May '10 Home & Family—Susie Isaacs Column

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The Nerd Herd

S
aturday, April 24 was the day for the Wildhorse Spring 2010 main event. The day started out on a hilarious note. I had heard something about a prop bet and the loser had to dress like a girl for the main event. Turns out it was a bet among the members of the “Nerd Herd.” This is a group of young men—very young—who met at Turning Stone Casino and became friends. Their common bond was their youth and they were all Internet Geeks.

The legal age at Turning Stone is 18. I’m not sure who nicknamed them the Nerd Herd, but they seem okay with the title. It came about because they all bring their laptops to the poker area if they are out of the tournament and sweating others in their group. They play online while they sweat.

Brad McFarland

Brad (in drag), Tournament Director Roland Waters, and Caleb (in drag)

For good play incentive, they made a prop bet in the beginning of this series. The bet was that the player among them with the lowest score would go into the main event dressed like a girl.

Brad McFarland, who was barely 18 when I blogged about him a few years ago when he was at Pendeton for the first time was one of the low men on the totem pole. The other prop bet loser was Caleb Mead. The day prior to the after main event, after 13 tournaments had been played, they were tied with exactly zero points in the winners circle. So they agreed they would humiliate themselves together and both dress like girls.

Brad made the agreement about 10 hours too soon as he did score that day making Caleb the official prop bet loser, but being a young man of honor, Brad did hold up his end of the tie agreement. Believe me, the room was abuzz when they entered. They were so funny. Brad, in his high heels and mini skirt, was absolutely beet red from embarrassment for hours. Caleb is bearded so we don’t know if he was red from the experience. They did get into the spirit of things, posing for pictures and trying to walk, talk, and play poker in a “girlie” fashion. The Nerd Herd, also known as The “Uber Geeks” are all good players. Some will be at the WSOP this year and some will have to wait until 2011 and beyond in order to be of legal age.