Daily tourney. All-in, call. Daily Tourney Reg turns up the better hand, but loses the runout, and most of his chips. Frustrated, DTR manages a stoic, at-least-half-sincere "Nice hand," as he pays off.
As I ship the pot, DTR repeats a little louder, "Nice hand," and gets more frustrated. "I've said that twice now. He still hasn't said anything!"
Still no response. His frustration builds, off an already sky-high baseline of getting most of his chips in while ahead and losing. He adds, a little louder, "Either he didn't hear me, or he's a d***!" The old passive-aggressive, "Don't accuse me of calling him names, I wasn't talking to HIM, I was talking to this guy next to me!" page out of the Adult Day Care playbook.
Still no one will acknowledge any of this. Not the winner, not me, not any other player, so he keeps going. "I'm betting 'd***'!"
Man, the way these guys tie their delicate, fragile, brittle, easily-shatter-able egos to the outcome of a hand of poker!
He finally lets it go, but a few hands later, he gets his tiny stack in there, and happens to get busted by the same player. He was ahead on one of the betting rounds, so that makes this, too, a provocative injustice beyond endurance. A super-sarcastic "Nice hand," and as expected, he draws no response. He gathers his things, and announces he's going to the cage to re-enter, and "I *hope* I draw this table again!"
SMH.
Two minutes later, DTR is back, grinning ear to ear. He shows his receipt, and takes his new seat at this same table. He's so EXCITED. He's literally hopping from one foot to the other, as he sets up his backpack, drink table, etc. He's still seated next to the same player he was "talking to" before (who has yet to join him conversation, but politely listens to this nonsense). He takes his seat, literally rubbing his hands together rapidly in anticipation of sweet, sweet revenge against the villain in his mind...
At this point, I must share with the reader that I know something DTR doesn't: the guy he's angry at, for not acknowledging him? HE'S MUTE!
Remember that first hand, that started all this? "Villain" went all-in, and DTR called. At that point, "Villain", slightly agitated by the excitement of the all-in moment, gestured to DTR to turn his cards up. He was also grunting, slightly; and working to hard to portray, via body language, that he is eager to turn up his own cards, as soon as he sees DTR's. I have seen mute players act this way before when excited, and i quickly surmised that he was mute, too.
All this was lost on DTR (in fairness, he got sidetracked dealing with the highly offensive notion of being instructed to turn his hand up first after making the call--he didn't notice those instructions were wordless, closed-mouth grunts). That made those ten minutes of his running his mouth even more unbearable. I was relieved when he busted out, but when he came *back*, and showed no signs of slowing, I knew I had to get involved....but how? I know DTR enough that he won't take a word of "Hey, cool it, huh?" as helpful, he'll see it as provocation and escalate things. Calling the floor would result in the same. The best way to go is to point out he's angry at a mute person who won't speak to him, but how the hell do I do THAT? It does not sound like a polite thing to SAY in front of the afflicted person, does it? And imagine how embarrassed I would be if I were wrong about his perceived condition???
I decide upon my ridiculous plan: I've got to
pass a note to this guy. This paragraph makes ME look even more ridiculous than HIM, doesn't it?
The only paper I have available is the down card, the paper I signed to get a share of the tournament tokes. The back of this card is blank, so I write, "Has it occurred to you that he CAN'T speak?" It takes a minute to write all that, when you have to keep dropping the pen to pull in the bets and put out the next card. While this was going on, DTR and his polite neighbor were quietly having a side conversation.
As I finished my composition, DTR politely pointed out to me that when I gave him his chips upon re-entry, I did not give him the bounty ticket that each player is issued. He used the words, "I need one of those." I gave him the bounty ticket, then added, "You need this, too," and shipped my note.
He read it, grimaced, and handed me back my down card. "Yeah, I figured it out about two minutes ago. That's what (my polite neighbor and I) were just discussing.
"
The push came.
The apology didn't.
Last edited by youtalkfunny; 03-28-2018 at 03:05 PM.