I’ve just gotten back from a weeklong camping trip, and I brought my chips and cards with me. The whole day I did little besides drive some youngsters to the scouts’ camp.

I had nothing to do, so a group of kids of varying ages decided to go outside and play with me. Everyone seeing the outcome of these games would be blown away.

Texas holdem is a game of surprise and astonishment, you can never tell what is going to happen.

We had half blids and six players for this game. Each player had 40 chips. A bunch of naive youngsters that I taught. They had no idea how to play or any of the possible card combinations or suits. They were doomed to fail at every turn.

The other participants’ ages ranged from roughly 17 to 18. They where fair players and with my coaching they grasped some of the basics of texas holdem. They attempted to conceal their expressions of deceit, but were unsuccessful. They always peered at the flop like it was going to fly away or something. Now I was paying close attention to their expressions.

The presence or absence of cards was immediately apparent. The monster texas holdem hands were identical, and the bluffs were transparent.

Trouble started when we included children. Since they had no understanding how to play texas holdem, there was no chance they where going to win. As soon as we started, they where betting 3 before the flop. We all went with it thinking they where doing it for fun, escalating the stakes.

At that point, things began to deteriorate. They were showing off their best cards by drawing aces, connectors, and conceivers. Straights and flushes helped them win on the river. For the most part, we were consistently underestimating them, and we always double-checked. They had an unbeatable hand and won every hand. THey controlled each hand and they didnt even know what they where doing.

We converted them into texas holdem sharks. Once the elder players understood that the younger guys where getting great cards they played tighter and broke there run.

Never assume your opponent is weaker than they are, regardless of their age or poker experience, since the cards will fall where they may.

After some time, we learned that even if we managed to convince them to reveal their cards, we would still lose every time because they always possessed winning monster hands. I can honestly say I have never seen anything like this before.