91. Online Acquaintances

I really am getting old.  I used to have exciting and occasionally, quite racy dreams.  Last night I had a complicated dream about cooking beetroot.

Another possible sign of ageing is that whereas in the past I would play football, rugby and cricket, my pastimes now are conducted from a comfy chair.  I am a sedentary hobbyist. 

Sometimes I play poker, online.  I don’t play for real money.  People do play online for real money but I never play poker for real.  The game I play is just for fun. 

When I started nearly four years ago I was “given” $1500 of stake money to get me going.  The first time I played I lost it all in about 30 minutes and I had to wait 24 hours until my pot was topped up again with another $1500. 

Whatever you may think, there is a lot of skill in playing poker and the more I played, the better I became and the more pretend money I won.  Today I have slightly more than $16 million in my account!

When I was young I did occasionally play poker for real money but real poker is nothing like ‘play poker’.  No one, playing with their own money, would ever go “all in” to try and fill an inside straight.  The odds against getting a 6 if you are holding 3, 4, 5, 7 are roughly 12:1 but in ‘play poker’ people often try to fill a straight and obviously they usually fail.

When someone does fluke an outrageous win in this way, some of the other players, who have certainly never played poker for real, will use the on-screen messaging facility to say “well done” or “well played”.  That’s why I have won 16 million dollars.  You don’t meet players like that when the money is real.

My poker name is Inge (my nickname at school) and my accompanying photo is the same one I use on Facebook:

Whatever you may think or imagine, that is not a photograph of me but he does have a certain charm, doesn’t he?

My fellow poker players are often intrigued by it and often make remarks and ask questions. 

“Is that a picture of you, Inge?” is the usual comment.

“Yes, on my wedding day,” is my standard response.

Today, Jim290 asked me if I am an alien.  I wrote that I was and that prompted Jim290 to write again. 

After about ten minutes, Suzybabe (who probably bears as much resemblance to her rather glamorous photo as I do to mine) joined in.  This is our exchange:

Jim290	Inge	Suzybabe
I saw a spaceship last year.
	No, you didn’t.
You weren’t there.
	Didn’t have to be.  You didn’t see a space ship.
YES, I DID.
	NO, YOU DIDN”T You didn’t see a space ship.
How you know?
	They’ve never been proved or verified.
What about Roswell? *
	That was a weather balloon.
You are WRONG!
	Where did you see the spaceship?
Middleton.
	Where’s that?
Near Caldwell.
	Where's Caldwell?  Are you American?
Idaho,  Yes.
	Thought so.  That explains it.
		Where are you from Inge?
	UK.
		Is that part of Russia?
	No.
		Did it used to be?
	No.  That was Ukraine.
Where’s UK?
	United Kingdom.
Where’s that?
	England?
It was light green hovered for 10 minutes.  Then it just disappeared.
	The balloon burst Was it at sunset?
Yes.
	Light from low sun through the balloon.
		I believe Jim.  There are lots over the US.
	You’re all gullible.
		They don’t come to England.  There’s nothing there.
	Really?
		Yes
It was like covered in a film.
	ET?
What ET mean?
	Extra Terrestrial.  A film (movie)
Is that a joke?

* Roswell  -  The Roswell UFO incident took place in the US, when an object crashed on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico on July 7, 1947.

Some people have said and continue to maintain that it was a spacecraft bearing extra terrestrial beings.

Immediately after asking if I was making a joke, Jim290’s three of a kind was beaten by a straight.  He lost all his money and disappeared from the table and so he never got to find out that it was, indeed, meant to be a joke.

You probably already realised that was an attempt at a joke because you are probably not American but it shows that you do come across some strange and interesting people playing poker online.