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by Matt Mangham
While my family and I were evacuated for Hurricane Gustav, I went to play some $4-8 at the Horseshoe in Bossier City, LA. I grew up in the Shreveport/Bossier area, but I haven't lived there in 15 years. So, I sit down at the table, and notice that my dad (who was in town from Atlanta) was sitting at the other end of the table.
I was surprised to see him there, because neither of us knew we were going to be in town together. I decided not to say hi to him yet, but instead just wait for him to notice me at the end of the table. I wanted to see how long it would take before he recognized me. Well, I sat and played, and played, and played, and he still didn't notice me. As you can tell, my dad doesn't really play the opponent, he plays the cards.
Thirty minutes went by, and he still hadn't looked up to recognize me at the table. I started telling the guys at my end of the table that my dad still hadn't noticed me sitting there yet. They thought it was funny, so they started making noises and commotion to draw his attention to our end of the table. The guy next to me even started talking to him when they were head's up, and he would lean over right next to me to try to draw my dad's attention. Didn't work.
For an entire hour, my dad was oblivious to the fact that his son was playing at the same table with him. Finally, while the dealer was shuffling, I noticed my dad looking up, squinting in my direction. He says across the table, "Matthew? How long have you been there?"
"Over an hour", I say. He laughs and walks over to me. He couldn't believe I was sitting there so long unnoticed. He kept laughing as he called my step mom to tell her the story.
The lesson learned in this story... If you're playing my dad in poker, don't worry about giving away any tells. Hell, he won't even notice you're at the table for an hour or so.
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