Blast from the past

I was playing at the Rio tonight. A new player sits down at the far end of the table from me. I think he looks sort of familiar, but I think that a lot, and usually it's just a faulty memory. After all, when you play poker with maybe 100 new people every week, after a while the faces start melding together in one's brain. Some look familiar even though they're actually not (like deja vu), others I've seen several times before but they haven't registered. So I didn't put any mental energy into figuring out whether this flash of memory was real or not.

But after a while, the new guy asks whether my name is Paul. It's not, but he kept looking at me as if he knew me better than I knew him. Then followed up the question by asking whether I live or lived in Minnesota. This catches me off-guard. Yes, I moved from there almost two years ago now. Then he not only asks whether I lived in St. Paul, but names a specific shopping complex that he thinks I was near. That's seriously freaky, when you're not expecting it.

Fortunately, though, my brain has just enough functioning cells left to put a few facts and wisps of memory together and come up with the conclusion that this is a guy I met in a home poker game in Minnesota maybe three years ago, when I was just starting out. He confirmed that conclusion. In fact, it was his house, and he had been the one that invited me, after we had met while at the same table in a Party Poker tournament. (Party Poker used to display one's city and state, so it was easy to make some connections.)

Here's the strange part (or at least I think so): I've only been to one home poker game. Ever. And here I am some 1800 miles away from there, and the guy that invited me is at the table with me. If I remember his play correctly, he has definitely gotten better at the game (as have I, fortunately). I left my one home game experience up maybe $100 for the night, and was looking forward to doing it again. I didn't get invited back, and have always kind of wondered whether it was because I won, or maybe I offended somebody inadvertantly, or who knows what? Tonight I learned that the game kind of broke up soon after my one time there.

Anyway, Rob, nice to run into you again. I thank you again for the kindness of being the only person ever to invite me over for poker. If I see you at the Vegas tables again, I'll try to be better at remembering the face!