Poker Night at the White House

Scene: Conference room off the Oval Office. Around a walnut table topped with green baize are seated Texas W, his sidekick Dubai Dick, Utah Karl, and two new players, Harry Mumbles and Frisco Nancy.

W: One more hand? I gotta get a pot to break even, or there'll be hell to pay with Laurie. I'm down 90 bucks, I think. (He takes a swig of single malt Scotch from a 12-ounce glass and puffs away on a half-chewed stogie.)

Dubai Dick (sitting behind an immense pile of chips): That's cause you keep folding your hands. Still 5 card draw?

W: I like Texas Hold 'em better, but we got home field advantage as it is.

Utah Karl deals, mostly from the top of the deck.

W: (to Dubai Dick, gesturing at his chips): Where'd you get that stake, anyhow?

Dubai Dick: (out of the corner of his mouth) That's confidential.

W: I bet. Everbody ante?

Frisco Nancy and Harry Mumbles stare down at their cards, which are face up on the table in front of them. They each throw a chip into the pot, then look up. W, Dubai Dick and Utah Karl look for awhile at their own hands, then over at the cards lying on the table in front of the other two. W throws twenty bucks into the pot. Dubai and Utah do likewise.

Harry Mumbles: See your twenty, raise you ten.

Frisco Nancy (matching Harry's bet): Right back atcha.

W: Whoa! You must really have a hand. (He stares some more at their cards, in fact.) We're at $120, thirty more than I need!

Utah Karl: Cards?

Frisco Nancy (tapping her cards, which consist of a jack, eight, two fours, and a deuce): I'm good.

Harry Mumbles (who holds a six, three, queen, and two fives): Me too.

W: Play 'em like they lay, then.

Dubai Dick (flipping his cards to the center): I'm out.

Utah Karl: Me too.

With a flourish, W spreads his hand face-up on the table, three eights, a king and a ten.

W: Read 'em and weep. (He pulls all the chips toward him.) And to think, Nancy, you coulda knocked me outta the game before it got started!

Frisco Nancy: I've said from the beginning that option was off the table.

W: So you did. So we'll meet, say, again in a year?

Frisco Nancy: That sounds fine.

Harry Mumbles: (mumbles inaudibly.)