Ryan Schmelzer

I walked outside of a school building the other day and the odor in the air reminded of a casino. I had an immediate urge to hop in my car and head to one. What was this smell? Smoke. People smoke by the doors before they go into the academic buildings, leaving a strong smell of smoke in that area.

I think it is a little sad that I connected smoke to being in a casino. The poker room at the casino I go to is smoke free and I think that is great. However, when playing floor game, you can normally smell smoke. I don’t even smoke normally, yet even I have smoked a few cigars while at a casino. For some reason it just seems like the thing to do there. When I have a big score on the night, why not celebrate with a cigar? That isn’t something that should be considered a good routine.

In one of my past entries, I mentioned how someone at An Tran’s table blamed smoking for Tran’s lack of big cashes lately. When card rooms banned smoking Tran was forced to miss hands to go outside and smoke. It sounds like he misses a lot of hands because of his addiction to nicotine. I guess smoking can hurt a poker player in more than one way. It can provide health problems and it appears it also can hurt your poker game.

I’m not trying to get everyone that plays poker to stop smoking. However, I do wish I could find something else to make me think of a casino other than the smell of tobacco smoke. Until I do, I guess whenever I sniff the bad smell of smoke I will just have to go to a happy place, thinking of the good times at the casino.