Dogtopia

There was a house in Batak, Bulgaria that welcomed dogs freely. The life ran on charity and it ran well. The food was sourced from outdated products meant to be thrown away by local shops, restaurants, and citizens. There were five dogs at the moment and they secretly loved to play Texas Hold ‘em during Friday nights. Nobody knew but they were playing and betting best Bonzo snacks they could source. One dog was particularly lucky his name was Myilo. He was a new kid in town and already won two games out of tree. The key in this game is to know how to bluff. Kid had it in spades. You couldn’t tell if he was ill or pretending, if he was sad, or just melancholic. The rest of the dogs were different breeds and were older. They had more life experience. Bobby was a male old dog of an unknown to me breed, but he could hunt rabbits like nobody else. Even though he was light hearted, when the food was in questions, he became very serious. Then there was Viher. Viher was the alpha male of the pack. Something of local breed remotely reminding Spitz from the Buck short story by Jack London.

Then there was Brownie. He was a bookkeeper and the banker of the pack. He kept the best Bonzo and never lost a grain of it. Super intelligent but a poor bluffer. You’d rather never piss of Brownie. Mylio learned it on his day two. The last but not the least was a black shepherd dog that was the bouncer of the town. He wasn’t ever playing poker, but he was very important.

One night it was the second of October, when the moon still was young, they met together to play. The kid was bluffing as usual but suddenly he got an ace of spades. He took the game an the best Bonzo with it. Brownie was concerned, that the young kid going to grow fat and spoiled with all this top quality Bonzo. But Vihr had something in him too. He noticed that when Myilo had good cards he’d suck his lower lip a bit. Knowing that Vihr would win all the Bonzo back. Game two and three were lost for Myilo. He couldn’t understand why his bluffing wasn’t working anymore so he quit and went out to complain to the Bouncer. The bouncer listened and said he’d share the secret for half of the stash of victory Bonzo. Myilo agreed. Bouncer told him about the lip. Myilo practiced in front of the mirror and the next Friday, on ninth of October he won all the games. Vihr couldn’t figure out who helped him, so he went to complain to the Bouncer. The bouncer listened and said that the kid noticed his own weakness and won, but he would tell Vihr how to beat him for half of the top Bonzo. Vihr agreed. Now the Friday the sixteenth went all wins for Vihr. It went back and forth for three months, until Brownie noticed that the Bouncer got really fat and got a lady. He investigated and found out what was going on. Furious he faced the truth and told the kid and Vihr what was going on. They were furious.

All of them faced the bouncer and he explained, life is tough on the street, you gotta be street smart to survive, if you are not smart you starve. So there is no time for poker really. You just gotta read books and survive.

Vihr, Brownie, Bobby, and Myilo took a note. They bought some books and started studying. Never playing poker ever again.

The End