OT: Poker comes in handy @ work (no content, you've been warned, etc.)

[private joker]

Poker content doesn't belong in OOT, so here it goes.

It's a boring Friday afternoon. I'm a casting director for a television company in Hollywood. My boss just called me into his office. Uh oh. But wait! He says, "I heard you play Texas Hold'em. I need poker 101. Have a seat."

So I proceed to teach him how to play so he's primed for a home game among industry hotshots (to give you an idea, his friend just married Dave Grohl, so his circle probably involves fairly popular and good-looking folks). At first I think it's going to be a deadly lesson, because he's asking what a straight is, and what a flush is. "So, a straight beats three of a kind? That seems kind of lame!"

But then he picks up on things very quickly. I get into starting hand requirements, and boil things down to the basics. "You want to play big cards, pairs, and cards of the same suit but-" and he finishes my sentence "it's better if the cards of the same suit are close together, right?" A natural! He understands suited connectors!

I tell him calling is usually the wrong option, and that when he thinks he has the best hand he should raise, and when he thinks he has a hand that's not very good he should fold -- and that he should be folding more often preflop than the other guys.

But just as he's understanding the betting structure and the "small blind" and "big blind" and what it means to check, he asks "what are some more terms I can learn so I don't look like a retard?" I bite my tongue, but tell him about full house, boat, etc. I think he'll do fine as long as his opponents are at the same level as he is but didn't get the lesson.

This was a good office meeting because earlier this week I totally fu[/i]cked up a casting interview and I was probably on his bad side. But now I'm the poker master of the office. Ha!