"Sir, I Write for a Poker Magazine"

This is a follow-up to my previous post (here).  It’s not a second part, this session was never meant to be a two-parter. It’s just that a few hours after publishing the previous post, I realized I’d left out this little part of the session, and I thought it was worth mentioning.  So since I need something to post anyway, I thought I’d do it as a separate entry. Hopefully this will please those of you think my normal posts are too long.

At one point during the session, the seat to my left opened up and a distinguished looking gray haired man took it.  I had noticed he had been playing in the now-broken 3/5 game that had been right next to ours.  I sort of recognized him.  I couldn’t remember anything about his play, but I knew I had seen around this room before.

He apparently didn’t recognize me at all.  But he must have noticed that I wasn’t playing any hands.  Now at one point, I misread where the button was and put out a $5 chip for the big blind when I was actually under-the-gun.  Said gentleman said to me, “Are you straddling?”  I double checked and realized my error, took back the chip and said to the guy, “No, I just thought I was the big blind. Thanks.”

Well that should have been the end of it, but he said something like, “You’ll be the big blind next hand.”  Well, duh.  I assumed he was just trying to be funny.

But when the next hand came around, he said, “Now you’re the big blind.”  Thanks for the lesson, Sparky.  This isn’t my first rodeo (actually, to be honest, it wasn’t a rodeo at all, but I digress).

So play continued and next orbit, the guy on my right was away from table when it was his big blind.  I posted the big blind of course.  I don’t think the guy on my left gave me any coaching this time.  Next hand, I put out my small blind and just then, the guy on my right returned and wanted to buy the button.  I was looking at my phone so I didn’t notice immediately.  So my “helpful” neighbor on my left, instructed me to take my small blind back and then launched into a brief lesson on what it meant for the guy on my right to be buying the button.

Up until that point, I wasn’t really sure, but it was now clear to me that this guy thought I was a total poker newbie.  He thought I knew nothing about poker!  Hey, if he thinks I don’t know how to play poker tactically, I’m not gonna argue with him, I know I’m not Phil Ivey (never mind that I still was playing any hands for him to discern this).  But I do know the rules and the etiquette of the game fairly well. 

I’m sure he gave me one or two more “lessons” in how the blinds work before my session was done.

I was more amused than annoyed.  I didn’t say anything, I was just kind of nodding as he educated me,  but in my head I had all sorts of responses that I decided not to give him.

“I may not know how to play poker well, but I do know the rules.  In fact, I work in the poker business. I work for one of the most popular poker websites there is.  I write for a monthly column for a poker magazine.  Oh and I by the way, I have my own poker blog that’s received well over a million page views.  I think I understand how the blinds work.”

I said nothing, no point.  It’s a small room with a relatively small cast of characters, and I don’t want to out myself as a blogger.  Besides, if I ever did play a hand, it would work to my advantage having this guy think I was clueless.  Sadly, I never got to test this theory.  

That’s all I got.  The pic below has nothing to do with anything, but I’m guessing most of you will like it.