Meanest Poker Blog

I've had the distinct pleasure of being mentioned in other people's blogs, both me personally, and this here blog, Go Be Rude. While some people dance around the subject, the conclusion I draw is that this blog is perceived as being MEAN.

I think that's because this blog IS MEAN!

I'm a pretty mean person. I don't hide behind euphamisms like "I tell it like it is," or "I'm just being honest." Bullshit. I take pleasure in insulting people. I love taking people down a peg. Almost everyone I have ever met isn't as smart as they think they are, or at least not as smart as they want us to think they are.

When I insult someone, I almost always get the same response. I say "You're an idiot," and their reply inevitably comes "You're a bigger idiot." That is a logical fallacy, and a poor argument. It may be so that I'm an idiot, but that doesn't stop you from being an idiot.

OF COURSE I'm an idiot. We're all fricking idiots. I do idiotic things all the time, and I don't mind at all when someone points it out to me. MY INEVITABLE response, if I in fact acted like an idiot, is "You're right, that was pretty stupid." If I don't feel I was acting like an idiot, I'll defend my action. I will NEVER just attack back and call them a bigger idiot.

Everyone does stupid things, and the ability to laugh at yourself, even when someone is laughing at you, is a fine quality. Even admirable, because a lot of people don't have it.

The other thing that always happens when you have a little spat with another poker player is that they will challenge you to a heads-up poker game. This somehow PROVES something to them. "If I can beat you in poker, that means I'm smarter than you, and therefore not an idiot like you said." Again, logical fallacy, but now magnified by the fact that a heads-up game doesn't prove anything.

I was involved in one of these "I'm smarter than you" dick-measuring challenge arguments recently at PSO. Some guy gave out poor advice, then set about calling everyone that disagreed with his assertion that you should "Always play A5o to a raise" an inferior poker player to himself. I never even addressed his poker advice, which was atrocious. I just pointed to another thread where said "Poker Expert" was begging for money because he was completely broke. My insult, which was really more of a joke at his expense, was that nobody should take poker advice from someone who can't rub two quarters together. (The other essential element to a good insult is that it be FUNNY.)

This guy went completly crazy, posting IQ scores and demanding I meet him for a live poker game for $500. I proposed some alternate solutions, then let him off the hook when he admitted he didn't have the money for the contest. He should have known better than to bluff a poker player.

My conclusion is that I think most people misunderstand the meanness of this blog. Primarily they misunderstand that when I insult someone, I am not claiming any kind of superiority to them, mental or otherwise. I don't claim to be smarter than everyone I insult, and I certainly don't claim to be a better poker player than everyone I insult. But I still think everyone, without exception, can be taken down a peg or two.

Especially if done so in a funny way.