Quote:
Originally Posted by Aurora Tom
I have a 14-year old son with Asperger's and I have read this thread wondering how he would be able to handle a poker table atmosphere when he's old enough. Clearly there are many different facets on the spectrum, but for my son, I would expect that the player staring at him would just make him laugh and it probably wouldn't be a tell. He has no fear at all (except for mosquitos) and also doesn't much care about what other people think of him.
I have met a lot of people on the autistic spectrum (at least two dozen I know are on it) and about as many I suspect have Aspergers but am unsure.
We all have common traits but there's also a great deal of variance from person to person as far as symptoms, as I'm sure you're aware. Like your son, I have no fear of most things people are scared of, with the big exception of social interactions. I also don't care what people think of me, unless it's someone I admire or respect.
Most of the higher-functioning autistic and Aspergers people I've met could be taught to play poker, but
only if they're interested in strategic games. I'm sure you know this as well, but we tend to latch on to 2 or 3 interests (sometimes one) and with everything else you might as well be talking about your favorite shade of paint. For me, my interests are poker, computers, and sci-fi/fantasy. Often I lose interest in one of these for a while but come back to it. All the other things people are usually interested in like sports, socializing, drinking at bars, etc., I just don't care at all. And I'm relatively broad for someone on the spectrum. I've met people interested in nothing but comic books, or I remember one guy who really liked anime, and I tried talking to him about some anime I liked, but it was a different type of anime, so, zero interest. All he liked was this very specific subgenre of anime.
So I think the main requirements for whether someone on the spectrum can play poker are
a) is the individual intelligent enough to be taught the analytical side of poker? I think most Aspies are, but I've met some autistics who definitely are not.
b) can the individual handle the social aspects without overwhelming anxiety or other "inappropriate" reactions? Again, I think most Aspies can, but it may take much longer for the anxiety or laughing etc. to go away compared to a neurotypical, many of whom would never have such issues to begin with.
c) most important, is the individual interested in poker or similar activities? For me, before I was aware of poker, I was interested in skill and strategy games like chess and Risk, and when I started playing poker online, that became my primary game of interest and has remained so.
Feel free to PM me with any questions you have about playing poker with Aspergers.
Hope this was at least somewhat helpful
@iraisetoomuch
Yeah, I got a definitive response from WaldoWorld and the dealer was definitely misinterpreting the rule. At Winstar you can ask who raised on the current street, but not every dealer knows this.