Even at Orange King?

Last weekend, my girlfriend and I went to Seattle for my cousin's Bat Mitzvah. We had time to kill on Friday evening and I was hungry for some teriyaki. I decided that Orange King was the best "hole in the wall" teriyaki restaurant I knew of. I hadn't been to Orange King in about 10 years, and whenever I went, there were never more than two other customers in the restaurant. I always wondered how it stayed in business with such a lack of patronage.

As we walked in, I saw three college kids sitting at a table having a philosophical discussion with cards on the table. As I ordered my teriyaki burger, I heard the following from one of the three guys: "He raised, I reraised, he moved in, and I called." One of the other young pups asked what he had, and he answered, "Pocket aces. I never leave home without them. Jimmy had K-Q offsuit and ended up with two pair."

I was astonished that three college kids were discussing the finer points of no-limit hold'em over a chicken and beef combo. I held off for as long as I could, mostly because I am shy, but also because I told Christy that we wouldn't discuss poker while we were in Seattle. She saw that I wanted to talk to the kiddies, and encouraged me to approach them. I finally built up enough courage to talk to three random kids in the middle of a meal, and asked them what they were playing – as if I didn't know. One responded that they were practicing no-limit hold'em.

I told them I play professionally (which I don't), and asked them a few questions. They told me they don't have any money and play for free online. They watched the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker on TV and were very excited to someday have the opportunity to play with Harley Hall. One of them said, "That guy was so smooth on TV with that toothpick in his mouth." I laughed, because I am good friends with Harley and he was on TV two years ago (before modern-day televised poker). After I showed the students that I had his phone number in my phone, they were very impressed.

I spent the next 20 minutes talking to them about different poker celebrities and the art of shuffling chips. I finished by telling them about Card Player magazine, and they hadn't heard of it. That was a little upsetting to me, but that is why we are advertising on TV and getting the word out. Finally, one of the kids pointed at Christy and said, "You forgot about the girl over there. My girlfriend broke up with me because I started playing poker so much … and I haven't even lost any money … yet."