“If it wasn’t for luck, I’d win every game”

That is a quote by Phil Helmuth Jr. Phil Helmuth Jr. is a professional poker player. He’s been a world champion, and he’s won 9 WSOP (world series of poker) bracelets. 9 WSOP bracelets is tied for the most all time. He has a poker book….a damn good poker book. With all of these accomplishments, do you know what he’s known for? For being a whiner. He’s very vocal at the poker table. He bitches about bad beats, dumb calls and blind luck. Is that wrong? When is it okay to complain about a bad beat? Is it only okay to complain when the person doing it doesn’t win much?

I’m fed up with people bitching at me, the same argument over and over. Why is it okay for you to complain about a call, but not for me? Why can you say this person played dumb, or that person made a dumb call, but I can’t. I wasn’t even at the game last night, and Billy tells me that a bunch of people were jumping on his shit for what they considered bad calls. The thing that makes me laugh is that if I was the one jumping on his shit, I would, yet again, be called a whiner or an asshole. A bunch of fucking hypocrites. Period. Fact is, if you’ve ever complained about a hand, you can’t bitch at someone else for doing it.

And for all you thin skinned people, if someone bitches about a call you made, after you take a pot from them, there is absolutely no reason for you to get pissed off. You played that hand for whatever reason, and you won. If someone bitching about your play bothers you that much, stay away from the poker table. You don’t belong there.

Everyone deals with their ups and downs at the poker table differently. Me? I express my feelings right then and there. I’ll bitch, yell, whatever I feel fits the situation. I even kicked my chip case once. I stay mad about 20 minutes, and thats it. Then I’m back to joking with everyone, dealing, or whatever. Some people don’t say anything until the next day. Some people don’t say anything at all. They just grab their keys and leave. My question is why is one better than the other? I prefer my method. Within a half hour I’ve complained and gotten over it. Is that so bad? Bad enough for people to call me a whiner behind my back. On a side note, to the pussies who don’t have th balls to say that shit to my face, go fuck yourselves. You know who you are….and so do I.

So, why me? Why do people bitch about me when I complain? Joey and I came up with the reason. And it wasn’t hard to figure out. Hell, people have flat out told me this was the reason. Because I’m in first place. Easy target I guess. This brings me to my next point about who plays cards with us.

Joey and I had a good conversation tonight. We were talking about complaining and complaints. He said something that made me think. What I came up with is that there are two people that we play cards with. “Friends” and “other”. We might be close to the time we recycle the “other”. I’m getting pretty testy at the poker table with people bitching. I think it’s because I’m sick of the same old complaints. The problem is, it’s never the people that push you to the edge that get the brunt of your wrath, it’s the innocent that nudges you over. That’s what I’m going to try and stop.

All hell, I had a lot more to type, but I’m tired. It’d 4:00am, and I’m going to bed now.