Thee Epic Game of Cards

The put-in for the upper Valldøla

For about a week and a half we have been travelling with Clare and Greg (our friends from New Zealand… oh also Dad, Clare is Murray Hawk’s niece which I found out randomly the other day – small world ay). To pass the time in the evenings, games of five hundreds become standard and the invincible team of Clare and I almost always won… well Greg either doesn’t like to stop on a losing hand or really likes playing cards because he often dealt the next round before anyone had a chance to realise how late it was and make their escape to bed.

Anyhow the other day we started a game at around eleven, after we had finished cooking/eating/cleaning/and putting wee Rolfy to bed. The first two hands took about an hour with Clare and me easily dispatching our inferior opponents… not much competition at all really. But then on the third hand Clare decided to make things a little more interesting and reneged effectively handicapping us 500 points – ‘cheers Clare!’

At one stage things were not looking good. Around two hours into the hand the result looked a forgone conclusion with the scores at 540 to -460 (we play you have to make it to go out). Greg’s confidence was showing as he casually replied “too low to matter” when we asked what our score was. Nothing for it… it’s time to bid big and dance with the backdoor. “Let’s go down in flames Clare, there’s no point in being cautious!”

Rolf 'the bear' Kelly looking ready to pounce

Maybe some Gin and Tonic will help our performance… “Yes please, make mine a big one… and easy on the tonic!!” I tell you that we haven’t drunken much in Norway as it is cost prohibitive so a couple of G&T’s nearly put me on my arse. Perfect… now if I can just focus on the cards we might have a chance.

Rolf styling the hardest rapid on the run
(unfortunately the crux can not be seen in this photo)

Our big break come as the light outside was rapidly brightening and Eden got tired of being out bid. We pushed him up from Misere to Open Misere and took him down. The next two hands hand saw us climb nearly 500 points and the scores were all but tied… game on! With Eden and Greg looking a little bewildered at how they could have blown a 1000 point lead it was time to bury the sword a little deeper and we dispensed with the formalities to finished things off quickly. The hand still lasted well over three hours!!!

Of course Greg dealt another round and we played on until morning. Time to go kayaking I think… so that’s what we did which explains the photos you are looking at. Pictures of us playing cards would be a little boring now wouldn’t they!