Bloggers convention coming? Better get the medicine kit
In just three days, I’ll be with 50-100 poker bloggers in Las Vegas. It’s my third convention with this group and the prospect fills me with equal parts excitement and dread.
EXCITEMENT
This is a good group of men and women. They all write, mostly very well. The average level of intelligence, talent, knowledge, wit, and sarcasm is very high. They are all interested in poker and they all play poker.
DREAD
The main problem is that I feel like the square uncle dragged out for a night on the town when I’m with this crowd. Some of this comes down to my age. I turn 48 on December 14 and the only time I ever feel old is when I’m hanging out with the bloggers.
That, in turn, is caused by the fact that I don’t drink alcohol. I’m no Carry Nation; I just decided among my various vices, the possibility of drinking alcohol to excess seemed among the least enjoyable, so I didn’t put myself in its way.
Not so my blogging buddies. The spreadsheet with “vitals” on the bloggers includes a column labeled “Drinking?” Mine is one of the few boxes without an entry. While a few typed “Y” or even “Y Y Y,” many listed the particular concoctions they preferred. Others said things like “hell yeah,” “with both hands,” and “only when I’m awake.”
The whole weekend is going to be like a poker game in a distillary.
And that’s the other thing, the poker. How can a group of smart men and women who write about poker for a living or as a hobby be such awful players? I’m not trying to pull rank or Big Time these people. A BAD poker player would be amazed.
Maybe it’s because we’re playing low stakes or everybody is just goofing around or, of course, the 14 or so cocktails most of the table has sopped up. (Which of the three do you want to blame for calling me down with SIXTH PAIR, Wil “Deuces” Wheaton?) But it’s going to take me a month to play properly after adjusting to the bloggers’ “strategies,” one of which is to play 7-2o, “The Hammer”, at every opportunity.
It’s going to be a great time. I can’t wait.
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December 7th, 2006 at 5:31 am
It’s a shame that I can’t join all the bloggers in Vegas this time, but if there is anything going on in the summer, I’ll join you as one of the few "non-drinkers" at the convention despite the fact that I will have just turned 21.
Neil