Guys Are Way Easier

Making friends. I'm the quiet type. The shy type. An introvert, some would say. Sometimes, especially in my freelance photography job, I have to pretend to be a social butterfly, overflowing with smiles and small talk. It doesn't come naturally, but I have enough experience that it seems like it does. I can fake it well enough. I have my camera, I have my media pass. That gives me a reason to walk up to a complete stranger and strike up a conversation. 99% of the time, they are very receptive to me and even when they're not (for instance, the person they are with at the event is not their spouse, ahem, and they don't want photos taken, fine), they still decline politely. I've never had someone be rude or blow me off as they walk away as quickly as possible. It's a good thing, too, because I wouldn't be doing that job any longer if they did! Rejection sucks. Twice as bad when you're shy.

So, lately I've been trying to use this 'pretend-I'm-sociable-and-not-an-awkward-dork' method from work in making new, real life poker friends. I've been actually walking up to people in Tunica, introducing myself and starting conversations. Without my camera, my security blanket, mind you. This is a big deal for me lol. It had been going really well, too. In the last month, I've met several guys, who like me, love to talk poker, which is exactly what I was looking for. Up until now, I've only had my husband to discuss strategy or general poker stuff with and all the pros say "to get better, surround yourself with people who are better than you and who care about it as much as you". Sometimes I get to talk with the Bovada & Tunica Tournament Crusher, aka Memphis Mojo, usually on a tournament break and I enjoy those brief talks. But other than that, it's just been my husband to talk with. And while he's won more money than I have in tournaments, I had to laugh the other day when he turned away from the youtube video he was watching and asked me, "What is a value bet?" Yea. And he's on Hendon Mob and I'm not. Sigh. lol.

It took a lot of nerve to talk to these people, because of my shyness, but like I said, all was going great until I had the thought, All of the the poker players I'm talking to are guys. I need to make some female poker friends, too. So, I spotted this female tournament reg in Horseshoe (Roadhouse) who had walked by the table when I was playing the GS main event and wished me luck, saying she pulled for all of the female players. She seemed nice to me then, so I figured I'd walk up and try to get to know her. Umm, noooo. When I attempted to start a conversation by asking how she'd been doing since I saw her last, she totally blew me off with a hurried "I've been running bad in everything.." and straight up walked off!

Oh. Ok then. Hurt my feelings, heifer. Fine. Maybe she had just busted out of the tournament and I should cut her some slack? Umm so had I...I don't think that's any reason to be rude? It was a daily, not a championship, geez. So, I guess I'll just stick to guy poker friends for now, they are way easier to approach and talk to. And for that, thanks, guys, you rock. :)