The Barbie of Poker

So recently I played a Friday afternoon poker tournament at a lunch place in the tech center. Now, it may not be a surprise that there are mostly men playing these games, but there are exceptions to the rule. There's this girl -- I think it's Kelly -- who is just... wow. Extremely attractive. Suspiciously attractive. I've never seen anyone who personifies Barbie like she does. I see her quite often when I play poker, even at different locations. So while I play once or maybe twice a week, I'm pretty sure she's playing 4 or more times a week, based on how often I seem to coincidentally see her. Usually she has this dude with her, and they don't seem to be romantic with each other, but I'm very curious about the nature of their relationship. Before I go on, I have to clarify that I'm not interested in this girl -- she's too "plastic", too "prissy" for me. Even if she were my type, I'm confident she wouldn't give me the time of day, and she'd probably just look blankly at me when I try to tell a joke... plus it's possible she's had some augmentation somewhere down the road, and I'm not into that... but I'm just curious because you rarely see a girl who's THAT HOT who loves to play poker and is VERY GOOD at it. It's a statistical anomaly, similar to seeing an old grandma driving a Murcielago.

Anyhow. On this particular day, aforementioned dude was not in attendance, which further adds to the novelty of this anomoly. She's obviously not playing poker because of him. I overhear her talking on the phone with someone, and she's says she's thinking of playing the 7pm game (this was during the 2pm game). So, she likes poker so much, she might be playing 2 games in a ROW on a Friday evening. Getting stranger.

So usually, the guys don't talk to her because she's so attractive. Her personality is such that she's not very talkative, so most guys don't have the guts to break through the ice. Here comes the other exception to the rule. One of the guys sitting at the table starts blatantly picking up Barbie. This guy had the guts and then some. You see, there are 12 people crowded around the table, so everything is easily heard by all.

"So do you have a boyfriend?"
"Well, sort-of."
"What do you mean, sort-of? Is he HERE?"
"Well, no. But he's actually the one who taught me how to play poker."
(Ok, so there's a clue about aforementioned dude)

They keep talking and she is pretty defensive while he is overly aggressive. Everyone at the table is listening intently because everyone is obviously curious about Barbie and it's very surprising to see someone chatting her up in such an obvious way. It's that funny sort of thing where you want to overhear everything, but don't want to be too obvious in your listening because it could make them feel self-conscious and stop talking. People were looking away or quietly staring straight ahead, not wanting to interfere, but wanting to know if the guy was going to succeed. It felt awkward and riveting at the same time. Anyhow, he continues trying to charm her, and asks her to dinner, but she politely declines.

I didn't think he was going to get a date out of it, but you really had to hand it to him for putting forth the effort. He could have talked to her during a break when you're not on stage with a spotlight on you, but he did it at the TABLE. I came away from it not knowing whether to be impressed or think of him as a complete moron.

People are interesting.