What's the Deal: Sunglasses

Dealt by Tim Bangs.

Why do poker players insist on wearing sunglasses? 

Last time I checked, poker rooms across the country are typically not that bright.  Or outside. 

What are you hiding from me?  Your eyes are the least of my worries.  Your betting patterns and body movement are of much greater concern to me...

I know, I know.  The eyes are the doorway to the soul.   Fair enough.  But seriously, do you have to wear retarded looking glasses that you picked up for a dollar at the local 7-Eleven
(on a side note, while their sunglasses may suck, their Turkey sub is highly recommended).  At least be willing to take some of your hard-earned poker winnings and spend a little cash on a decent pair of glasses. 

I can promise you that glasses with funky designs or crazy reflections (see pic) don't psyche me out.  They more or less make me think, what is this guy thinking? 

Two of my Wicked Chops Poker co-horts, Chops and Colin “the Snake”, are sunglass wearers.  And as you can see from this pic, our good bud iPod isn't getting a great read out of Chops, but this doesn’t make it right. 

As far as I can recall, most of the poker legends do not wear glasses.  Hellmuth does, but who wants to copy his table behavior? 

The greats use their eyes to their advantage.  Staring a player down eye to eye does more than when you are pretending to stare someone down wearing sunglasses (actually, you are looking at the cocktail waitress and humming the theme song to "Married With Children" in your head).

Then again, the last two WSOP main event winners wore Oakley’s and some stupid looking Reptile reflectors.  So what do I know?

All I can do is this: I challenge everyone out there to remove those glasses, let the person next to you stare you down, and you, don’t be afraid to stare back at them.  Let’s bring poker back to Maverick basics.  Now that’s real poker.