pokerchick

I play poker about once a week at a friend’s house. We keep the blinds fairly low, $.25/$.50, but it’s not uncommon to see pots get to be $50+. A normal raise just to see the flop is $3.

Some of the guys who like to play like to drink, which is fine by me. However, I’ve noticed that the guys who drink too much when they’re playing usually aren’t the better players to begin with and end up donking off anywhere from $40-$100.

All I’m saying is that if you’re not a very experienced poker player, please don’t drink. Because I’m not going to feel bad for you AT ALL when I take your money.

What do you think about playing with people who drink? What have you noticed?

At some point, I told my boss I play poker. At some point later, my boss decides that if I can play poker, then HE can play poker. So he opens up an account on MSN and starts playing poker.

He starts off by playing with fake money. You know, the kind that you can just keep on getting more of. I suppose by saying “he starts” indicates he’s moved on, progressed, but he’s still playing with fake money. I suppose that’s okay…it’s only been four months.

Obviously, him playing poker (even with fake money) isn’t my problem. It’s the fact that he has to tell me about his playing (with fake money) for three to four hours a week. I am not exaggerating. Um, poker players out there, do you want to LISTEN to a newbie talk about their playing poker with fake money, whether for five minutes or five hours? Raise your hand if you want to volunteer for this. Anyone? Buuuueeller? Buuuueller?

So for three to four hours a week I’m getting paid to listen to a newbie talk about playing poker WITH FAKE MONEY. To make me writhe in pain just a little more, he insists on arguing with me when I tell him about odds and such. Ahh…nothing like being told you’re WRONG by someone who’s never read or studied poker.

I suppose this is my burden to bear, but I’ll definitely keep my poker playing self under wraps.

Has this happened to anyone else? You turn someone on to poker, and next thing you know you wish you could take those words back because they WON’T SHUT UP.

Let’s commiserate.

The poker world has seen, not just an influx of players, but an influx of female players. I, for one, was intrigued by poker, it being one of those games girls don’t ‘typically’ play. Poker is a way to be competitive without having to participate in a sport; it is an outlet for lying, cheating, and stealing…something that is very UN-ladylike. When I sit down at the table, I want to be looked at as a force to be reckoned with. I want to take other people’s money and do so with a very bad poker face. I blush, I grin, but in the end I go for the jugular and watch as the other player opens their mouth in an O, surprised to have been trapped by a girl.

I rarely see a man as proud at the poker table as when he can say that his woman plays poker, too, AND IS GOOD. The men all comment on how they’re jealous and would love it if their women played poker, if only so that they could play longer themselves.

Not too long ago I was sitting at a table in Reno when there was some commotion at another table behind me. The guy to my right spoke briefly to someone at the other table and then said very proudly, “Mary (or whatever her name was) just called a guy down when there was a flush on the board! He went all in for $300 and she made a stone cold call! She said she smelled a bluff…that was a $1000 pot!” He then went on to say that his girlfriend would be an awesome player if she ever wanted to be serious about playing. Women have a better honed gut instinct than men and often can sniff out a lie.

At the poker table, a woman can be, for a few hours at least, just one of the guys.