Friend or Foe

Posted by amarillosb

July 29, 2008

While I was in Vegas for almost all of June, I met the nicest lady. She was a Persian woman who lives in Germany, and she and I quickly became friendly. She didn’t speak much English, so I helped her book a flight to see her family in the US. She invited my husband and me to stay with her if we ever visited Germany. I am not fortunate enough to have a big group of people that I travel with. When I travel around playing cards, relationships like the one I had with this woman become very important. They are the people I call when I’m tired of eating alone, need a ride to the airport or advice on my play, and they’re the people I’ll sweat for a long final table.

I am a good-hearted person who plays poker, and I naively assume that people are the same way–generally good intentioned. For the most part, the individuals in the poker world that I have befriended are great, especially those I know from the Dallas and Chicago, the towns I’ve lived in, but it’s easy to forget that the poker world can be seedy.

The day I left Vegas, a friend of mine from Dallas pulled me aside and said, “You know that older lady who’s been playing a lot? Well, when you and I were at the same table last night she walked over to our table and started talking in Farsi to one of the other guys. I guess she assumed no one else could understand, but I could. She looked at you and said, ‘I hate that f$#*ing Bitch, she’s taken all my money, but I have to hand it to her, she’s a pretty good little Omaha player.”

Coming from this kind, motherly woman, who I had helped and talked with so much, and even began to play straightforwardly against, this really hurt. It made me regret that I let my guard down to the people I play cards with. I clearly liked this woman much more than she liked me, and in fact she did not like me at all. I felt duped, out played, and then I wondered if I should trust this other friend who just told me this story. After all, I met him on the circuit as well. I don’t need people at the table to like me, but it’s also always a little disconcerting when you realize that your sense of reality is not the actual reality.

Bookmark It