Pinochle is a game enjoyed by many Residents at Saint Joseph’s Home. It involves trying to get the most points by obtaining certain combinations of cards, such as straights, an ace, king, queen or jack of each suit, or a king and queen of the same suit. If you have any of these combinations in your hand, you can receive 20-150 points. What happened to Resident Tom Schurr, however, was much rarer than any of these common combinations of cards.
It was just another Thursday evening when Tom met with Charlotte and Laura to play their weekly game of Pinochle.In a Pinochle deck, there are eight of each card (9, 10, jack, queen, king and ace).As the cards were dealt, much to his surprise, Tom received ace after ace.With one card left, Tom already had seven aces in his hand.“Can that be an ace?” Tom wondered as he gazed at his last card.He picked up his final card and saw that it was the last ace!He could not believe it, and the ladies he was playing with were also shocked.Tom had all the aces of the deck in his hand- which was the equivalent of 1,000 points!
Tom started playing Pinochle at home when he was 15 or 16 years old. He had never in all his years of playing, seen anything like this. “For all the years that I’ve played Pinochle I have never seen anyone get all aces. And of all places for it to happen, it happened right here at Saint Joseph Home!” Tom exclaimed, “It’s like winning the Powerball lottery!” The chance of receiving all eight aces is actually only 0.0034% (http://amecy.nfshost.com/pinochle/).
Congratulations Tom!
A Thousand Aces, St. Joseph’s Home Pinochle King!