7 + X = 21 

Here, X represents the number 7, so that our equation 7 + 7 + 7 = 21 makes logical sense.

That is precisely how wild cards work!  If deuces are wild, that means a ‘two’ card represents whatever I need it to be to logically give me the best hand.  Okay, maybe that is a bit of a stretch, but I wasn’t even in kindergarten yet, so I deserve a little credit.

Dealer’s Choice

When it comes to playing cards, I grew up in a time before Texas Hold’em was the only option.  Thankfully.  I realize I’m in the minority as it took the world by storm, but I find it monotonous.  In our extended family, we had a wealth of options, where everyone seated at the table got to choose which game they wanted to play when it was their turn to deal.  AKA dealer’s choice.

Almost all of these games were a combination of

• the number of draws (if any),

• a variety of wild cards (if any),

• sometimes variable wild cards and of course,

• the target hand you hoped to achieve 

These games included the typical variations of stud poker with a twist including Blackjack, Lowball, Acey-Deucy, Follow-the-Queen, Kings-and-Wee-Ones, Iron Cross, Baseball and the cleverly named Deuces, One-Eyed Jacks and the Man with the Ax which translates to “the following cards are wild: all twos, the jack of hearts, the jack of spades and the king of diamonds”.

Even as a young child, I had the opportunity to learn various strategies, accept that my wild card advantage had just been erased and adjust my betting accordingly.

What?  You didn’t expect we were all sitting around playing with tidily winks? 

Gambling is still learning to count.

It just has the added benefit of earning a little corner store money. 

We only played with change.  Pennies through quarters.  Yes, back in the before times, Canadian currency started at pennies and did not include loonies or twoonies.

Occasionally, a more layered game, such as the American version of Chicago, was played.  Where I learned to play (and bet) the hand I was dealt in a 7-card stud format, and then determine which strategy to place your final bet on: high hand, high spade-in-the-hole or both.

It is here, where I should stress that although I was learning all of these strategies, and, ahem increasing my competency in mathematics and probability, I was not learning to keep a poker face.  One particular evening, the pot in a game of Chicago grew to include a few small bills and, having the ace of spades in my face down cards, I was virtually jumping out of my chair.

Skit Skat

One of our family’s favourite, medium-length card games was 31, which is also known as ‘Scat’, but in our house, was called Skit Skat.  Don’t ask me why, it just was. 

Remember when I told you about my maternal grandmother making ill-fated TV choices for my brother and I?  Well, I don’t want my dad’s side of the family to be left of out in the category of questionable child-rearing practices.  It’s all about balance.

My dad’s mom lived with us for stretches of time throughout the years.  On select weeknights, when I was all of six years old, we hit the jackpot.  My dad was working nights, and my mom would escape with her friend to go to fitness classes, which I believe were held in the school gymnasium.  After tucking me away in bed, she would leave for about 90-minutes to 2-hours, and return home to find her mother-in-law crocheting while watching the television or reading quietly. 

What she would later learn, is that as soon as the car left our driveway, grandma gave the ‘all clear’ so her, my brother and I could get down to business, playing Skit Skat.  Each ‘life’ cost us a dime.  The first few rounds were easy.  The challenge became seeing how late we could try to squeeze a new game in and sometimes, we pushed it. 

Nothing made the three of us scramble faster than two bright headlights sweeping across the front room. 

My brother and I shot off to our bedrooms, trying to calm ourselves so we could fake deep sleep should mom check in on us, leaving grandma frantically removing all traces of the fun we’d been having with both parents away and also, assume her pretend interest in whatever she was reading or watching. 

So yes, that’s how I learned about numbers and probability at a young age.

And yes, perhaps some of these habits would freak out the pearl-clutching parents or teachers back then (or today for that matter) but if you weren’t hiding secret-nighttime-grandparent-gambling-sessions from your own parents while growing up, were you even truly enjoying your childhood?

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Keep this topic going: listen to the accompanying Reflections by G podcast