True luck consists not in holding the best of the cards at the table; luckiest is he who knows just when to rise and go home.
— John Milton Hay, former United States Secretary of State
Longhouse boys of the 60s occupied themselves with a number of interesting hobbies.
These pursuits were to kill boredom and at times to add excitement to “ulu” (remote) life in the absence of modern gadgets and toys enjoyed by their urban peers at that time.
One such fun was the game of cards. Of course, our pursuit and knowledge of card games were learnt from our elders who were not necessarily our parents.
I learned poker known as “main pey” (most likely referring to “pair”) and blackjack, locally known as “bandat”, from granduncles and uncles as my poor dad avoided those card games as he would not know the difference between a jack and a king or a queen or even a three and a four — his illiteracy was the culprit.
Our poker mentor in Kedap longhouse was a famed gambler and cockfighter cum prolific story-teller, Ngelambai Rambuyan, a granduncle who was my maternal grandma’s first cousin.
We learned from him through games of poker with rubber bands as stakes — 30 new rubber bands then cost 10 sen but the same amount was worth 40 used rubber bands.
There were times when my elder brother Jon and I made use of rubber bands as strings for our mosquito nets when we won a lot in either poker or “bandat”.
Once, our “singa raja” Ming Dynasty jar was half-filled up with rolls of rubber bands after good wins in poker and “bandat” — dad parted with the jar after selling it for only RM15k in 1973; part of the cash was to finance my two years of Form Six studies in Methodist School, Sibu. (A friend who came back from Singapore in 1989 told me such a vintage jar was worth S$2m there and a replica made there cost S$20k.)
“Bandat” and poker longhouse style reminded me of three individuals related to me. Closer to home was my late uncle Talip Jimbai fondly known as Jaar, a Kanowit native, who married my maternal auntie in Kedap.
He was good with his hands and when I sat behind him during blackjack sessions involving adults betting in cash, he told me to keep silent. That was when I was 10 or 11 years old. There were times that I noticed he purposely made his cards bust (22 and above) just to entice bigger bets. But for big bets, the Ace was always among his cards and nine out of 10 he got blackjack (Ace plus 10) or 21.
After a while, I became familiar with his “tricks” and profited from it during my early secondary school days, ending up with a two-week suspension from school after getting caught gambling in 1969 (Form Two).
Another late uncle who was married to mom’s younger sister was also a ‘bandat’ enthusiast and full of tricks too. He used to travel up and down the Krian to “expand” his trade with just a pack of cards or two.
I was told his trade was quite flourishing. His son, now a retired headmaster, is also fast with his hands and during ad hoc “bandat” sessions, we used to join venture and earned extra bucks.
But the one guy who is the epitome of poker tricks was a paternal uncle who died a decade ago aged 95. Apai Bundu, dad’s first cousin, used to be the poker dealer for sessions held during cockfights, school land sports and longhouse functions.
He was good with his hands too but apart from doing card tricks, he was fast in making some cash disappear from the bet pool as he was the card dealer.
When I was still a primary school pupil and seated behind him when he was dealing the cards, he would pass a buck or two — albeit secretly — and carried on his duty as usual. So when I was a working adult, I used to repay his kindness by giving him bigger amounts but not during poker sessions.
Blackjack — tagged with the figure 21 and all its combinations — truly boosted my arithmetic mental calculations which came in handy later.
I managed a credit in Mathematics Course B in my Senior Cambridge exams and later found out that credit in maths was a mandatory prerequisite for me to be accepted to do Law in London University (via ITM Shah Alam) in 1975.
Nevertheless, I opted to pursue a teaching degree in USM, Penang.
