Hey, I Play Poker 

Once you get started into a new hobby, it seems like it follows you everywhere. You hear it mentioned on the the subway, in the elevator, on TV. References are made to it everywhere you go.  The thing is, they probably always have been made, but since your radar isn’t tuned to it, it just doesn’t register. It’s like buying a new car and then seeing  it everywhere you go.

 

I had one of these moments the other day at work.  I was standing around, waiting for the elevator to come when I heard…

 

“I flopped top pair…”

 

Suddenly my ears perked up and I turned around to see a male co-worker of mine talking to another guy that I didn’t know.  In my lmind, this poker reference meant that we were cosmically connected and I had every right to join in the conversation.  So, join I did.

 

 “I play poker,” says I proudly.

 

 “That’s nice,” comes the response.

 

 “Did you bet your top pair, or slowplay*?” I question.

 

 “Huh,” responds the speaker.

  “Did you bet…? Or slowplay your top pair?” I repeat.

 

  “Oh. Right.  I slowplayed.”

 

  “That can be a risky play depending upon the flop.”

 

  No response

 

  “Well, if you slowplay, you risk allowing your opponents to draw out on the turn or river.”

 

I was on a roll now. Digging deep for any and all poker lingo I could find. I was obviously impressing them.  There was shock in their eyes, they were uncomfortable with my obvious poker knowledge. It wouldn’t take long for the word to get around the office that I was the hip, cool woman in the office who not only played poker, but KNEW poker.  The thing is, I had almost used up all of my limited poker knowledge in three sentences. I had read somewhere that slowplaying top pair was often not a good idea.

 

Pause to step on the elevator.

 

I couldn’t stop myself, I had to continue…

 

“So did you win the hand?”

 

“No…” he says, I got out drawn on the river and lost to a

K2 suited who hit his flush.”

 

“Hmmm..,” says I smugly. “Guess you shouldn’t have slow played that top pair.”

 

The elevator continued to rise. Nothing else was said. 

 

When I finally took the plunge to learn how to play poker, I was sure that it would give me a ticket into that elusive fraternity called…male.  Not that I necessarily wanted to be a permanent member, but I  wanted to hang out there once in awhile.  I really thought that poker would help open the door and allow access in business and socially. Unfortunately, I have found that some men are just not comfortable with women who try to crack that nut.  The funny thing is, I’m just not so sure what is so male about sitting down with a deck of cards and some chips and playing a few hands of poker.  It’s not like it takes a great deal of muscle. Perhaps the trouble is that men view poker as being one more thing that women can do better than men and will soon take over!  Whatever the case may be, I certainly caught the vibe from these two guys that it was not a comfortable conversation to be talking poker with a woman.

 

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Just before noon I checked my e-mail to see where my friends and I would be meeting for lunch.   My eyes rested on the subject line of a particular e-mail;

 

“Hey Ms Slowplay”

 

I opened the e-mail and read the following;

 

“The guys are getting together on Friday night for a game of Hold’em. We need one more player, just wondering if you’d like to join us.  Bring lots of money, you’ll need it.”

 

A slow smile spread across my face.  I had a day pass into the fraternity.  Now, I had to win!

 

 

*Slowplay:  When you have a very good hand, but decide not to bet it so that you can convince your opponent to bet. You could win more chips than if you had bet yourself.  This kind of play can be troublesome if your opponent ends up getting the card he needs on the turn or the river because you lost a hand that you could have won if you weren’t so greedy. It can also be a brilliant move if it works.  Beginner and novice players tend to slowplay more often than they should.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 at 9:41 pm and is filed under POKERprimaDIVAS Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.