Blue chip beggars

I wrote recently (http://pokergrump.blogspot.com/2007/07/dealers-who-are-stingy-with-their-1.html) about the "Blue chip Nazis" (a term suggested by one of the commenters)--dealers who are stingy about making change for red ($5) chips. Well, there's a parallel phenomenon: Players who are blue chip beggars.

These are the guys who, like the grasshopper in Aesop's fable (see http://www.bartleby.com/17/1/36.html), do not lay in a store of blue chips in anticipation of needing them to pay blinds, tip cocktail waitresses, etc. Then suddenly they discover that they need a blue chip or two, and they have none. Shame, shame!

I really don't care much about most in this group, because they just go to the dealer and get what they need. It's one sub-group that annoys me: the ones who instead turn to their fellow players.

Here I am with my carefully protected stack of 10 or so blue chips, and these idiots ask me for change for a $5 chip. I don't want to be the bad guy, so I do it, but then that means that I have to throw in a red chip for my blinds for a round or two, to get my stock of blues back up to where I want it. Hey, pal, how did your lack of planning become my problem to solve, eh? Get your own change!

I remember in junior high school and high school, there were always a couple of kids in the class who would show up without the standard supplies, then ask to borrow a piece of paper and pencil--as if it were beyond their feeble imaginations that such things might turn out to be useful in a classroom. It was always the same morons, day after day.

I have a theory that these same kids grow up to be blue-chip beggars. The ones who don't play poker very well end up on street corners holding up "Will work for food" signs.

Hey, that gives me an idea. Next time one of these imbeciles asks me for change for a red chip, I'm going to insist that he make and display a "Will work for blue chips" sign.