© 2021, All rights reserved -- mimaster
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The room was thick with cigar smoke, a cloud hanging over the table like fog. Darren stared at his hand, patiently waiting his turn. Throwing down two cards, he picked up the ones that were sent his way to replace them. He'd raised on the first round of betting, before calling on the second. Laying down his full house, he smiled as he raked the pot of money his direction.
"Damn, Darren... you are having some luck today," Lynn said with a shake of his head.
"There's nothing lucky about it. It's all about strategy," he shrugged in response. "Same as on the course."
"Bullshit," Norman scoffed as he gathered the cards and began shuffling them.
Keith backed his playing partner. "Come on, Norm. You can be miffed that he bluffs better than you at poker, but you have admit, Darren plays a smarter golf game than you two."
"You're just saying that because he won you thirty bucks today."
"No arguing there. He plays smarter than me too. I'll admit, if anyone was lucky, it was me being his partner."
Darren picked up the cards that were dealt to him, organizing them in his hand. "I'm not sure I play smarter, but I do play to my strengths most of the time," he offered, throwing a quarter into the kitty.
"We weren't playing stroke play, Darren. We were playing best ball," Norman corrected.
Norman and Lynn were State Police officers, stationed at a post about thirty miles away. But they lived in town. They were members of the club and played frequently. They also happened to be two of at least a dozen members of the local law enforcement community that Darren had befriended over the years in Virginia. That included the town police as well as the county sheriff's department. Some he met through his business interactions in town, but most happened through golf. Darren was good friends with four troopers, but he was closest to Norman and Lynn. So was Keith.
Norman's assertion about playing the friendly match in a best ball format was poignant. If Darren had a bad hole, he could hope that his playing partner would bail him out. The lowest score on a hole would win, and if two players tied but were on opposing teams, the hole would be halved. In stroke play, Darren always played to his strengths, and tried to minimize a big number if he got into trouble. In best ball, he might have a huge score on a hole, but Keith could potentially win or tie it for the team.
Yet Darren seldom played reckless. If he were in a scramble tournament, where all players hit and they used the best shot of the group, then he would take chances. Other than that, he always played to post the best score he could. And that was his point to the rest of the group.
"No offense to Keith, but it seemed more like match play to me. I think he was only a factor on four holes."
"Three, actually," Keith admitted with a resigned chuckle.
"Well, there you go.
I had
to play that way."
"And that was my point. You play smart. Always. There's a reason you shot seventy-seven, partner."
"I did play pretty well," he grinned as he laid down his two pair, winning another hand of five-card draw.
Lynn slammed his cards onto the table, the sound echoing in the locker room. He yelled in mock anger. "Dammit! How do you keep doing that!?"
"Keith already told you. I can tell when you're bluffing. Norm too," he smirked.
"
How!?
"
"Well if I told you that, you'd know how I know, and then I couldn't take your money."
"I think you've taken enough today. I'm done."
"Me too," Norman laughed. "Otherwise we might have to arrest you for pickpocketing. You've been in our wallets all day."
In reality, he and Keith each won thirty dollars on the course. Ten for winning each side of the eighteen holes, and another ten when their opponents pressed the last four holes of the match, hoping to cut those losses half. Instead they lost all three wagers, and then Darren won almost another ten dollars from the other three collectively in the poker game that followed. Pocketing his winnings as he stood, he grinned.
"I'd call that a good day," he laughed.
"At least I still came out ahead," Keith said, losing four dollars of his golf winnings to Darren in the card game. "Frankly, the way I hacked it around the course today, you deserve that for lugging me around with you."
Darren gave his friend an out, saying, "Don't torture yourself. You've been gone three weeks. You have a right to be rusty."
"I wish I could use that as an excuse, Darren. When I'm gone that long I fly my clubs with me so I have something to do on the weekends, and the occasional evening. I played three times last week."
"Well then yeah,
you do
owe me.
I haven't
played in a week."
The four of them walked up the stairs from the huge men's locker room housed in the basement of the old clubhouse, walking through the pro shop on the way to the parking lot. Darren gave a wave to Joel, the golf pro, who was working behind the counter.
"Heard you shot five over par," he called out.
Darren smiled and said, "A few more rounds like that and I might get down to Gene's handicap."
"I think it might take more than a few, but that's a good round out there today. There are a lot of tough pin placements."
"Yeah. But I was below the hole most of the day. Makes it a lot easier. Take care, Joel. Have fun playing with my wife this week."
"Beg your pardon?" he replied, blushing a bit as he fought off a surge of panic. He was stunned that Darren would say something so brazen in front of others.
Darren held in his laughter, but his eyes showed the humor he felt in catching him in a compromised situation. Letting him off the hook, he explained, "Betsy said you're going to take her out on the course for her next private lesson. I'm looking forward to her telling me how that ends up."
"Oh... that! Yeah. It's a first for me. It should be interesting. I thought we were going to do it yesterday, but she called when we got rained out last week and said she wanted a few more lessons on the range before we hit the course."
Darren smiled, knowing that delay was really because she wasn't allowed to play sexually when he was traveling; part of the rules he'd established for her extracurricular marital activities. "Well, she's excited. I know she's looking forward to it. See you next weekend."
"Okay. Take care."
Lynn and Norman had already left by the time Darren got outside. Keith was standing near his car. Which was parked one spot away from his.
"You really did play great today, buddy."
"Thanks. I had a blast playing with you."
"Me too. I'll do better next time. I can't play much worse."
"You had some bad luck. It happens."
"Alright, well, I need to get home and get cleaned up. I'll see you tonight."
"Tonight? We don't have bridge tonight. That's