The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Dustin finally had another Euchre Tournament.

Euchre is a standard, but pretty darn awesome card game. It’s simple, but requires a ton of meta-game strategy in order to play it well. There’s luck involved, sure. Sometimes you’ll go all night without getting dealt a decent hand. But most of the time it’s about knowing how to use the cards you have to the best of their ability and how to read your partner to know how to play the cards you have without outright cheating.

I’m alright at Euchre. I know the rules, I love games, and I get enough of the basic strategy to not make a fool out of myself, even though I maybe don’t win all that often. However, Dustin’s family are a bunch of Euchre experts. He used to get them all together, and us, to play, and it just amazed me how much of a challenge that was. Not that older people can’t play cards or something, but more that they took the game so seriously, and at the same time so lightly. They play cutthroat, serious, cut you no slack Euchre, but they laugh and joke the whole way through. It’s pretty well the best atmosphere for this kind of tournament. It was a really great night.

How did I do? Well, I went 4W-6L. I was hoping to go 5 and 5, just because that seemed like a good goal, but it was not to be. My wins didn’t get me many points either: I only won very close games, for the most part. Still, in that crowd, I was totally fine with it. I only felt like I made one play mistake all night, when I called on a really risky hand and got completely embarrassed and set. That’s good enough for me.

Dustin won it all, and went on like that was a bad thing, and that it looked bad that he won his own tournament. It was really kind of silly. If that man knows anything, he knows German and playing Euchre. He is a Euchre machine. Everyone there was a good friend. It’s not like we thought he was cheating or something. At least, if we said it, it was in a purely joking manner.

But yeah, it was a damn fun night. Always nice to get on a bit of old-school, standard gaming, and have such a good time. I remember when we used to play Euchre all the time. It’s probably my favorite game with a standard deck of cards. (Pinochle is fun, but requires a special deck and more rules. Euchre is much faster, compact, and you can always play it.) Damn good times.

Of course, then at the end, Dustin said he’d try to get another one together over Christmas break. And my mind went to how different I’d be then, and trying to explain that to his whole extended family… but eh, I would. And I’d have fun anyway.