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Entry #3 (2010-03-30)
A few months ago, Jeffrey Wright (a United States Marine) sent this e-mail and a photo of himself from the front lines in Iraq. Yes, that’s Caro’s Book of Poker Tells he’s reading under the tree!…
Message from Iraq
Mike-
I never thought to send you this picture* until my dad suggested that perhaps you’d get a kick out of seeing a book of yours being read in an odd location. It’s from my recent deployment to Iraq, where my 15 man team trained, lived with, and fought beside an Iraqi battalion. We got really close with each other (and our Iraqis, of course!), and I found that I could read them much easier than I could a random group of players.
I knew a bit about how to read tells, but every serious player I knew recommended your book, so I had my wife send it to me.
This was taken on 11 August 2008. We’re resting at a farm during the heat of the day, and I’m sitting with the Iraqi scout platoon. Lunch is over and everyone is settling down for their mid-day nap, but I was still pretty wired from the firefight that morning, so I’m relaxing by reading your book. It worked to calm me, and it also made me a better player. Thanks for sharing your wisdom: I got a lot out of it.
-JDW
*The picture was taken by an interpreter, who asked me what the batch of pictures should be called…and jokingly typed in my verbatim response.
Improvised poker chips
By the way, the name uttered by Jeffrey Wright and then given to the “batch of pictures” mentioned in the footnote (see asterisk) was “oh shit I don’t know.”
I later received a follow-up photo, showing improvised poker chips.
As you can see at right, poker is thriving everywhere. We at Poker1 thank Jeffrey and all the troops for their service.— MC