Just Deal The Cards

Left: Julius Eichler eyes his cards.

Below: Martin Harold is ready to make a bet.

Bottom: The Ben Gurion Men's Club.

LONNY GOLDSMITH
StaffWriter

Inside
a 25-year
daily ritual
at the JPM.

T

he club meets in a
small, crowded room
Monday-Friday. Three
round tables are set up,
surrounded by folding chairs. A
coffee pot and styrofoam cups are
at the ready.
The name of the game —
every game — is seven card stud.
Straight up, with a community
"spit" card in the middle of the
table for all to use to enhance
their chances of winning. No
actual money changes hands, but bet-
ting commences with three different-
sized washers signifying a quarter,
half-dollar, and dollar. No women are
allowed to join.
The Ben Gurion Men's Club at the
Jimmy Prentis Morris Jewish
Community Center on 10 Mile Rd.
has been dealing the deck since 1972.
"We wanted to pick a heroic figure
to name our club after," club member
Alfred Brook said.
To be a member of the club, people
need to be a member of the Center,
and pay $7.50 for membership dues.
There are about 30 members in the

club, ranging in age from 96-years-old
on down.
"The money goes to different chari-
ties," 17-year club member Henry
Feldman said. "Sometimes to the
Israeli Defense Forces, sometimes to
support orphans in Israel."
Why join a card club? The men
agree on the primary reason.
"Boredom encompasses all of us,"
Brook said, speaking on behalf of the
club. "It's the dry rot of old age. It's
better to die playing cards then sitting
at home doing nothing."
Sam Borak sat at a table with Julius
Eichler, a silver-haired man who

taunts his opponents into
raising the pot before he
moves in for the kill.
"Julius controls the game
here," Borak said. "He's
certainly an aggressive
gambler."
Al Dorfman sits at the
same table with Borak
and Eichler. Dorfman
just turned 85, and
comes to play every day.
"Twenty-five years I've
been doing this," he said.
"This and tennis are two
of-my favorite things to
do since retiring in 1980."
Sitting with Friedman and Brook is
Irving Goldman, one of the club's
elder statesmen at 93.
"I've been the treasurer for 10
years," he said. "I'm only able to play
on Thursday, but I've done this for 18
years."
Most of the members confirmed
that they try and make their appoint-
ments around their daily trip to the
JPM to play cards.
"We're old men with nothing to do
as we spend our kids' inheritance,"
Borak said, laughing.

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