The Dangerous Book for Boys

by Conn Iggulden

  If you are thinking that mathematics is your weakness, you really should not be considering playing poker for money. Give it to charity instead—it will be better used than ending up as someone else’s pocket money.

  * * *

  A FEW USEFUL IMPROVEMENT ODDS

  •Three of a kind, change two cards: odds on four of a kind or full house—

  9/1

  •Three of a kind, change one card: odds on four of a kind or full house—

  12/1

  •One pair, change three cards: odds to improve to two pairs—

  6/1

  •One pair, change three cards: odds to improve to three of a kind—

  9/1

  •One pair, change three cards: odds to improve to a full house—

  98/1

  * * *

  There are dozens more—and the good players know them all.

  Another calculation that comes in is whether winning a particular pot is worth the bet.

  If the answer comes to more than one, it’s probably a good bet to make—but note the fact that “probability of winning” is expressed as a fraction and could be guesswork.

  (50 cents x 0.4) / 10 cents = 2.0 = good bet

  The final aspect of poker is the ability to read other people—not just their expressions, though this is the game that created the term “poker face”—someone who hides their emotions. Patterns of betting can also be read. Perhaps when you sit with Jim you notice that whenever he has a good hand, he puts in a very big bet at the first opportunity. You might avoid hands where he does this, but there is always a chance he is deliberately setting up a pattern on good hands, to then do it on a bad hand and watch everyone else fold . . . that’s bluffing.

  In essence, that’s about it for draw poker, except for invaluable experience. The chances of good hands are increased by “wild” cards. If you get these in a hand, you can call them anything you like, which throws the odds right out of the window. Suddenly, unheard-of hands become possible, like five aces.

  TEXAS HOLD-’EM

  This is the type of poker used at the world championships. First, the two players to the dealer’s left put up “the small blind” and the “blind”—usually half the minimum bet and the minimum bet. This becomes more significant as the game goes on and bet limits increase.

  Two cards are dealt facedown to each player. These are the “hole cards.”

  A round of betting takes place, exactly as described above, with raises, folds etc. It is customary to say “Call” when matching the current bet without a raise.

  When betting comes to an end, the dealer deals the “Flop”—three more cards, this time face up where everyone can see them.

  After the Flop, another round of betting takes place, beginning with the player to the left of the dealer. He has the choice to bet, fold or check, as with Five-Card Draw. If he checks and the next person bets, he will have to match it—but will now have a better idea of the sort of hands held. As a result, checking can be tactically useful.

  The dealer plays another card face up—the “Turn,” beginning another round of betting from the left. When that ends, the final card is dealt—the “River.”

  Now there are five cards face up on the table and two face down in each player’s hand. Although seven cards are available, the aim is to make the best five-card hand.

  Bluff plays a large part in this version of poker—and the betting tends to be much higher than five-card draw, as players hang on to see if later cards help their hand.

  The final round of betting starts with the player to the dealer’s left, as before.

  SOME OF THE ODDS FOR TEXAS HOLD-’EM

  * * *

  1. HOLE CARD ODDS

  •Any pair—

  16/1

  •Ace, king of different suits—

  110/1

  •At least one ace—

  5.7/1

  •Two cards of same suit—

  3.25/1

  * * *

  * * *

  2. IMPROVING ON THE FLOP

  You hold Flop gives you Odds against

  A pair Three of a kind 10/1

  Any two Two pairs 48.5/1

  Two same suit Flush 118/1

  * * *

  * * *

  3. IMPROVING ON THE TURN

  From To Odds against

  Four cards of a flush Flush 4.2/1

  Three of a kind Four of a kind 46/1

  Two pairs Full house 10.8/1

  One pair Three of a kind 22.5/1

  * * *

  * * *

  4. IMPROVING ON THE RIVER

  From To Odds against

  Four cards of a flush Flush 4.1/1

  Three of a kind Four of a kind 45/1

  Two pairs Full house 10.5/1

  One pair Three of a kind 22/1

  Nothing A pair 6.7/1

  * * *

  The last piece of advice is “Never try to fill an inside straight.” If you were playing draw, say, and have 4, 5, 6, 8, and a king, you might be tempted to exchange that king in the hope of a seven—to make 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, a high hand. There are forty-seven cards you have not seen and only four of them are sevens. 47/4 is almost 12/1. Making a straight at either end is twice as likely, however.

  It really is important to realize that poker is a difficult game. The golden rule is “If you can’t spot the sucker at the table—it’s you.”

  Extraordinary Stories–Part Four

  Douglas Bader

  “Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men.”

  —Douglas Bader

  DOUGLAS ROBERT BADER was born on February 10, 1910, in London. His father, Frederick, was a civil engineer, and when Douglas was just a few months old, he and his wife Jesse went out to work in India. They considered the climate too harsh for a baby and Douglas did not join them until he was two. The Bader family came back to England in 1913, though with the outbreak of World War I, Frederick Bader went with the army to France. Douglas never saw his father again. He died there after complications from a shrapnel wound.

  His mother, Jesse, remarried, but Douglas spent a great deal of time with his aunt Hazel Bader and her husband, Flight Lieutenant Cyril Burge, who was adjutant to the RAF college at Cranwell. Through that relationship, Bader discovered a love of planes and flying that would last him the rest of his life. He had been a superb athlete at St. Edward’s school in Oxford and after becoming a cadet at Cranwell in 1928, he represented the college in boxing, cricket, hockey and rugby. His academic studies were not as impressive and he came in second for the sword of honor at graduation. One of the students said, “To us, Bader was a sort of god who played every conceivable game and was the best player in every team.” He was commissioned as an RAF officer in 1930.

  He was an extremely gifted pilot and gained a place in his squadron aerobatics team, winning the pairs title at the Hendon pageant of 1931. He was absolutely without fear and pushed his biplane a little too far on December 14 that year. He was showing off to friends with low rolls barely above the ground. One wingtip touched and the plane crashed, doing terrible damage to his legs. Dr. Leonard Joyce had to amputate his right leg above the knee, his left below.

  The twenty-one-year-old Bader was not expected to survive, but he had a fierce will to live and a furious temper. He began the slow painful path to recovery and was transferred to the RAF hospital at Uxbridge. He met the great love of his life, Thelma Edwards, there and married her in 1935.

  Bader was given metal artificial legs and had to learn to use them, as well as grow calluses on his stumps. The right leg was particularly tricky as the metal knee joint required great balance and perseverance. He was told he should use canes to help his progress as he would never walk without them. Bader replied, “On the contrary, I will never bloody walk with them.” He never did, relying instead on his reflexes, coordination, and sheer will. His life had altered for ever. Later, Bader recorded the event in his flying log with these words: “X-cou
ntry Reading. Crashed slow rolling near ground. Bad show.”

  After being discharged from the RAF, Bader went to work for the Asiatic Petroleum Company. As he couldn’t fly, he drove a specially adapted sports car like a maniac along country lanes, but there was more to come in the life of this extraordinary man. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Douglas immediately attempted to re-enlist. He was refused at first, being told that there was nothing in the King’s regulations allowing a man in his condition to fly. He retorted that there was nothing in the King’s regulations to say a man in his condition couldn’t fly!

  He had the support of his fellow officers, especially those who had known him from before the accident. Britain needed pilots and Bader was taken back into the RAF and made flight commander of 222 Squadron, flying and making his first kill as they covered the retreat at Dunkirk. He was promoted after that action to command the Canadian 242 Squadron. They had lost half their number in casualties and were severely demoralized. With his metal legs, they assumed at first that he would lead them from behind a desk, but instead, he demonstrated aerobatics to them for an hour, flying a Hurricane fighter. Douglas Bader was the right man to restore their morale through his peculiar brand of stubbornness and charismatic leadership. From the beginning, he trained them in his own style of fighting, ignoring the Fighter Command official tactics. In fact, his ideas would prove their usefulness and became effective tactics for the RAF in resisting the German bombers and fighter escorts.

  Under Bader, 242 Squadron first fought in the Battle of Britain on August 30, 1940, against the German fighter waves, taking down twelve German planes in a single hour. They would go on to fly three or four sorties a day for as long as their Hurricanes would stand up to the punishment.

  Bader himself was responsible for 22½ air- to-air victories—the half after he and a friend shot up a German plane together and both agreed to claim half the kill. The total made him the fifth highest ace in the RAF. The importance of this cannot be overestimated. Without air superiority, Britain could not have defended her cities or airfields in WWII. German bombers would have had a free hand as they had over in Europe. Bader was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for gallantry and leadership at the Battle of Britain.

  In the lull after the battle, Bader continued to take his squadron out to attack German E-boats and the occasional lone Dornier bomber. He was a key player in the revision of RAF and US Air Force tactics, commanding the Tangmere wing of three squadrons as they prowled over the Channel looking for the enemy. When returning from successful missions, Bader was in the habit of opening his cockpit canopy and lighting a pipe with the control stick held between his metal knee and his good knee. When other pilots saw him do this, they kept a good distance in case he blew the plane up with gas fumes.

  In 1941, he was involved in a mid-air collision over France with a German Me 109 while dogfighting. The tail of Bader’s plane was torn off and he was began plummeting towards the ground. He got the canopy off and climbed out into the wind to parachute clear. His right leg caught and he found himself nailed to the fuselage by the slipstream, heaving and tugging at the metal leg before it took him down with the plane. At last, the belt holding the leg to him snapped and the leg went off through his trousers, allowing him to break free of the plane and parachute to safety.

  In German captivity, he asked if a message could be sent to England for his spare right leg to be sent over. It is an astonishing thing, but the Germans agreed to this and the RAF dropped it in a crate during a normal bombing run. The leg was slightly damaged in the landing, but the Germans repaired it and took it to Bader in the hospital where he was being held. He put in on and while no one was paying attention, walked casually out of the hospital, in an attempt to escape. They caught him, but he maintained this spirit of cheerful defiance in various POW camps, inspiring respect from those around him. All British prisoners understood that escape attempts meant that more guards would be used who might otherwise be killing Allied forces. Even failed attempts had value. Eventually, the Germans sent Bader to the famous Colditz Castle, which was meant to be escape-proof.

  More than three hundred attempts were made over five years and thirty-one people did in fact get completely clear. The inmates built a complete glider, walked out dressed as German soldiers, and generally forced the Germans to use vast resources and manpower to keep them in. Airey Neave was the first Briton to escape the castle. He went on to become a Member of Parliament and was killed in an IRA car bomb in 1979.

  Bader attempted escape so many times that the Germans took his legs away. A great outcry was raised over this and the Germans were shamed into returning them. Bader promptly escaped again and had to be brought back. He was still there when the Americans liberated Colditz in 1945 and he returned to England, where he was promoted to group captain. With the war over, he couldn’t see a future for himself in a peacetime RAF and instead joined Shell Oil’s aviation department, a job that came with its own plane.

  Bader raised money and campaigned for disabled people, flying all over the world visiting veterans’ hospitals. He inspired others by his example and his willpower.

  One day in 1955, he went back to speak at his old school in Oxford. A fifteen-year-old pupil saw Group Captain Bader coming through the gates with his instantly recognizable gait. Bader was carrying cases and it was a hot day, so the boy ran across and offered to help with the bags. Bader’s response was to tell him to “bugger off!” in a very angry tone. The headmaster came to see the boy later. He said that he had done the right thing in offering, but “Group Captain Bader will not be helped. He regards carrying his own cases on a blazing hot day as a challenge.”

  The book and film Reach for the Sky tell the man’s story better than we have here. Bader was always a prickly, difficult personality, but his courage and stubbornness were legendary. He died in 1982, but his story is still an inspiration.

  Marbles

  THE ROMANS played marbles. They were made from stone, clay, or marble (aha!), though marble marbles were the most accurate. These days, glass and china marbles are still available in most toy stores. Do not be deceived: the version of marbles called Ring Taw can be frustrating and demanding—but it is the best. All you need is a flat surface, a bit of chalk, a bag of marbles—and a competitive streak.

  We thought about trying to make a couple of marbles, but the temperatures involved would have meant you reading something called The Suicidal Book for Boys. Molten glass has different-colored glass injected into it before being cut into cylinders and dropped into a rolling tray where the marble rolls itself to perfection.

  Marble Names

  Any marble you use to take a shot is called a Shooter, or a Taw. For the rest, there are as many names as kinds of marble. Some of the better-known examples are: Peewees, Boulders, Normals, and Chinas.

  Fulking

  Fulking is the name of the classic schoolboy technique for shooting.

  The professionals, however (and they do exist), use “knuckling down.” Greater accuracy is possible with that steering finger, though we liked the one we remembered from school. With fulking, there’s a danger of letting it fall out and roll across the circles, which can be embarrassing. This can also lose you the game.

  The Three Games You Need to Know

  Ring Taw (or Ringer)

  1.Draw two circles in chalk, as you see below. The small one is twelve inches across, or a ruler’s length (30 cm). The larger one is six feet (1.83 m) across. Remember that the distance from your elbow to your wrist is roughly a foot (unless you are tiny, obviously). Otherwise, find someone who is six feet tall and ask them to mark out the circle using the distance between their outstretched arms, which will also be six feet.

  2.Choose which marbles will be risked from each bag—equal numbers from each player. This is a skill game—it doesn’t matter which ones you lose or win, just how many. Put them in the inner circle. We found tactical placing of
one at a time worked well, taking it in turns.

  3.The Taw can never be lost. It can be a personal favorite, a rare one, metal, marble, china, glass, or even wood. Practice with your Taw and never allow it to be a stake in the game.

  4.Decide who is going first.

  5.First shot. The aim is to shoot the Taw from any point on the outer ring at the ones in the center. Any marbles knocked out of the inner circle are pocketed by the shooter, who then takes a second go, unless the Taw has vanished inexplicably. If you can find it, shoot from where it lies.

  6.If you miss, or fail to knock one out of the inner circle, play passes to the next player. If your Taw stops in the outer circle, it stays where it is for Rule 7. If it stops in the inner circle, it must be bought out with a replacement marble from the offending player.

  7.When a Taw is stuck in the outer circle, it becomes a target. The next player can choose to go for the center or the Taw. If he hits the Taw, he has to be given a marble by the owner. He may not strike it twice. If his Taw gets stuck, play moves on again.

  8.The game continues until the inner circle is clear.

  Bounce About

  This game is a throwing rather than shooting game—the marbles are in the air during the shot. Bigger marbles are better for this game.