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Hi FoLCs!

I'm working on describing a game of poker game with *interesting* consequences, and am wondering how to best present it.

Each hand is followed (and probably going to be interspersed with) by dialog. I can switch the POV every other hand or so. But I also decided to go through the trouble of playing and documenting the hands, betting and stuff, to make it realistic. And each of the results has a meaning to the story. So I can't just jump ahead a couple of hands.

Any ideas what I can do when I actually write the story to prevent my readers from getting bored by the repetitiveness of 3 dozen rounds of poker spread over 10 pages of story?

Or perhaps I'm just obsessing and the action taking place between the rounds will be enough to keep it interesting.

Thanks in advance for the help, Michael

Michael - not quite the same but... You might check my fic - A Friendly Little Game of... . It doesn't switch POVs or anything but they do play poker.

I don't know that you need to show the cards and antes and raises etc [Lois had a pair of 3s and decided to try to bluff Clark even though she was pretty sure he could beat that. She tossed in a blue chip, then added three more green ones. Clark just stared at his cards. Finally, he sighed and threw in four chips of his own. Another round of betting followed. This time Lois... yada yada yada] or just the results [After the next hand, Lois gleefully gathered her chips having bluffed her way into winning that had with only a pair of twos; good thing Superman didn't cheat because his three of a kind would have beat her.].

I think the first might get boring after a while, but it depends on the rest of it too. [Totally making this up:

Lois toss a blue chip and three green ones into the pile, deciding that she could distract him enough that he'd fold even though she was sure he could beat her pair of twos. "So were you ever planning on telling me you're Superman?"

Clark sighed and stared at his cards. "Yes, I was going to tell you." He threw four of his own chips in.

Lois raised again after the next card was flipped over. "When? When the kids started flying around the house?"

Clark saw her raise, but that was it. "No. Before then. Soon."

Lois raised again after the fifth and final card showed that her pair of twos was the best hand she could make. She was sure Clark had something better than that. "So when? The first time we made love and I discovered we were floating on the ceiling?" There that ought to distract him.

Clark looked back and forth between his hand and his stack of chips and the five cards laying on the table. "I fold. And no, I'd planned on telling you long before we got to that point."

Lois smiled, tossed her cards face down on the pile - no reason for Clark to know that she'd just bluffed him and Superman didn't cheat, she hoped - and gathered her winnings.

Or something like that. Just the game itself might get old.

Is that making sense?

Carol [who really needs to play poker again sometime soon]

Thanks, Carol. Great ideas

Michael