Texas ‘I Told him’
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009The more cunning (and probably more casual players) among you may think that getting your girlfriend into online poker is a sneaky way to spend more time enjoying your second favourite late night past time. A good strategy when executed correctly, but proceed with caution.
The initial seduction works well. Login to your PKR account ‘just to show her how cool the graphics are these days’, then let her change your avatar a bit – the more she changes it, the more connected she’ll become to her new creation and more committed she’ll be to seeing it in action. Hit the tables; a low-risk $5 sit-N- go game of Texas Hold’em should do it – though go for a 6 player table rather than a 10 as she’ll be surprised at how long it takes, plus, some of the sneakier better players eat up the novices on the 10 player tables for a bit of sport.
Once you get going, there are a couple of things you should be wary of:
1: The chat function and flirt emoticons
She may be initially surprised that you can chat, and more specifically ‘flirt’, with your fellow competitors. Be prepared for questioning on this – your late night antics suddenly became a bit more threatening. Ensure that when the girl in the cowboy boots with the low cut top says ‘hi’ and sends you a message to ask how you’re doing, you respond with absolute certainty that it is most definitely a bloke. She’ll then enjoy taunting her/him relentlessly.
2: ‘Having a look’
You may have rubbish cards but it’s usually worth a look or the game gets pretty boring. Your girlfriend may be more inclined to fold preferring to save the $40 a look would be worth for later. When nothing comes up and you ultimately fold anyway, be prepared for your first ‘I told you so’. However, this works both ways and she’ll soon come round to your way of thinking. Play a few hands her way and when she folds and her pair of 3’s gained on the river could have won the hand, afford yourself a satisfactory smirk.
3: Going all in
This is the biggest source of ‘I told you so’. You’re down to the last two and in an attempt to scare off your opponent, you go all in saying ‘trust me’. But they call and you lose. She was right, you were wrong. Ride this one out – this is the turning point…
Basically, while you may be questioning yourself for introducing your partner to poker, actually the more ‘I told you’s’ you get, the better: ‘I told you that one only bets hard pre-flop when he has something’; ‘I told you he was taking too long to decide to bet’; ‘I told you he looked at his cards way too many times to have something decent’ etc.
Mission complete. Sit back and check out your new poker buddy! You’ll be hearing the seductive tones of PKR drifting through from the living room before you know it. Grab a bottle, you’re in for a late night!