My sister, who, if you look at my pictures, is a taller, skinner version of myself (with the same bust, but not nearly the hips and bum I have), is single. As such, she holds legendary parties. Legendary! She's been trying to get me to go for ages, but as I am married, with two small children, it is difficult for me to find the time to go to a party that is likely to run well in the small hours of the morning, as hers often do.
We were living in Austin, Texas in the summer of 2006, and my sister was living in New Braunfels, which lies south of Austin along the I-35 about 45 minutes from us. My husband was on a duty assignment in Hawaii for three months, and I was a little lonely. So, when she invited me to one of her parties and offered to pay the babysitter for the whole night, I just had to agree.
I arrived at Beth's (my sister's) house about 6:00, and there were already a lot of people there. All were friends of my sister's in one fashion or another, and nearly all were enlisted military, most in their mid-twenties. Maybe 8 or 10 guys about and six women, including my sister and myself.
I was wearing a skirt and a light cotton blouse, and had spent a lot of time doing my makeup and my hair, as a lady is allowed to do when going out for the first time in a while. The first two hours or so were fairly uneventful, and I pretty much kept to myself as I didn't know anyone save my sister, making idle chitchat when it was called for. Dinner was good, the guys cooking up ribs on the barbeque. I guess it was about 8:00 or so (the sun had gone down) when someone pushed two of the tables together and the broke out the pokerchips and cards. Not sure what was going on, I was tentative when approaching the table, but was encouraged to join. Actually, I was told in no uncertain terms that I HAD to play.
The game was Texas Hold'em poker, adult style. The rules were exactly like Texas hold'em (if you haven't played, it a shared poker game where everyone has two cards of their own and play a community hand of 5 more. I'm terrible at poker). The difference was, everyone was only given 5 chips to start with. If you ran out, you had to 'buy in' by using a piece of clothing, which you could exchange for a varying rate (1 chip for a shirt, shoe, or sock; 2 chips for pants or skirt, 3 chips for underwear). With the amount of encouragement (and perhaps the couple of margaritas) I was getting, I agreed and sat down to play.
Since there were 12 people playing (7 guys, 5 girls), the first couple of rounds went slow. I didn't quite understand the betting rules, but you apparently don't have to bid ever round, and can fold without committing any money. It doesn't really matter, and doesn't really have any bearing on the story. As the game progressed, I'm pretty sure some new rules were made up on the spot. One of the girls had already sold both her shoes, did not have socks, and was reluctant to sell her shirt for a chip. One of the guys offered to sell her a chip for a kiss, which she smiled and took him up on.