The Shortest Poker Chat Ever

It is nice to sit down and play some poker. Most of the time, the chat is pretty silent. People focus on the game (I guess they have seen Phil Ivey on TV), and I’m sure the majority play multiple tables simultaneously, so there isn’t that much to time for conversation.

Once in a while, however, a sequence of dialog bursts out in the chat window. Someone has made a really stupid play, according to someone else. Usually the player who lost despite his superior skills.

Some chats are of a more social nature. A player asks another player what the weather’s like in his or her part of the world. People from the same corner of the world discuss the latest football results. Some guy makes a hit on a player with a name like Mary_21 or NYGirl. Who invariably is a man in his forties using this nick to gain some extra equity over guys like the first player.

At rare occasions you might actually trip over a serious poker discussion. Players mull over a complex concept in poker strategy or join in a dialectic analysis of a subtle nuance in a recent hand.

Never mind, I wanted to tell you about a little unpleasant chat I had a while ago. Very little. Probably the shortest chat in the history of online poker. Which is also rather short, come to think of it. Never mind. Once in a while I indulge in some heads-up poker. It’s a nice form of poker, don’t you think? You’re always active; you play every hand more or less. You get a lot of action. There’s also a lot of psychology in heads-up poker, more than in any other form of poker.

Oftentimes, a heads-up match begins with a snippet of chat dialog, along the lines of “how are you doing – I’m fine how are you” or quite commonly “good luck – thanks, same to you”. Of course, in the language of poker chat these compliments transform into “u ok? – tx u?” and “gl – tx u2”.

Then the chat may go on about weather or football, as described above. In the particular heads-up match I’m talking about, there was also a little introductory chat. Not quite as friendly as the ones referred above.

It went like this:

Me: gl
X: fu

/Spinner