Communication Chit Chatter

Posted on Fri 24th Aug, 2018 @ 4:06am by Eddie Hunt & Elizabeth Anderson M.D.

1,354 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Oblivion
Location: Deck 1553: Hunt's Fortune
Timeline: MD14 0200 Hours

Ulysses glanced in the mirror and briefly admired himself. He was a fairly bulky size and finding something flattering was always tricky, but he dusted the tux down and wore it. He had opted for a black bow tie with white behind it. He looked at his collection of cuff links and decided to go with the sterling silver four ace cards. It seemed fitting considering he was going to the casino that had opened earlier in the day. Ulysses had just gotten off shift, so he had missed the lights and action of the opening, but went quietly inside hoping it had died down a little.

He was a massive fan of blackjack and played it professionally during a gap year. He had won enough money to tide him over and let him concentrate on his Starfleet career. He was from a big Greek family, where he was one of eight siblings, all of whom had various degrees of success in their lives. One was on the starbase with him, his eldest sister Niobi. She had been posted here about six months ago, whereas Ulysses came in only two months ago. He was glad he knew someone on board, as it made getting used to the place a lot easier. He had only been stationed on ships prior to coming here, so being on a base was certainly a huge change.

The base hadn't had a Chief Communications Officer since he had been on board, and he had double the workload, sometimes triple what was expected. He was starting to get burnt out from it, with rarely any time to himself that wasn't sleep. This trip to the casino was a treat that he had been waiting for.

Eddie was standing in the casino next to a poker table. There were 20 tables total, but 10 of them were reserved for tournament play. The first tournament had kicked off at 1900 and been fully booked. The tables had slowly been whittled down as people got knocked out, finally leaving it to this last table. There were normally ten to a table, but five of those had been knocked out of this final already.

Tournaments sometimes ran this long, sometimes longer. Eddie had taken a coffee with him to the table, because it was the early hours of the morning after all. The lack of sleep was starting to catch up with him. He could feel himself being dragged down into the land of nod.

Though it was getting late, Elizabeth, of course, wasn't at all tired. There had been so much to observe, so much to learn this evening. She wandered up next to the casino owner and stood watching the play at the table. She identified the game as poker after a few moments. It was a favorite of hers, but not fair for her to play against humans when she could calculate the cards and odds faster than the fastest of them. "How much longer until the finish, do you suppose?" she asked Hunt, simply to start a conversation with him.

Eddie glanced to Elizabeth whom he hadn't noticed there before. She didn't look tired at all and he was sure she had been about all day as well. He thought it was strange but didn't question it, some people just hid it better than others. "Hmmm, it honestly could last anywhere between half an hour to another couple of hours. It's hard to tell. Although he might be chip leader," Eddie pointed to the person with the most chips, "it only takes one of the others to go all in, him to call it and lose and he's already lost the lead. Poker changes in a snap of a finger."

"I would say another hour play after watching them for the last half hour. The chip leader won't win, he's been getting lucky with his hands and to keep that kind of luck running for another hour, he will be hard pushed," A thick Greek accent said from behind Eddie and Elizabeth's shoulder. "If I had to hedge my bets," he paused. "That human female sitting in, I would say, fourth place will win. She's fairly passive-aggressive in her play, which makes her difficult to read."

Eddie nodded his head at the man's statements and waited to see Elizabeth's own opinion on it.

"You would say, then," the counselor replied to the newcomer, "that being difficult to read assists one in winning? Or is a more positive indicator of a winner than having the largest pile of chips in front of you?" Holding out her hand, she added, "I'm Dr. Elizabeth Anderson, by the way, and I'm fascinated by all I'm learning about gambling."

Ulysses looked at the woman who spoke. She seemed to have no idea about these games at all, "Ulysses Demopolous. I am a communications officer. Have you never gambled then before, Dr Elizabeth?" He asked with curiosity.

"No, it wouldn't be fair," she answered enigmatically. "I do enjoy learning why others feel compelled to play, though, and the methods that players use to judge one another. I think it will help me treat those who are compulsive in their gambling. You, I take it, are a player? Is this poker your game?"

Both Ulysses and Eddie didn't pay attention to her first statement. Ulysses answered, "Blackjack is my game. I played it professionally for a year and made quite a bit of money from it, but I did dabble in poker for some parts. I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but I think I'm good enough to hold my own at it."

"So that's why you feel that being hard to read is a good trait for a poker player, and more likely to indicate a winning hand? Isn't that, all by itself, a ... what is it called? A tell?" Anderson asked.

Ulysses thought for a second, "It is a good trait for a poker player, doesn't necessarily mean a winning hand. You might bluff with what is a terrible hand and, because you are hard to read, people may think you have a winning hand. It all depends how people play as well. You might find one player will play every hand they get and one will play cards with only kings and queens on it. I think the stat surrounding it is you should only play something like 13% of the hands you get drawn." He smiled at the woman who seemed to be processing all the information.

"Wow, only 13%? That isn't very many, even if you play a lot! Okay, good to know these things. It will inform my watching and data gathering. Thank you for helping me understand a little more." Anderson knew she could use more data for forming a control model to measure against the behavior of possible future clients with a gambling addiction.

"Are you going to play either game? I'd like to observe if you are, to see the differences between how you play and how someone less skilled or more desperate might play," she said.

"I might give poker a go, shame I wasn't here when the tournament started," Ulysses answered.

"There are two cash tables over there," Eddie chimed in and pointed to two tables slightly further away.

"Then that is where I shall go. Are you just observing, Dr. Elizabeth? Because if you are, maybe it would be worth finishing the observation of the final table before coming to watch over my play?" Ulysses suggested.

"Just observing," Anderson confirmed. "If you think you'll be playing for a while, I will stay to see if your prediction is fulfilled," she smiled. "I don't want to miss watching you, too, however."

"Poker is a long game, I'm sure you'll see me play. Anyway, I will be over there when you're ready. It was nice to meet you Dr Elizabeth and..."

"Eddie Hunt, I'm the owner of the place," Eddie replied.

"And it was nice to meet you to Mr Hunt. I feel privileged to meet the owner of such a wonderful place," Ulysses said, before moving along to the cash table.

 

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