Last weekend I had to make a run to the upscale, snooty french boutique, Target. You know, nothing but the best for me, Right? Right. As I walked back into the Men's department(can you tell I'm not a clothes snob?), I noticed a rack of baseball caps. This rack was huge and held close to a hundred hats, ranging from High Life, to Guinness and just about any other popular beer related product that you can fit on a hat. Much to my disappointment, there wasn't one with a Pacifico logo on it.

Fucking French.

As I'm perusing the selection, I came across the following hat.


Texas Hold' Em Player


My initial thought was that this hat needed to be destroyed, for if it fell into the wrong hands, the world would learn of the worst kind of evil; a fishy player that wears their ignorance on their sleeve. Only people that have barely played the game call it Texas Hold 'Em. To anyone else, it's No Limit Hold 'Em, or Limit Hold 'Em. Using "Texas" when explaining it to people bothers me. After that the initial hat destroying reaction waned, I felt bad for the person that would eventually buy this, but then I thought : No, this will just give me more people to mock, and too many is never enough!

I win!

This, in addition to the chip displays at both Marshall Field's, and Borders, it causes me a little bit of worry, though. To quote the venerable Susan Powter, "STOP THE INSANITY!" Marshal Field's; the same store that carries the Greg Norman line. This is not right, I tells ya!

Dear Marshall Field's-
There is something seriously wrong when you start carrying poker chip sets. I am onto your deal with the Devil. Stop immediately.

In love with The Shark,

Chad

Growing up, I played golf almost every day during summer break. I'd get out of bed around 10 am, grab my clubs, a CaprisSun pouch, a donut, and walk to the 6th tee of my local course, not caring if I had anyone else to play with. Much of the time I golfed alone, and that's the way I liked it; there was nobody around to slow me down. There are many times that I'd play before the dew was burned away by the sun, and until the dew starting to creep back in at sunset.

I'd be playing so fast that eventually I'd catch up to a foursome of players that had obviously never played before. Worm-burners, shanked wedges, whiffed drives, terrible etiquette; you name it, and I can god-damn-guarantee that I've seen it. It would slow me down, throw me off my rhythm, cause me to curse internally, and I guess you could say that I'd go on golf tilt. My game would suffer and the fun I was having before I came upon these shitbags ceased.

Wait for it....wait for it...

When do the waters become so rife with fish that the game of poker starts to lose the inherent fun factor?

I understand that golf and poker are completely different in that the former is played against an inanimate object not easily manipulated, and the latter is played against the player; most of them more malleable than PlayDoh. I know that shitty players are necessary to the game of poker in order to make money. But, when do to the slow, craptastic players with terrible etiquette become so prevelant that it takes the fun out of it? Making money, for me, isn't always the portion of the game that produces the most happiness. It helps, but it's not all of the equation.

I wish I could say that this was brought on by a bad run of cards, or a series of horrendous beats. That's not it; I've finally pushed my bankroll into 4 digit territory and I feel like I'm playing well. And there's the added motivation of needing to improve my game before the next WPBT event in June. I just don't know how to explain it.

But, there's got to be a saturation point, right?