Am I overreacting to how my boyfriend (29M) handled a silly card game dispute with his friends?
I (28F) have been with my boyfriend (29M) for two years. I get along great with his friend group, but an incident over the weekend has left me furious, and I can't shake it. For context. I almost never stay angry in general (usually my temper lasts 60 seconds and resets) so the fact that I’m still fuming the next morning tells me something deeper is going on.
About a week ago, another friend in the group taught everyone a complicated card game. I already knew the game, but the version she taught was vastly different and simplified compared to my version which had more competitive rules. I agreed to play her version since she taught the group first. Also note that I’m very competitive by nature. I try to keep it in check but it is who I am.
After playing a few rounds I decided to leave because I was feeling frustrated and I would prefer to remove myself from the situation. I was polite and smiling throughout. Later, more importantly privately, I vented to my boyfriend and told him that to avoid ruining anyone's fun or getting overly competitive, I just wouldn’t play that specific game with them in the future. Instead of making me feel supported, his response was to tell me to "be nice to his friends." It stung. It triggered an ongoing fear of mine that he reflexively prioritizes his friends’ feelings over mine.
Fast forward to yesterday. My boyfriend and the group were at a bar. I had just finished work, was tired, and needed to study, but he begged me to come out. I agreed to drop by on the condition that I wouldn't play the card game.
While on the phone with me (and loudly within earshot of the entire group) he said something along the lines of, *"Yeah, we’re playing the game, and I know you think it’s the wrong way, but come play anyway!"*
I was horrified. He immediately put a spotlight on me, set an awkward dynamic before I even arrived, and effectively outed my private annoyance to the group.
When I got to the bar, I reiterated that I had to study and didn't want to play. The group pressured me anyway, so I relented. I played their version the first round and won. Even in that, the person who taught the game to the group was trying to make it so I don’t win by saying I didn’t do something right. Luckily the other members of the group supported me and we moved forward.
In the second round, I made a play that exposed a nuanced difference in how they play versus the official rules. The table immediately jumped on me, cut me off while I tried to clarify, and penalized me by forcing extra cards on me. Instead of diffusing the tension, my boyfriend put his hand on my leg to "calm me down" and said, *"No, that’s not how it is, just take the cards."*
I felt utterly dismissed, patronized, and betrayed. I swallowed my anger, played through, won the round anyway, and then stepped outside for a long phone call to cool off until we left.
I know this sounds ridiculous on paper. It’s a card game. But to me, it's not about the game at all. It has showed me a few things about my partner:
- Dismissing my private feelings as "not being nice" to his friends.
- Broadcasting my private boundary publicly to the group, setting me up to look difficult.
- Not giving me space to explain my thought process in front of everyone instead of having my back.
I am still furious. I don’t even have the emotional capacity right now to sit down and talk to him because I don't know how to explain that it's not about the cards without sounding petty.
Overall he is a good partner. He just struggles to show me love in the way that I need (not that he doesn’t show me love, but I’m very clear on how I feel loved and that’s a little harder for him to do) and I think that’s making me feel like this is a bigger deal than it actually is.
Am I overreacting to a stupid bar game? I need a little perspective from my Reddit community because I’m really trying to convince myself to move on from this.
Posted Sep 5, 2026, 3:50 PM UTC