Poker War Story - Vietnam - 1968

Some folks have asked for poker stories from old timers, so here is one.

It was late 1968 and I was in charge of a four-man advisory team in Vietnam. We were advising a RF/PF company guarding a bridge on the edge of War Zone D. We lived in an old french barracks, had an electric generator, an outdoor toilet, and hand-made shower facilities. Except for the fact people were trying to kill me, it was the best duty I had in two years in Vietnam.

Our recon teams penetrating War Zone D started making contact with what appeared to be a major NVA unit moving toward Saigon and the Vietnamese decided to stage a battalion (500 men more or less) out of our site. Since we were pretty much in the wilderness, they sent in an American engineer unit to rebuild our landing zone first.

They worked all day and that night the Engineer lieutenant and the lead sergeant showed up. The sergeant had a deck of cards and wanted to know if we wanted to play poker. At that time, I hadn't progressed much beyond Yardley, but that was pretty good for those days. So we got a 7-stud nickel, dime, and quarter game going. Considering the year and the amount of money we carried, that was pretty good stakes. Anyway, we wound up with a decent game, I caught good cards, and I won about $20.

The next day, the ARVN regiment started arriving. The first thing you know, here are their advisors, heard about a game, looking to play: so we started another game. Pretty soon, the higher-ranking Vietnamese started showing up, wanting to play too. We couldn't piss off our counterparts, so we let them in as spaces came available. Their idea of play was to put their money in, call every bet, and at the end turn the hand over and say, "Did I win?" As soon as they were broke (not long) the lower-ranking guys arrived with the same poker technique.

Except for necessary breaks to piss, and do military necessities, I played for two days straight. I believe that my lead sergeant, the engineer lead sergeant, and I pretty much cleaned out every Vietnamese and most of the Americans on the place. When everyone was gone and the game over, I had won over $350. In a nickel-dime-quarter game!

The money paid for my R&R in Hong Kong.

Published with the permission of the author.
Reproduction without the author's permission prohibited.