All of a sudden everyone loves poker. Celebrities love it, strippers love it, and obviously dogs can't get enough of it. Poker is the new black.

My wife, however, will tell you that she's been playing poker for decades (not that she's very many decades old, mind you), and now that our child is old enough to sleep for hours at a time, we've decided to start playing again. A semi-regular monthly game has been scheduled and we've gotten a few games in. Our cast of characters includes:

The rookie: She professes to be totally ignorant of poker and then wins the most money

The analyticals: Our circle of friends has many computer programmers. We can be consistently counted on to lament how statistically anomalous it is that we lose so many hands. Of course by "our circle of friends", I mostly mean me.

The shark: This guy brings his own set of poker chips (complete in cool metal case) and knows all the lingo. "Are we playing with the Wheel?" "You've got the stone cold nuts!" "Dealer chooses Dirty Sanchez" (Ok, I'm not positive he said that last one)

It's been a lot of fun. Much more fun than playing poker in a casino. I only tried that once. It ended up that I got sat at a table with Judge Mills Lane. Have you ever tried playing poker against a Judge who once took on Mike Tyson? It's not a lucrative venture. Other folks at the table rarely called his bluff, and when we did, he was never bluffing. He had the nuts.