I have had many years to think the situation over. It is not so much that he called me a cheater that prompted how I responded. It was that he stood up when he called me a cheater. When someone stands up in what I then perceived as a threatenning manner, there is not much choice in what to do next. Faced with possible violence myself, because he is not standing up for nothing, let's face that right now, there are few options, but to stand up also and to face the threat head on. So, I did what I did. Telling him he had 10 seconds to apologize or I would drop him where he stood was my way of answering a perceived threat to myself. And, it was my way of letting him know if he wanted to carry out the threat I was reading in his body language that I was ready not just for him to bring it to me but that I was more than ready to bring it to him. Sometimes there is just no other alternative than to respond in kind to a perceived threat. This was one of those times.
Looking back, I would handle it exactly as I did. I don't like violence anymore than most people do, but sometimes in a casino it pays to read what people are capable of off the table. I read this guy by his stance as dangerous, as if he was about to pounce, and I believe I reacted in the only manner he was capable of understanding at that moment. I wasn't about to stay in my seat and get head-punched over a dumb mistake.
I know you probably disagree, but you really had to be there in the moment. After he got taken out by one of the other players later in the game, more than one said that they thought he was going to clock me where I sat. At times like that I really do not think that people worry about going to jail or not being allowed to play poker at their favourite place again. Sometimes you just have to go on your gut feelings. I did. In hindsight, I think my read was right. So did others.
