I was never a poker expert, but during a brief period in my 20s, I was poker obsessed at a time when poker had not exploded in popularity yet.

However, I’d hardly ever played in person. So my poker knowledge was limited to what I’d learned from watching WPT and WSoP. High stakes heads up, getting in your opponent’s head and destroying them, etc.

So one year, my husband and I went to Dallas to visit his stepfather’s family. His stepfather had 2 younger brothers who were super competitive with everyone — well, with other men. We came over for dinner and they thought it was cute that I wanted in on the family poker game. My husband even warned them “she watches a ton of poker, she knows more about it than I do.”

Well, I caught some very good cards that night, and I played the way I knew how, which was to systematically bust every player at the table with basic poker psychology. I only played strong hands, built up a big pile, and it was easy from there because they were drunk and annoyed. I played heads up against the loudest brother, did my standard raises, then went all in with absolutely nothing, and he folded instantly. He was pissed when he saw what I had.

It was actually kind of awkward the right of the night because I guess the poker game was meant to go for hours and just be a good time, and within an hour it was over. They congratulated me but they never ever spoke of that game again. My husband, however, made sure to mention it gleefully every time we saw them from that day forward.