On The Inability Of Some To Stay In Their Shoes

By this point, the casual reader of the blog knows that I run a poker game. Whether or not you care, of course, is another matter. But since I have nothing of particular importance to say about the NBA playoffs this morning...

(Other than, in re Hawks-Bucks, being utterly amazed that a team with John Salmons as its best player could be up 3-2 in a series with home court for Game 6 against any opponent. In re Nuggets-Jazz, I'm waiting for Denver to show up on the road and realize that they are playing a team that they outclassed on talent *before* the Jazz lost two starters to injury before getting fooled into thinking they have stones. Moving on.)

Well, this.

For my home game, ideally, I want just under 20 players at the start of the night. That gives us two full tables for the tournament, fills the room to the point where it's still comfortable, and creates equity for the players, since the odds are more even that you'll be playing at a table with enough hands. It also makes for a meaningful pot. For the uninitiated, poker generally needs at least four players to be playable, and works better with 9 per table. You also are trying to avoid having 11 players, since that's too many for one table, and really not enough for two. After the tournament is over, if you started with enough people, then you've got enough for a long cash game.

The reality is that home games are all over the place, if you care to look and aren't a douchebag (and if you are a bad player, most folks will overlook that for your money). Also, people take vacations, drift out of the game, decide they'd rather play online or in a casino, etc., etc. While you may generate a core of regular players over time, you are always going to be looking for new guys to take over for worn out people. It's true of just about any regular social event, but especially so for poker.

This has led me to work different sources for players -- referrals from my current group (best), going to other games to try to recruit for your table (generally doesn't work), joining online poker groups on MeetUp (not bad) and advertising on Facebook or Craigs List (once OK, now increasingly terrible, mostly because you get a flood of spam). From this, you generate an email list of players that say they want in, but will cancel, flake out, etc. It is what it is. Frankly, there's not much difference between this and, in my past life, trying to get people to come to my rock band's gigs, or getting people to join my fantasy league.

So last night, I sent out the latest RSVP for my event, and got back a profanely negative response... from a guy who has never, to my knowledge, actually made it to the table. He has, of course, told me he was going to come several times. I suppose he's just having a day, or has bad wiring in his head, and I'm glad, for the sake of my regulars, that he won't be in any danger of coming... but it stuck in my craw a bit. And so, this post.

In New York, the Mets completed a strong homestand with a seven game winning streak that moved them to first place in the NL East. They now come to Philadelphia to battle the two-time defending league champion Phillies. Before the winning streak, they were a team with one reliable starting pitcher (Johan Santana), a middle of the order that was performing so badly that they decided to move their leadoff hitter to the #3 slot and sacrifice his stolen bases to give the cleanup hitter more of a chance to see a fastball, a bullpen that was fairly shaky and a defense that wasn't particularly stellar.

And now... well, they have a young first baseman that heals all ills, and it's a different team, how they've got the big Mo Men Tum, and that they can't wait to show the big bullies how Things Have Changed. Despite, you know, still employing Oliver Perez, and John Maine, and all of the other guys that were such a problem two weeks ago.

Um, OK then.

In Pittsburgh, in the past two weeks, the two-time Super Bowl winning QB has become a massive pariah, an embattled figure just trying to get better, a symbol of a corporation (Nike) who seems to just want to antagonize women by remaining in his corner (and Tiger Woods, of course), and much, much more. If the Steelers keep the guy, they are betraying their ideals. If they trade him, they'll get a king's ransom for a guy with a nine figure contract who is just one more slip-up away from hard time, let alone league suspension. The league, by the way, conspired to have the easy part of the schedule for when he was out. And so on, and on, and on, and on.

In the nation as a whole, the economy may have finally turned the corner. A massive treaty was signed to reduce the number of nuclear weapons. Financial reform that gives us the hope of preventing the next "Too Big To Fail" swindle is in the works. Electric cars are nearing the marketplace, I see hybrids all over the place now (well, we bought one, so now we notice all of the others), my tax refund was more than expected, and I haven't noticed too many frogs in the gutters from the Biblical plague that was supposed to result from passing a health care reform act. We haven't been hit by a major terrorist attack.

Meanwhile, of course, I have older relatives that actually think the world is coming to an end, and that the President is the Antichrist. (By the way, this isn't a reason for you to post your political views in the comments. I'm really more about proving a point about freakouts, rather than turning this blog into something it ain't.)

And all I can think of is... why is getting so hard for people to remain in their freaking shoes?

Is it because the Internet allows every crackpot theorist to find a community of people that believe the same thing? Is it because the Baby Boomers are getting closer and closer to the end of the mortal coil, and they are all bugging out? And finally, is it because white people are that wiped out by the presence of browns and blacks on the television screens and in their neighborhoods?

I don't, of course, know the answer to any of this, and I'm not even sure that the percentage of freakout has actually changed; again, the Internets might just make it easier to notice each and every spazzification.

But I will say this. Can we all, please, try to calm the hell down? I'm just trying to run a poker game here.

And the rules of the house are that you must wear shoes. On your feet.

(Ed Note: Nice of the ad feed to give me an anti-Fed message this morning after that. Those Google bots, they've got some stones.)