Felicia Lee Dyer (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} felicialee1) wrote,@ 2007-06-20 11:21:00 |
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Let's Make a Deal!
You need to protect yourself when you play poker.
When I make a deal with someone, I make sure it is explained thoroughly, and that we both have an understanding. Then, I hang out around them, hovering in the poker room, until I see what the conclusion is, and get my fair share.
I haven't been burned yet, but I think people are hesitant to scam me, because I'm such a witch and they fear not paying me off.
One time a guy at the Belle tried to make a deal with me at the FT. He said something like, "How about we split it up right now?" He seemed like a scumbag, so I asked, "In what way? Explain how we would split it?" He said, "I'll take first, John takes second, you take third." I asked, "Okay, now when you said first, second, third, are you talking about points for the free WPT event, or what?" He said, "No, I mean we just end the tournament right now, with the chips as they are, and I'll take first prize money, John takes second...blah, blah." I laughed in his face. Like I'm going to stop the event when I've got 3rd place money wrapped up and am freerolling for the win!
Unfortunately, I've seen many people fall for this trick, as well as others, so many times in the past.
So today I'm going to tell you a story that should make you very cautious in your dealings with "poker people," aka scumbags.
I'm telling it as fiction, to protect both myself and the innocent party who told me the story, but I believe it's probably fact, or very close to it, at any rate.
Five years ago I met this guy. We seemed to have a lot in common. We both liked the same games, we both seemed, on the surface to be straight up, candid people. Within a year, however, I got a feeling that this guy was not who he seemed. People warned me. I rarely listen to gossip, but this was a case of there being so much smoke that there must be some fire nearby. I just simply put up my radar of caution, and never thought about it again.
Sure enough, he seemed to just LOVE me in person, I was his favorite chick. But I started hearing things about myself behind my back that were coming from him, and weren't true, or were true, but were contrary to the things he was saying to my face. One day I finally caught him, as he had written something, in print. That severed the relationship right there. I have not given him two moments of thought since then.
I have seen him on the circuit here and there, but since I've been sick, and he doesn't play many events, he wasn't hard to ignore.
Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago he I saw him. Suddenly he was all friendly again. I tried to ignore it, but I simply remained slightly polite without really engaging.
A few days later, I bought into an event. He and a woman he knows got seated at the same table, and didn't want to play together. They asked me if I wanted to exchange seats. Being the creep I am, and having an end seat, I said no.
But this is where it all goes FUBAR. Seeing a friend of mine in the line, and trying to make a connection on this, they asked if he would switch seats. No biggie. The seats are randomly chosen, it's no big deal. But in retrospect I hate that my name was used to make this connection.
What I didn't know, is that while getting to know my friend, by claiming to be a friend of mine, something was said like, "Well, if this is a lucky seat after all, we could trade 10% of each other, so that no one loses if one of us cashes." My friend is a super laid back guy, so he says yes to this, thinking it's a no lose situation.
My friend busts out. I bust out. The seat exchanger, however, not only goes on to cash, but makes a deal for about 5k since it's so late.
Fast forward...It's late at night and my friend is playing in a cash game, but also is wandering around a lot, to try to stay alert. He has forgotten all about the 10% exchange, and about the whole thing in general. He is super cool, and would never have thought of it again, had this not happened to him...
He is standing around, just walking and playing since it's late. Suddenly, the wife of the seat exchanger comes up to him and starts talking about how her husband made the money, blah, blah.
Then she goes on to say, "But you know, the 10% exchange doesn't apply here, because the seat we traded was mine, not his." A total lie, obviously, but my friend is joe cool. He really couldn't care less. He says something like, "Oh, um, I thought we were just joking around anyway. No sweat."
To add insult to injury, she now adds something like, "Oh, btw, here is my card. If you are ever in the market for a new car, call me!" And walks away.
SCUM!
Piece of crap can't even honor his agreement for a lousy $500!
Now, the only reason this story was told to me, is because last night I saw my friend, and he said, "Yeah, that friend of yours has been running really well, he chopped a couple tourneys here and cashed at Rio, etc." I made sure to tell him that the scumbag is NO friend of mine. That opened him up to the story and he said, "Hmm, speaking of scum..." And proceeded to tell me what happened.
So that is my "story." I have changed some facts and switched things a little so that everyone is protected here. I couldn't care less about the scumbag, but I don't want my friend to get into deep doo, nor do I want to get more death threats or threats of libel.
Shoot, that will probably happen anyway. But I feel somewhat protected by my integrity.
Please, poker people, protect yourself. Get things in writing if you don't feel like you may get paid. Watch, listen. Don't make deals, trades or back someone unless you feel 100% confident that things are on the up and up.
My friend never would have thought about this trade had the wife not directly approached him. He wouldn't have felt he was being ripped off, wouldn't have felt he was being taken advantage of. He would never have given it a second thought.
Instead, they insulted him and scammed him. And you'd better bet that if HE'D been in the money, they would have been right there, dirty, greedy, cheating hands stuck out for their 10% cut.
A lesson. Please learn it.
Felicia
You need to protect yourself when you play poker.
When I make a deal with someone, I make sure it is explained thoroughly, and that we both have an understanding. Then, I hang out around them, hovering in the poker room, until I see what the conclusion is, and get my fair share.
I haven't been burned yet, but I think people are hesitant to scam me, because I'm such a witch and they fear not paying me off.
One time a guy at the Belle tried to make a deal with me at the FT. He said something like, "How about we split it up right now?" He seemed like a scumbag, so I asked, "In what way? Explain how we would split it?" He said, "I'll take first, John takes second, you take third." I asked, "Okay, now when you said first, second, third, are you talking about points for the free WPT event, or what?" He said, "No, I mean we just end the tournament right now, with the chips as they are, and I'll take first prize money, John takes second...blah, blah." I laughed in his face. Like I'm going to stop the event when I've got 3rd place money wrapped up and am freerolling for the win!
Unfortunately, I've seen many people fall for this trick, as well as others, so many times in the past.
So today I'm going to tell you a story that should make you very cautious in your dealings with "poker people," aka scumbags.
I'm telling it as fiction, to protect both myself and the innocent party who told me the story, but I believe it's probably fact, or very close to it, at any rate.
Five years ago I met this guy. We seemed to have a lot in common. We both liked the same games, we both seemed, on the surface to be straight up, candid people. Within a year, however, I got a feeling that this guy was not who he seemed. People warned me. I rarely listen to gossip, but this was a case of there being so much smoke that there must be some fire nearby. I just simply put up my radar of caution, and never thought about it again.
Sure enough, he seemed to just LOVE me in person, I was his favorite chick. But I started hearing things about myself behind my back that were coming from him, and weren't true, or were true, but were contrary to the things he was saying to my face. One day I finally caught him, as he had written something, in print. That severed the relationship right there. I have not given him two moments of thought since then.
I have seen him on the circuit here and there, but since I've been sick, and he doesn't play many events, he wasn't hard to ignore.
Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago he I saw him. Suddenly he was all friendly again. I tried to ignore it, but I simply remained slightly polite without really engaging.
A few days later, I bought into an event. He and a woman he knows got seated at the same table, and didn't want to play together. They asked me if I wanted to exchange seats. Being the creep I am, and having an end seat, I said no.
But this is where it all goes FUBAR. Seeing a friend of mine in the line, and trying to make a connection on this, they asked if he would switch seats. No biggie. The seats are randomly chosen, it's no big deal. But in retrospect I hate that my name was used to make this connection.
What I didn't know, is that while getting to know my friend, by claiming to be a friend of mine, something was said like, "Well, if this is a lucky seat after all, we could trade 10% of each other, so that no one loses if one of us cashes." My friend is a super laid back guy, so he says yes to this, thinking it's a no lose situation.
My friend busts out. I bust out. The seat exchanger, however, not only goes on to cash, but makes a deal for about 5k since it's so late.
Fast forward...It's late at night and my friend is playing in a cash game, but also is wandering around a lot, to try to stay alert. He has forgotten all about the 10% exchange, and about the whole thing in general. He is super cool, and would never have thought of it again, had this not happened to him...
He is standing around, just walking and playing since it's late. Suddenly, the wife of the seat exchanger comes up to him and starts talking about how her husband made the money, blah, blah.
Then she goes on to say, "But you know, the 10% exchange doesn't apply here, because the seat we traded was mine, not his." A total lie, obviously, but my friend is joe cool. He really couldn't care less. He says something like, "Oh, um, I thought we were just joking around anyway. No sweat."
To add insult to injury, she now adds something like, "Oh, btw, here is my card. If you are ever in the market for a new car, call me!" And walks away.
SCUM!
Piece of crap can't even honor his agreement for a lousy $500!
Now, the only reason this story was told to me, is because last night I saw my friend, and he said, "Yeah, that friend of yours has been running really well, he chopped a couple tourneys here and cashed at Rio, etc." I made sure to tell him that the scumbag is NO friend of mine. That opened him up to the story and he said, "Hmm, speaking of scum..." And proceeded to tell me what happened.
So that is my "story." I have changed some facts and switched things a little so that everyone is protected here. I couldn't care less about the scumbag, but I don't want my friend to get into deep doo, nor do I want to get more death threats or threats of libel.
Shoot, that will probably happen anyway. But I feel somewhat protected by my integrity.
Please, poker people, protect yourself. Get things in writing if you don't feel like you may get paid. Watch, listen. Don't make deals, trades or back someone unless you feel 100% confident that things are on the up and up.
My friend never would have thought about this trade had the wife not directly approached him. He wouldn't have felt he was being ripped off, wouldn't have felt he was being taken advantage of. He would never have given it a second thought.
Instead, they insulted him and scammed him. And you'd better bet that if HE'D been in the money, they would have been right there, dirty, greedy, cheating hands stuck out for their 10% cut.
A lesson. Please learn it.
Felicia
