My daughter Amanda is a quick study in the game of poker

Two days ago I taught my two older daughters how to play seven card stud. That night we played a few hands before they went to bed. Last night we played a few more hands.

Tonight I got home from work and one of my daughters, Amanda, was particularly eager to play poker. So eager that she had already dealt out the first three cards to each of us, two face down and one face up. My up card was an eight; her up card was a king. We played through the hand with her betting aggressively on every turn. This is not surprising, because she tends to bet no matter what she has. I called all the way to the final card, even though I only had a pair of tens.

At the end of the hand, she turned over her two down cards. Pocket kings to match the king she got dealt as a third card. What are the odds of getting dealt a hand as good as that? About 1 in 2,500. Perhaps she just got lucky. More likely she had a little spare time on her hands this afternoon and did a little deck-stacking in advance of my arrival. That’s my girl!

Tomorrow night she promised to teach me how to deal off the bottom of the deck.