doodledee

I played cards with some of the guys on Saturday night. It's fun to see how our card playing has changed since ESPN and The Travel Channel started showing professional poker on television. We play new games, we know a bunch of new rules, and best of all, we've got a whole new set of cool card-junkie vocabulary words to throw around. I must have said 'all in' like 20 times, and I have no idea what it really means.

As usual, I lost money. Well at least I think I did, as by the end of the night the change in my jar was clearly lighter than when I got there. I suppose there's a chance I may have just swapped a bunch of nickels for a bunch of quarters, but I doubt it.

I've concluded I'm not very good at the poker stuff. I remember Ira Glass saying something one time that pretty much sums it up:

What I've learned is that I don't really have the patience to be a great poker player. Specifically, I get bored waiting for a good hand, and play all sorts of cards I really should be folding. This has lost me a bit of money. Another weakness of mine: I find I'm often more interested in knowing whether people are lying than I am in winning money. And in the end, they show me their cards. They're almost never bluffing. This has cost me a bit of money as well.

What's worse, I've been told I have a crappy poker face. And that fist-pumping when you get dealt a good hand is considered - at least in some circles - a tell.

Thankfully, I usually manage to win the occasional non-poker game, so the night doesn't end up hurting too badly. Pig.blind() am I.