[ADAMtheEXPERT]

Way back in 1949 shortly after the first Russian test of an atomic weapon, a group of the richest men in the world, formed a secret society

STAD : Surviving THE Apociliptic Destruction. These guys, were terrified of an eventual atomic war, and by virtue of their wealth, felt that they were "destined" to survive such a war.

You gotta hand it to them, they had a pretty good vision of what such a war would entail.


They decided to build the untimate shelter, designed to be able to totally protect them from any blast, any radiation. AND, have the supplies to wait it out, and re-emerge as the rules of a new world.

Not too hard to build, when you have unlimited money.

I mean, the combined assets of these guys, was well over 20 billion, and that's NINETEEN FORTY-NINE DOLLARS.


Trouble was: where to build? They hired the best experts, to project the likely path that the radiation would spread, as well as the most lilkly areas of attack concentration.


THERE was only one place,

ANTARTICA


So, with the power of their billions, they set out to create the ultimate bomb shelter.


All the construction workers, were selected from those with military service, used to keeping secrets. When the "post atomic kingdom" was finished in 1953, all of the workers were given a very generous lifetime pension, PROVIDING that no one ever revealed the secret. Since eveyone lost their pension, if ONE talked, the Billionaires knew that they all would fear the wrath of the rest, so no one talked
(until 2005, when the secret came out)

I mean, they thought of EVERYTHING! THe "palace" was 80 meters underground, under 10 meters of concrete, and 70 meters of ice.

Their scientists, projected that even a direct hit, would melt no more than 40 meters of the ice, and that would leave quite a cusion of ice and concrete . . AND WHO'S GOING TO TARGET ANTARTICA, ANYWAY.

Tens of thousands of gallons of water, fuel. over 100 tons of food were stored in the conplext. 2500 bottles of the finest wines in the world, 5,000 bottles of booze, 20,000 bottles of beer.

And those were just the EMERGENCY supplies. They had enough weapons to equip a small army, generators, medical supplies. They even had 200 movies, with projectoin equipment

I mean EVERYTHING.


uh, also of course, they had THE poker table. made from an acient redwood, by the world's top wood craftsman, the table was the centerpiece of their 400 square meter "REC" room.

Every possible luxury, and security item, was stocked in this unit.


Anyway, over the next 10 years, they continues to upgrade and maintain the unit.


Fast-forward to the cuban missle crisis, 1962.

THINGS were looking MIGHTY BLEAK. Immediately after the photos of the missles were seen by their spy in the pentagon, the members of STAD went into action. On October 17th, they all made there way to USHUAIA, Argentina to meeet for the final leg on the trip to
THere frozen hideaway.


She was the fastest luxury cabin cruiser ever built. Shorty after Sputnik, the STAD members commissioned her to be built, as it would not be possible to fly directly to Antartica, and Helicopters just didn't have the range.

With two massive marine diesel engines, augmented by a 4500hp Lycoming Turbine, built by Marine Turbine Technologies, this 48 foot craft was capable of over 55 knots.

You wouldn't know it, from the external luxury appearance, but inside was also an arsenal of weapons. Since she was faster than any ship or sub.(And for that matter, any torpedo) The focus was on anti-aircraft weapons.
well-stocked, any attacking aircraft would have wished they stayed at home.

Radiation suits and other supplies, were also kept on board. STAD hoped they would make their lair, before any war started, but just in case, they prepared f or that eventuality.


At just over 1500km from USHUAIA, it would take the STADIKA no more than 15 hours to reach the nearest suitable area to let off the guys, so they could proceed by snowmobile, to the Underground luxury endoftheworld, hideout.

Even so, everyone sweated it out, as they listened to radio reports of the mounting crisis, and wished this had happened in the summer, if it had to happen at all.

Though not close to winter, it was still as cold as a meat freezer, when they arrived.

Well, we won't bore you with the details, of how they got all their party, including armed gaurds, "entertainment" ladies, chefs, doctors, etc. to what they all felt was going to be their home, until the half-life of the radiation had expired.

Of course, they brought along, Sam--the best poker dealer in the world.


Anyway, after a few days, when it really looked as though war was going to happen any time,

One of the STAD members, Randolf Brancato, suggested breaking the tension with a poker game. Since there were 10 of them, they couldn't play any poker game that existed at the time.

So, he suggested thiswhere everyone would have two cards, but they would share other cards, and everyone could make a hand from their own cards, and the "shared cards"

(note; this game was originally called "sharesomecards" by the Stad members who first played the game. The origin of how the name got changed to "hold em" is not known)


Everyone pretty much felt that the world was g oing to end, at least in t erms of money being worth anything, so they all decided to buy in for 500 million dollars each.

Now, you should know that Randolf was one of the best players in the world, in this game. having 398 oil wells in Texas and Oklahoma, he first learned the game from a young man named Doyle Brunson, in 1958 while playing in a private game in Houston.


Anyway, they played for a while, and being very intellilgent, the rest of the STAD men quickly learned the game. They liked how you could see what the best possible hand was, something you could not do in draw poker.


After awhile, a big hand came up. Someone made it 5 million to go, was called by three others, and Brancato looked down to see the two red NINES. Well, not that great of a hand, he knew but look at the HUGE potential gain (now known as "implied odds" but remember, this was 1962, before we had such "official-sounding terms"

The first three cards dealt face up by Sam, were the 10 of spades, the Jack of hearts, and the queen of diamonds.

Patrick VanHorn, the owner of the largest South African diamond mine, bet 100 million dollars

AND INCREDIBLY, all three other's called the bet.!

Knowing the even though the world MIGHT end, that all of these g uys would NEVER put in that much money without the perfect hand(now known as "the nuts" Randolf now knew that no matter how impossible

EACH OF THE FOUR OTHER PLAYERS HAD AN ACE KING, TO MAKE THE ACE HIGH STRAGHT.

Now, RB knew that since there could only be four AK's, that even though the other's were NOT good players, if he called, they would "know" that he had to have three of a kind. He also knew, that if the shared cards produced a pair, that no one would want to re-imerge broke, should the war never occur.

AND, that they would have to figure that he had a full house, if he bet all his money.

so, he called the 100 million, and the pot total is now 525,000,000

As luck would have it, here comes the queen of spades! Ian Smithe, a British textiles billionaire, decided to make a bet, hoping that at least one of the others would fold, and thus cut down the players splitting the pot.

He didn't quite grasp the fact, that Randolf would not call 100 million dollars, without three of a kind.

Randolh was next, and decided to go ahead with his planned bluff, and raised the 100 million to 400 million, all in.

The others quickly folded, and Ian thought for a moment, and appeared ready to fold his hand.

Just then, the short-wave radio blared that with the impliment of the blockade around Cuba, the Soviet and American military forces were on the highest possible alert.

It sure looked as though money would no longer have any use, so Ian called.


Ooops, here comes the nine of clubs, on the last shared card

After the crisis was over, Ian threw himself into the Thames, and that is why the last board card is now called "the river card"



Epilogue: On November 1, 1962, Nikita Khrushchev recieved a wire transfer into his Swiss account, for 50 million dollars, quite a sum back in 1962.

Sam the dealer, retired to a 20 bedroom house in San Francisco, on the 10 million dollars given by Randolf after winning the 1.3 billion pot.


I don't know if y'all can figure out what this means, but you should know that Randolh Brancato, would die before he would tip a poker dealer more than a dollar.

And Khrushchev, never really had a need for Missles, in Cuba . . .
_________________
Adam

[reeeech]

Oh man that was GREAT ADAM!!!

[ADAMtheEXPERT]

Thanks, I hope everyone remembers, that ATE lives for comments (and, now uh, SIGNUPS, too)
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Adam

[Iguana]

[reeeech]

[Iguana]

[ADAMtheEXPERT]

[reeeech]

erm, didn't mean you are rehashing old stories or anything....

I'm just saying now you have a place ALL to your own (meaning no CP, no other sites to deal with) to put all your stories. I don't care if they are old or not. A good story is always a good story!!

[ADAMtheEXPERT]

To a degree, I WILL "rehash" "old" material.


People on this site, are from many different placces, and I don't think that ANYONE here, has had the JOY to see all my past material.



Of course, this does NOT mean that I will not be writing new material, in all areas.



Adam
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Adam

[reeeech]

[ADAMtheEXPERT]

Hello. I am making a "reply" to bring this wonderful story to the attention of a new generation of ATE.com members
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Adam

[wesrman]

I like how you tie it into the cuban missle crisis, great imagination ATE.

What ever happened to reeeech???????

[nickname]

This must be the best fictional poker story ever!!! Really really really nice. Hope the rest has the same quality, i'm gonna save 1 for each day in the next week

[G_Money77]

His stories are great. You will love all of them.
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G_Money77