We had the most anti-social introvert I've ever seen at a table. Guy was wearing khakis and a collared shirt with a sweater evidently designed by Mr. Rogers. He had on glasses and a comb-over and read stock quotes out of the paper and a William Faulkner novel (Soldier's Way) in between hands. Guy was an absolute rock (that's poker-speak for a player that only plays great hands). He played pocket pairs and AK/AQ/AJ/AT.Later on, another guy sat down. He beat my pocket aces early on with a full house (had 57 off-suit and hit a 5 and a 7 on the flop and a 7 on the river) and rubbed it in my face. I didn't say anything other than 'Nice hand'. So later, Mr. Rogers raises and 57o reraises. Mr. Rogers caps along with two other players and we've got a big pot already. Flop comes KK2. Mr. Rogers bets and 57o raises. Other two players call and Mr. Rogers calls. Right then, I was POSITIVE that the two kings scared Mr. Rogers because he had AA. Knew that 57o had a K at a minimum.
Turn is a 5. Mr. Rogers checks, confirming my suspicion and 57o bets. Other two players still call and Mr. Rogers calls.
River is an A. Mr. Rogers bets. At this point, I know I'm right. 57o raises and other two people bail. Mr. Rogers and 57o eventually cap and Mr. Rogers flips over his AA. In disgust, 57o flips over AK. Mr. Rogers had hit the one outer to win a monster pot.
I decided to take full advantage of the situation and told 57o that I was shocked that he reraised on the river after Mr. Rogers initial bet. 57o was irritated to no end and said 'you wouldn't cap a full house in that case?'. I said that I knew Mr. Rogers had AA. 57o said, 'so you knew he had AA? Yeah, right. What are you, psychic?'. I told him that I played with Mr. Rogers all day and knew exactly how he played. Mr. Rogers smiled and nodded back at me because he knew that I was serious. 57o grumbled some and then we got back to work. I only hung around for another half hour after that, but 57o managed to give away $60 in that half hour. Mission accomplished.
Mr. Rogers later got on my bad side. An older man in his 80s had got up a couple of times from the table next to us and had to squeeze between Mr. Rogers chair and the chair at the other table. The older man always politely asked if Mr. Rogers could scoot his chair in. Finally, for some strange reason, Mr. Rogers suddenly imploded the third time that the older man asked him to scoot up his chair. Mr. Rogers yelled, "What am I?!?!?! Your %$#%ing servant boy???? Why the #$@% do I have to move my chair every #@$%ing time you need to get up?????".
Needless to say, this caught all of us at the table in addition to everyone in a two table radius totally off guard. The poor old man (who also had a cane) was being yelled at by a guy for asking to be let through. A couple of guys at the table laid into Mr. Rogers for cursing 'with a lady at the table'. It was actually quite frightening that a guy who was so quiet all day suddenly exploded with such fury on an old guy with a cane. He eventually sat down at the table and didn't respond to any of the criticisms hurled at him.
I honestly was not going to say anything. It's best to avoid conflict in a poker room. You never know what you'll run into in a given session. When Mr. Rogers had his outburst, the first thing I thought of was that he was one of those quiet guys with some inner turmoil that you wouldn't be stunned to find out later that he had killed multiple people and stored them in his freezer. It sounds crazy, but that's exactly the kind of impression I got from him. Thankfully, I knew I was on his good side, so I would probably be the last one he targeted if he went crazy on us.
