@ those who'd press charges: Why do you think that the police asked if OP wanted to press charges?

The OP clarified this. The police didn’t ask. Security asked if he wanted to press charges. OP said yes. Police were then called to the casino. OP gave a statement I think. Not sure if villain was arrest or what.

That’s all we know. I think.

HB, in addition to what RJT said, this was covered earlier in the thread:

Rapini

I think HB’s question is more rhetorical and he plans to tell us or has a reply to those wanting to press.

Just to clarify the "fighting words" doctrine in the law: "fighting words" is a fairly narrow exception to the US Constitution's 1st Amendment protection of free speech; i.e., it is a recognized class of personally directed, very hateful/provocative speech for which the speaker can actually be arrested.
(Rather than post citations, just look up in Wikipedia if interested.)
This does not confer any complete or automatic protection for physical retaliation; however, in real life, "fighting words" are often viewed by the law as a (potentially) mitigating factor in the treatment of someone who does retaliate physically to extreme speech. Obviously this is a matter of degree and of damage (retaliating to "fighting words" with a simple shove would hopefully be viewed differently than retaliation with an ax or a gun), and some subjectivity would be involved.

Want to chime in and give an upvote to callipygian.

Maybe I'm in my 40s, but in OP's shoes I would walk up to the table, put by chips down, smile at the guy and politely ask him if he can make some room for me.

Walking in, snapping my fingers and telling the card-room manager to square the table, sounds a bit rude to me. And you don't want to look rude around people who maybe steaming after losing a bunch of money.

Some of you guys need to learn how to socialise with your fellow man.

I haven't read this whole thread, but you absolutely should press charges. A guy like this is clearly unstable. I doubt this will be the last time he gets unreasonably physical with someone. There's a good chance a guy like this is an abuser in some way or another. If nothing else I'm pressing charges for the next person. That person could be his significant other, kids, some rando on the street. Not only that , but since you didn't hit him back, this is your way of getting him back.


... also I'm coming to your room and raising you every chance I get because you fold to aggression.

1st of all dealers square a table not the cardroom manager

2nd the OP never said it was the villain who caused the table needing to be squared. it could have been 3 seats over and everyone else prior just lived with it.

3rd it is not rude to ask for the table to be squared

No reasonable person thinks that OP should have acted and reacted exactly the way he did. OP also didn't ask for advice on how he could avoid future altercations. He asked whether he should press charges.

Not from the impression I got from reading the thread. Also I was giving advice on how to avoid confrontations and being a polite person in general. Essentially, I have no sympathy for op.

I’ve no idea how people infer or assume the OP did or even might have come to the table with attitude. Everything he posted itt leads me to, if anything, assume the opposite. Villain twice grabs his throat. OP is bigger yet doesn’t respond physically. OP seems a calm dude to me. Doesn’t seem like thinks he owns the room.

New player walks up to table. Has to tell dealer to tell villain to gtfo of his space (square table)? Seated player supposed to get back in his own space automatically, like a normal human being.

I wonder why this derailed thread hasn't been locked up

I never understood once an OP is fine with discussion and is no loner involved, then others continue discussing thoughts perhaps tangential, that threads get locked. Always seemed a power trip to me.

I’d imagine there’s a rationale. Why do you care? I’m not being sarcastic. Interested why it would matter.

From the forum rules sticky:
First, if you think something needs moderation attention, please use the report post button. Just posting in a thread is no guarantee of getting a moderation response.

Second, it might be argued that the thread has, at times, devolved into some namecalling, but the fact is that no one has reported anything in this thread to my recollection, and people are generally debating the merits of the positions rather than just flinging poo at each other. But it's on a reasonably short leash AFAIC.

I do personally feel stupider for having read most of it, so I generally don't and just skim through it from time to time to make sure nothing is getting out of hand. And I don't really understand why people want to argue about semantics, pedantics, and subjective preferences to such lengths, but to each his own.

He didn’t say that he rudely walked in, snapped his fingers and gave an order. He suggested that he was polite. Why are you making things up just to attack the OP?

There is a lot of arguing about silly stuff because a couple of trolls keep posting ITT.

One man's troll is another man's earnest defense of his opinion.

As a participant, and especially as a moderator, I try not to shut people down for having an opinion that differs from my own.

I will say that, knowing some of the alleged trolls in this thread, I don't think they are actually trolling. But that's just my opinion, and one that the other mods may not share. (It also doesn't mean I agree with the alleged trolls on the substance of their arguments.)

For me it’s not just their opinions. Someone can have silly opinions and not be a troll. They seem very argumentative, condescending, don’t seem like they will ever admit they are wrong about anything, and they have disrupted the thread.

And this is just my opinion but I think one of those guys is too smart to believe some of the stuff he says; some of it looks really silly and I think he is getting some good laughs out of this thread.

Sort of. The police ask bec they see this stuff all of the time and they know what's serious and what is not. If OP'd been lying on the floor w/ broken bones they wouldn't ask. OTOH, OP was assaulted and that is actionable so they can't just walk away. But if the police aren't thinking 'damn, it's a lot of paperwork for a minor scuffle, please say no' I'll eat my computer.

OP didn't ask for your sympathy either. So would you press charges? Why/why not?

That's human nature. I don't blame them for having that reaction internally.

If that's all you're asking, then, cards on the table, I don't think it's necessarily a decisive factor. In some cases it is, and I've more or less outlined when I think it should be. Like if someone waited for me outside the cardroom and said, "You better watch you back, because I'm going to **** you up," over an argument that happened hours ago, I'm snap reporting that even if he doesn't get within 10 feet of me.

But in general, no, that isn't the deciding factor. As a matter of fact, I don't think any one factor is the deciding factor.

To be clear, while I agree that I have not provided evidence in this thread, I have made it possible to find such evidence using a simple Google search and reading a Wikipedia article.

So, to be clear, every time you see an act of physical violence committed by professional athletes on TV, you report it as a crime?

Because if the answer is yes, then I concede that I'm wrong. Apparently not all of us are cowards to some extent who tolerate some violence, however minor. You've apparently chosen to file dozens of police reports every week in order to protect what you believe is some kind of bright line between civilized society and physical violence. While I don't agree, I admire that kind of commitment.

But if the answer is no, then perhaps you can explain why you answered yes? Didn't read my question carefully? Didn't inderstand what it meant? Just looking for an excuse to call me a troll/coward?

This may or may not belong in the moderation thread but I want to point out sarcasm is not necessarily trolling.

I'll admit sometimes I can be quite sarcastic, which means that I mean the opposite of my literal words (and that context defines the meaning).

I've intentionally cut back at your (dinesh's) specific request.

I will admit that I sarcastically referred to 2p2 as full of +10 bb/hr winners earlier in this thread. Sorry. If you want to edit that out or infract me for that, that's fair, since you warned me. I think everything else I've posted here was literal.