Those that know me personally (or follow me on Twitter) know I enjoy playing poker for fun and relaxation (and occasionally for small profit! 
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Last night at my weekly Hold ‘em tournament, the game took an interesting twist.
I was outside the playing venue (a restaurant and bar in Mesa) chatting with a couple of nice folks between rounds.
A young punk and his buddy approached, and they practically had “TROUBLE” tattooed across their foreheads.
Punk#1 immediately launched into his routine, in a lame attempt to pick up a young lady. She very politely dismissed his advances and he mouthed off something about her “disrespecting” him.
She turned away from him to resume our conversation.
What followed blew me away.
Punk #1 took a swing — with a closed fist — and directly connected with the young lady’s face. She dropped like a rock, and this asshole jumps on top of her, swinging away.
It took a nano-second for me and the other guy there to jump in and drag him off of her. At that point Punk #2, exhibiting more true manliness and character, shoved me from behind, sending me crashing into the pavement. Dazed (back of skull into pavement will do that), I struggled to my feet.
Apparently the young lady ran back inside, looking for help. Help arrived in the form of a couple more guys, but by the time they got outside, the young punks were running away — supplying further evidence of their cowardice. A short chase ensued, but when the punks bolted into Gilbert Road traffic, they got away.
The cops came, we all gave our reports and I went home. Once there, as I watched my elbow swell to baseball-sized proportions, I realized that something was structurally amiss with my arm. So off to the ER I went. Several hours and several hundreds of dollars later, the verdict was a nasty contusion, a sprained elbow and a suspected scaphoid fracture (think where the thumb bone connects to the wrist bone). Fortunately, I have a hard head (literally and figuratively) — no damage there (my teenagers would likely disagree).
I don’t write this post for sympathy, I’ll be fine. I write it because I find the whole ordeal disturbing. What could possibly compel a young “man” in his early 20’s to physically assault a female, and a complete stranger at that? The dude has issues, major issues (and I’m betting a drug problem). These guys were looking for a fight. And when they started one, they ran off like little chickenshits. It’s rather sad that there are people out there so out-of-control that they’d coldcock anyone, much less a woman (not meaning to sound sexist here, but that is just plain wrong). These guys define “dregs of society”. What is wrong with these people?
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