Look out, professional poker community: I introduced L to playing cards this weekend and she loved them.

Since the moment of truth, the girl has been absolutely obsessed, learning the word, “cards,” and playing with them every chance she gets. Yesterday, she spent 20 minutes inspecting every member of a 52-card deck, over and over and over again. This afternoon, she repeated the process and included me in the game.

This sort of cognitive exercise is the kind of development that would make any parent proud. Considering I spend a good bit of time writing about gambling, however, and that I’m a bit of a poker junkie, the news is downright earth-shattering.

Imagine my delight, then, tonight, when the baby learned to distinguish the four aces from the rest of the deck. (Her favorite, by the way, is the ace of spades.)

And picture, if you will, my smile when L and I sat down with two of her friends (a Pee Wee Herman doll and a metal wall sconce) for a “game” of Euchre. (In case you’re wondering, the wall sconce won.)

Heck, in anticipation of her sign-up for the 2028 World Series of Poker “Main Event,” I transferred $100 from my checking account into one of her savings accounts tonight. Hopefully the buy-in will still be $10,000 when she’s old enough to play. If not, we may have to get her cleaning up some local home games ASAP.