A beginning of sorts
So here I begin my dialogue with the world. In itself an absurdly arrogant activity. It implies I have a story to tell. Or at least I will have a story. And either way I have the time and abilities to turn that story into a journal that others will want to read.
This is possibly therefore the most arrogant thing I have ever done. I know what I am good at (my job, or at least my previous job but one). I know what I am bad at - football (soccer - last time I'll be using *that* word) but that doesn't stop me playing; but there is a different feeling about this. It presupposes a level of competency I do not know I possess.
I think my thoughts and ramblings which will mostly be about poker will be interesting, but I really don't know. Nevertheless the time has come to start.
I guess ultimately Late Night Poker on some satellite channel is to blame. This is a TV show in the UK where 10 people (usually all men, but with a couple of notable exceptions) play a game of poker and it is broadcast for entertainment. The program is broadcast at around 11pm and lasts for an hour. Now I'm normally a fan of quite dull TV. It is obvious to me that there is a lack of a serious chess program on telly. That is but on example of how I can like dull TV. Equally I am a regular viewer of 'This Week' a political program featuring Dianne Abbott, Michael Portillo and Andrew Neil which just isn't interesting, yet I watch.
But even I thought that poker on TV would be unbearably tedious. Even if the other viewings were limited to repeats of Liverpool's defeats in the UEFA cup from 1997, televised phone-sex lines and Flip-side TV talking about the other two I would have thought Flip-side TV would have won.
I was wrong.
One night I surfed on through, looking for the elusive chess program, and I paused for slightly longer on a group of 10 players, one dealer, 52 cards and a large number of plastic chips.
Televised poker had me hooked from the start.
It was a little like me starting to like dance music in that at the beginning I was ashamed to admit it. It just seemed somehow wrong. Or unlike me.
Yet it was so, so good. I got to learn the language of poker (really difficult terms like 'flop' and 'river'). I got to see people bluffing and winning. This seemed like magic. I got to see sensible play losing and outrageous runner-runner draws to a straight giving people considerable amounts of money.
Alone. Late at night with the lights low, and with a son and wife asleep upstairs, my life changed. As yet I don not know by how much.
This is possibly therefore the most arrogant thing I have ever done. I know what I am good at (my job, or at least my previous job but one). I know what I am bad at - football (soccer - last time I'll be using *that* word) but that doesn't stop me playing; but there is a different feeling about this. It presupposes a level of competency I do not know I possess.
I think my thoughts and ramblings which will mostly be about poker will be interesting, but I really don't know. Nevertheless the time has come to start.
I guess ultimately Late Night Poker on some satellite channel is to blame. This is a TV show in the UK where 10 people (usually all men, but with a couple of notable exceptions) play a game of poker and it is broadcast for entertainment. The program is broadcast at around 11pm and lasts for an hour. Now I'm normally a fan of quite dull TV. It is obvious to me that there is a lack of a serious chess program on telly. That is but on example of how I can like dull TV. Equally I am a regular viewer of 'This Week' a political program featuring Dianne Abbott, Michael Portillo and Andrew Neil which just isn't interesting, yet I watch.
But even I thought that poker on TV would be unbearably tedious. Even if the other viewings were limited to repeats of Liverpool's defeats in the UEFA cup from 1997, televised phone-sex lines and Flip-side TV talking about the other two I would have thought Flip-side TV would have won.
I was wrong.
One night I surfed on through, looking for the elusive chess program, and I paused for slightly longer on a group of 10 players, one dealer, 52 cards and a large number of plastic chips.
Televised poker had me hooked from the start.
It was a little like me starting to like dance music in that at the beginning I was ashamed to admit it. It just seemed somehow wrong. Or unlike me.
Yet it was so, so good. I got to learn the language of poker (really difficult terms like 'flop' and 'river'). I got to see people bluffing and winning. This seemed like magic. I got to see sensible play losing and outrageous runner-runner draws to a straight giving people considerable amounts of money.
Alone. Late at night with the lights low, and with a son and wife asleep upstairs, my life changed. As yet I don not know by how much.
posted by PP at 6:00 AM
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