Thanks for the recap. Here's my take on "your take" ...
I really didn't think it was arrogance. I think he was told to be goofy and was in a sense picking on himself because he knew he didn't know how to play. The "reading the book thing" was like ..."I'm gonna read the rules, and then watch out!" ... jokingly.
Was he?? I didn't catch that. I thought we didn't know for sure that he still smokes because we weren't sure when "THAT" pic was taken. Oh well ...