A bunch of males in Washougal, Washington, most likely have a reasonably good learn on one another on the poker desk. These eight gamers have been a part of a daily poker recreation on the Orchard Hills Golf & Nation Membership for nearly six a long time.
The sport started in 1968 when just a few of the gamers had been on the lookout for some enjoyable and located just a few highschool pals to play with.
“My math says that’s 56 years,” 77-year-old Bob Haley advised KGW-8 Information. He’s one of many founders of the sport and provides of the low-stakes affair: “It’s about bragging rights!”
Social Sport
Taking part in that lengthy collectively has allowed for a lot of adjustments within the males’s lives. A number of are army veterans, together with Marvin Doering, who was shot at whereas flying a U-2 spy aircraft through the Cuban Missile Disaster. At 94 years previous, he’s the oldest member of the group, but additionally one of the crucial current to affix, having been added to the sport within the mid-Nineteen Nineties.
“I’d similar to to say there’s hardly something I’d moderately do than play poker with this group proper right here,” he advised KGW.
The group doesn’t talk about politics on the desk however there are many battle tales to be shared together with laughs, cigar breaks, and extra. The sport’s stakes are irrelevant, with pots filled with spare change, however the motion has turn out to be about way more than dealing playing cards and transferring chips. After so many tales, so many pots, and so many laughs, they take into account their recreation a brotherhood.
That’s definitely true for Jim Kenney, 77, who served in Vietnam and was spared when a bullet hit his M14 rifle journal as a substitute of hitting him. He grew to become a part of the poker group in 1970 after returning house from battle.
“I admire these guys,” he mentioned. “We share the reminiscences. We share the priority.”
