*** OFFICIAL *** Get to Know Dan Druff Thread ($20 contest)

[HoodedN]

I am the Tom Brady of pfa. All I do is win titles.

[Sloppy Joe]

2. For four years, I kept my identity of "Dan Druff" a secret, and didn't associate that name with Todd the live player. What changed that?

A) I made the televised final table of the $1500 Limit Holdem event, and decided I wanted the NWP forum to follow my progress.

B) A Pokerstars employee, who disliked my typing of "g-a-y" and "site-joke", let it leak out who Dan Druff really was.

C) The girl I met from True Poker in 2001, and spent the weekend with in Vegas, told some people years later, after seeing me on TV.

D) I told Micon in confidence, and he accidentally blurted it out while high.

I had never planned upon revealing Dan Druff's identity, and given that I didn't like tournament poker and had no desire to play them, I figured it was never necessary to link Dan Druff to Todd the live player.

That all changed in June 2005, when I played my first WSOP event ever, and made the final table. I was a very active NWP poster by then (though not a mod yet), and wanted the forum to rail my progress. I couldn't keep quiet any longer, so I told Micon to reveal who I was. (I had met Micon in person a very short time before that event, and swore him to secrecy regarding my identity -- which he kept.)

I was glad I did, as the forum was very excited for me, and it was great to come home and read all of it. I couldn't see it as it was posted, because there were no real smartphones in 2005.

Unfortunately, my excitment to have NWP watch me led to an out-of-context comment on TV which ESPN used against me. In my exit interview, I said something like, "Prior to this event, nobody knew who Dan Druff was online. I was a very well known online player, but an unknown live player. I can't wait to get home and see what they're saying about me on the internet. I finally told everyone who Dan Druff is. I'm not anonymous there anymore."

They cut out the last two sentences, and it made me look like a freak who just wanted to see what the internet was saying about him. The removal of the last two sentences (as well as the first) removed the context that I had just revealed that I was attached to that well-known online poker identity, as a result of this final table.

Correct answer: A

What editing chicanery was involved when they cruelly depicted you high stimming it up with that seat cover?

I would be much more salty about that one, probably cost you untold thousands while making everyone watching deeply uncomfortable.

[country978]

6. What led me to the phone/computer hacking world of the 1980s?

A) I met an Aspie-type kid at a summer camp who everone made fun of, and I was the only one nice to him. He eventually told me about computer bulletin boards and phone hacking, and it sounded exciting to me.

B) I watched WarGames, convinced my parents to buy me a computer and modem, and immediately went to look for the hacking community.

C) After hearing that phone hackers could dial "900" and "976" pay-per-call numbers for free, I obsessively seeked out how to do this.

D) I accidentally dialed a wrong number, ended up on a free area party line, and met some other kids who were into phone hacking.

I was sent to a Jewish summer camp in 1985, which traveled around central California and we camped at various sites.

"Steven" was a very eccentric kid a few years older than me, and everyone made fun of him. I felt bad for Steven and never joined the other kids taunting him, and in fact I found him somewhat interesting and quirky, so I started talking to him. Thinking back, it's almost 100% that Steven had/has Asperger's.

Steven told me about computer bulletin boards (BBSes), and how he was also part of the phone hacking world. All of this seemed cool and really exciting to me. I already knew how to program in BASIC and loved computers, but didn't have a modem, nor did I know anything about this crazy online world he described.

The other kids at camp liked me enough not to pick on me despite my budding friendship with Steven, but I also didn't quite have the balls to come back at the other kids picking on him. In some cases, I did go as far as asking some of the meaner kids to back off with bugging him, and I had some moderate success there.

When I got home, I begged my mom to buy me a modem. She bought one several months later for my birthday. From there, I found the computer/phone hacking community, and became part of that, as well.

I stayed moderate friends with Steven and visited him a few times over the next 2 years, but we never got that close, and some things about him got to annoy me. He was a bit too much of a goody two shoes for my taste. We never had any falling out, but we just faded away and weren't communicating anymore after I was about 16.

Correct answer: A

Answer B you used the word immediately. C you said obsessively and D you said accidentally. I think you're a deliberate person highly unlikely to take a step in your life in any of the ways you described in those 3 choices. Plus after all these episodes I do know you are a kind person and so it was the only answer that made any sense whatsoever.

[country978]

I was sent to a Jewish summer camp in 1985, which traveled around central California and we camped at various sites.

"Steven" was a very eccentric kid a few years older than me, and everyone made fun of him. I felt bad for Steven and never joined the other kids taunting him, and in fact I found him somewhat interesting and quirky, so I started talking to him. Thinking back, it's almost 100% that Steven had/has Asperger's.

Steven told me about computer bulletin boards (BBSes), and how he was also part of the phone hacking world. All of this seemed cool and really exciting to me. I already knew how to program in BASIC and loved computers, but didn't have a modem, nor did I know anything about this crazy online world he described.

The other kids at camp liked me enough not to pick on me despite my budding friendship with Steven, but I also didn't quite have the balls to come back at the other kids picking on him. In some cases, I did go as far as asking some of the meaner kids to back off with bugging him, and I had some moderate success there.

When I got home, I begged my mom to buy me a modem. She bought one several months later for my birthday. From there, I found the computer/phone hacking community, and became part of that, as well.

I stayed moderate friends with Steven and visited him a few times over the next 2 years, but we never got that close, and some things about him got to annoy me. He was a bit too much of a goody two shoes for my taste. We never had any falling out, but we just faded away and weren't communicating anymore after I was about 16.

Correct answer: A

Answer B you used the word immediately. C you said obsessively and D you said accidentally. I think you're a deliberate person highly unlikely to take a step in your life in any of the ways you described in those 3 choices. Plus after all these episodes I do know you are a kind person and so it was the only answer that made any sense whatsoever.

Remember the episode of Seinfeld when Jerry was mad at the dentist for becoming a Jew just so he could tell jokes? Bryan Cranston was the dentist, I think. Druff jokes about being a Jew but he's also not the type to just proclaim being a Jew and not actually behave like a Jew. He doesn't drink or smoke or lie, cheat or steal. I imagine he was raised this way and so being kind to a less fortunate person as a child would have been the Jewish thing to do. I didn't guess at this answer, it was obvious.

[Dan Druff]

I am not proud of all my behavior as a kid, and sometimes I was very immature, but looking back I did handle the situation with "Steven" pretty well. I also noticed right away that he was very different and said/did weird things, but I also noticed that he seemed like a nice kid and didn't deserve to be tormented. In fact, I found him unique and that made me want to get to know him. After a few days there (the camp lasted a week), it seemed that the other kids respected me, so I tried to use that to get some of them to leave him alone.

One funny thing did happen regarding that camp. It was some small operation loosely associated with a nearby temple (not our temple, though), and for liability purposes, they required all kids to get a physical before going. My mom heard about it shortly before it was taking place, so she called and asked if they had room. They said yes, but told her about the requirement about the physical. She was very busy at the time and didn't want to waste time taking me to a useless physical, and told them that I've always been healthy, and asked them to waive it. They said they couldn't waive it, so she said, "Okay, never mind then", and left her info in case they changed their minds. This was one of a few options she had for me that summer, so it was no big deal if I ended up missing out on it.

Well, like 1-2 days before the camp was meeting up and leaving for its weeklong trip, they were 1 kid short, and were eager for the money. So they called my mom and offered to let me go without the physical. She accepted, and the trip was on.

Unfortunately, this trip was to different campsites in central California -- all in the mountains! At the time I got pretty bad altitude sickness, where I would get nauseous and vomit at high altitudes. This didn't happen all the time, but it also wasn't uncommon. For whatever reason, my parents had forgotten about that issue, and indeed I got sick and threw up several times during that trip. Of course, this wouldn't have shown up during a physical, but it irritated the camp director that the one kid who didn't get the physical was the one who was sick a whole lot on the trip. Going forward, they had a strict policy never to waive the physical.

Incidentally, the altitude sickness issue greatly improved after that year, and was completely gone by the time I was in my mid-20s. I even did a hike at over 12,000 feet on our Colorado trip this year!