Well, the answer is simpler than many would think - he stopped chewing tobacco this past summer. And from the several articles I saw about his decision to stop, it sounded like he was chewing a lot. I mean, like the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day a lot. The other thing it sounds like, is that the trainers have him wearing some weird shit on his head for when he goes to sleep (see the article I linked to).
Now as any smoker or ex-smoker can tell you, once you've smoked a pack, or even half a pack for a day for a little while, just stopping will change your disposition. Usually, for the worse. Quitting is hard enough on its own, especially when you return to the place you smoked (or chewed) the most.
For most of us smokers, that's analogous to your local bar. For Martin - it's where he earned his living. And he has to sleep with some weird apparatus attached to his head. That has to fuck you up a little bit. No wonder he's a little off for the moment.
In short, quitting fucks up your concentration for at least six months. Took me a year before I felt "normal" again, after I quit. The good news, is that after a while, you get used to it and adjust, which is what Martin will most likely and hopefully do. Well, that, and take that stupid shit off his head. (I don't believe that's helping.)
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In other news, while playing (and doing pretty well) in a Hold 'em tournament today, I stumbled upon the perfect response to:
- "Oh, I remember you. You're the guy who likes to bluff, or represent good cards w/ big bets."
- Response: "Oh, are you talking about that hand where I had two pair, and beat your pair? That isn't bluffing."
The best part about this is that it doesn't matter if you've played 15 hands against him, and lost 14. If he brings up some shit like that around some different players who weren't there at the time, specifically bring up the time he lost chips to you.
Some other good ones:
- "Wow. I'm on a quad draw!"
- Yell "Speech!"
- "You might as well just fold already, you're going to anyway." (I've noticed that at live poker, 9/10 times someone takes more than 5 seconds to call a big raise, they are going to fold and are just searching for info. The wise ones and the flukes make up the remaining 1/10.)
