A brave man’s recovery from deep-tissue facial trauma

"Sometimes you get this run of just terrible luck…You're losing every hand, and it seems like things just can't get any worse…You know what you should do then? Come to my game, I love playing with losers!"

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Joey had regrets. Seeing sunglasses leave, he sighed while scooping his chips. 'Damn, I didn't want to call him a twerp. I wanted to be nice to this fish, but he set me up! He might as well have glued his face to my hand!'

Sunglasses made the face-slap too easy! The situation was too perfect for Joey to not shove the same line down his throat. Sunglasses beat him due to a rule misunderstanding, and now Joey returned the favor, even throwing the same lines back at him! It was karmic! Destined!

In fact, Joey felt like he was the real victim. Every minute sunglasses spent crying in the bathroom was a minute Joey wasn't getting his chips!

Meanwhile, sunglasses was pacing around the bathroom, trying to recover from Joey's assault. He felt like Joey covered his hand in baby powder before giving him a full weight smack! Then when sunglasses walked around, the whole casino could see the white palm mark!

The truth wasn't far off! The dealers and staff were still discussing sunglasses' outburst. Even some players were whispering, despite it being the middle of the tourney! They didn't know about the history between Joey and sunglasses. All they saw was a man breakdown in a crowded room, before running away to the toilet like a child!

Joey envisioned him in the bathroom, splashing water on his face over and over in desperation to wash off the baby powder. After an arduous effort, when he thought he got rid of it, he looked into the mirror...to find a red handprint underneath! Some scars don't wash off!

Joey didn't say that line only for pleasure, though. In almost all cases, you wouldn't want to antagonize an opponent if you wanted them to fold. They might call you out of spite or hatred.

However, in this hand, he knew sunglasses would remember the last time when he himself used that phrase. He'd also remember that he held a monster then, and connecting the dots, he'd expect Joey to also have a monster now. Joey was correct in that assumption.

When combining that memory with Joey's aggressive play, where he showed extreme strength by barrelling all the streets and reraising the river all-in, the story Joey told was a consistent one, and a scary one. It would be hard for anyone to believe his hand wasn't a monster. For sunglasses, that made it a horror movie.

The worst part though? The movie tickets cost sunglasses an arm and a leg! He ran out of the theater frightened, but to everyone else...it became a comedy where he served as the punchline! Sunglasses didn't expect that from the previews, but you can't always trust the critics.

Despite winning, Joey learned an important lesson today--be wary of bluffing against fish! They may call you with air just to see your cards. Another point he understood deeper is players also hold grudges. If you put a bad beat on them, they may go out of their way to try to beat you. While that benefits you when you have good cards, it could spell disaster if you're bluffing.

Some things you can understand in theory but don't really bury them into your bones until you experience them. Most of the time, that experience is painful. This was that kind of moment for Joey, except he had the strength to force his way out. Even so, he needed to be careful in the future.

Things almost went south, but that's how things go in poker; Not every hand pans out in a clean fashion. Even the best players play themselves into troublesome spots, the key is they can claw their way out of them.

Despite everything, when reviewing the hand, Joey didn't think he misplayed it. After all, he was correct about sunglasses' weakness and almost made him fold, but he needed to remember all these aspects for future scenarios. Putting the hand aside, Joey refocused on pressing matters.

He was the chip leader at the table, the big dog, and there was still lots of food around. There was only one obstacle--he needed to enforce the new order. He had to show these players the alpha male eats first.

So Joey showed his fangs.

...

In the real world, if something doesn't kill you, it doesn't make you stronger; It makes you very very weak. Some wounds don't heal in a short time. When sunglasses came back into the poker room many minutes later, he didn't look recovered.

It wasn't his fault. There wasn't much he could do. The face-slap he suffered penetrated straight through his muscles and bones, slapping each of his individual cells!

The slap pierced through the cell membranes and the cytoplasm…smacking the mitochondria out the way…and only stopped after slapping the face of each nucleus! It wasn't a face-slap anymore, this was a DNA-slap at the microscopic level!

For many people, the problem with tilt is they can't control it. They can't stop it, and they often don't even recognize when it's happening. They get tunnel-vision, and this was the case with sunglasses.

When he saw Joey had even more chips and was dominating the table, he became furious! He stared at Joey with scathing hatred! Every hand Joey played, he had to enter! Every bet Joey made, he had to call! Sunglasses was committing suicide on two fronts!

First internally, through anger, he attempted to get revenge on Joey by burning himself from the inside. Then externally, through poor play, he attempted to get revenge on Joey by making loose calls, which only made Joey money. It was a foolish war.

He wanted to get back at Joey, to recover some semblance of self-respect. Yet, instead of making the correct adjustment and tightening up, he only quickened his downfall by playing looser. This was the trauma showing through in his play.

Joey felt bad for him. So bad, that he tried to be the bigger person. Joey tried his best to ease sunglasses' pain and suffering by helping him die as fast as possible…

Sunglasses was like a drowning goat, whimpering and struggling in a lake of his own misery. Joey stood at the shore, kicking him in the head over and over to help him drown faster…

Joey felt it was his responsibility to do the right thing. It was an act of love.

An hour later, sunglasses was nowhere to be seen. Joey busted him out, sending him to the afterlife…

A brave man died here today, buried in an unmarked grave. He didn't leave a will…He didn't leave a name…But he'll always be remembered…as sunglasses, a great philanthropist of chips.

Over the course of the funeral, a few other players had also been knocked out. The dynamics of the table changed, and Joey was now the undisputed boss. Looking around, he formed an evil smile.

It was time to discipline his underlings.