Chapter 15

Since we were in Vegas, I went to play poker instead. I knew the game and the theory behind it. I did well in most card games. Knowing that there are only fifty-two cards and four suits made it a game of math and statistics.

You should statistically get dealt a pocket pair every seventeen hands, if you have four of a suit after the flop you have about a 35% chance of hitting your flush. Just like blackjack there is a right and wrong time to play, raise and fold. Throw in reading people and bluffing and you can do well. I was playing at a 10-20 table, which means the blinds were $10 and $20. It wasn’t thousands but the most common table is $1-$2. The average raise is three times the big blind or at my table $60 to play. It could be more or less but that was the average to see the flop.

After folding the first few hands and watching the others play, I got a feel for the table. Who was the bully, who played tight, who had money to throw around and who was playing over their head. I was the odd ball that I didn’t play that often but understood the game and being barely old enough to play could lose a million and not lose sleep over it. Even professional gamblers had a bankroll and the only way they had to keep it or increase it was to win at the tables.

If they lost too much they wouldn’t have a way to make it back like a businessman would. They loved to play against someone with less experience but the inexperience could lead them to luck into something and hurt the pro’s bankroll. On the fourth hand I was dealt an Ace, Queen. The guy to my right raised it to $60 and I called. The flop came King, Jack, Ten of all different suits to give me the Ace high straight. No pairs and all different suits meant that a flush or full house were unlikely. I knew I had the best hand and was hoping someone had three kings or a straight, 9-K.

The guy next to me bet again, $250. There were four in the pot $250 before the flop, since the small blind folded. I just called to see if the others would stay around. One called and one folded. The pot was now over $1,000. The next card came off and was a five of clubs eliminating the chance of a flush. I thought the guy next to me might have an Ace, Queen as well. If he did we would split the pot. As long as the board didn’t pair, I had the best hand or the nuts.

The guy looked at me and then my stack of chips. I had $4,000 more in front of me. He asked, “Did your dad give you some money to play in the casino?”

“It was a gift from my grandfather for doing well in school.”

“Two thousand. Those chips will look good sitting in front of me, schoolboy.”

There was a strong urge to re-raise but I didn’t want to scare off the last guy if he was coming along. He had a big stack in front of him. He just called. The last card came off and was a three of diamonds. I had the nuts.

The guy said, “All In.” He had me covered by another five thousand. He was trying to get one of us to fold so he would be heads up. I called. The other guy called and had more than me also. He flipped over his cards, a King and a Jack to give him the top two pairs.

I smiled and said, “I guess I’m the bus driver because I’m taking you to school,” as I flipped over the straight.

The last guy had three tens. He said, “I guess I’ll get to drive the bus home and get some of my money back.”

The guy that lost $10k and was doing all the betting was mad and said, “Fucking kid. You flopped the nuts and just called. Slow rolling mother fucker.”

“I didn’t want to scare off the other guy and you were putting me all in without me having to bet. You could have checked seeing you had the worst hand or found out if there were any strong hands behind you. If any of the cards on the board would have paired I would have been in second place to the boat or quads. Don’t get mad at me. Go buy some more chips. That seemed too easy.”

He got up and grabbed his things before stomping off. The other man in the hand said, “Thanks for riling him up. It helped me get back the five I lost to you.”

“No problem. I play for fun. If he would have played with some grace I would have felt bad for him. Flopping the top two pairs he had the opportunity to win. A 10% chance is still a chance. I had no upside and was hoping for the cards that actually came on the turn and the river.”

“I’m Ron. It’s nice to play with you. I will have to keep an eye on you.”

“I’m Nick. Just in town for a few days for a convention.”

“Me too. I have a few restaurants.”

“You should stop by our booth and I’ll show you around.”

“I’m playing cards. Don’t start trying to sell me.”

“I was just being nice. You probably aren’t our target customer anyways. I can buy you a drink and something to eat.”

“Are you with that big booth? The talk of the show?”

“It was my idea but it’s been expanded on since then.”

“Then I would like a tour. Why wouldn’t I be a good customer?”

“In the booth, we have many products on display from other vendors. The food is provided by other vendors as well. We have a computerized restaurant management system. It isn’t cheap but if you have a really big restaurant, club, bar or a large chain, it will save you a lot of money.”

A man across the table laughed. “Kid, that’s Ron Fellows. He owns all the Rib Ranch restaurants in the United States.”

After looking back and forth between the two men I said, “Sorry. I guess I should shut up and play cards.” They both laughed at me as I picked up my eight-three off suit and folded them. “Let me stack some chips while you all play.”

“I’m Steve Kline. I’m with American Food Supply. We have a booth but are supplying some of the food for your booth.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Steve. Thanks for supporting our booth. I was at the show over in England and I think all the vendors got good exposure from the booth. I know our sales were way beyond what we expected.”

Ron said, “I know Steve and have for a long time. Tell me about how the system will save me money.”

“Tell me when you want to stop by and I’ll show you. It’s much easier to explain when you can see it all in action and I can have a meal with you at the same time. Breakfast, lunch or an early dinner at the booth. We can have a real dinner after hours if you want to discuss it further. Steve can stop by as well.”

“I don’t own a restaurant.”

“No but you deliver to them and have sales people. Someone needs to distribute the order forms and printer paper. I can introduce you to the people on that side of the business as well.”

“Would it be worth my while?”

“If it were peaches or scallops would it be worth your while? It is a product that you buy from us and sell to the restaurants that use the system.”

“Let’s talk about it tomorrow.”

“Both of you can just tell me a time and I can make sure the right people are there to answer all your questions.”

Ron said, “I’ll stop by at 9am when it opens and we can look at the system and then I’ll stop back at lunch to see it when it is busy.”

“I’ll see you at 9am.”

Steve said, “I’ll stop by at the end of the day tomorrow and we can talk about distribution.”

“I’ll buy you a drink or three.”

“Sounds good. You said something about school. What part do you play in this? You’re not sitting at the kiddie table.”

Looking down at a pair of queens, I raised $120 and then said, “Steve, I came up with ideas for software and have made quite a bit over the last few years. If I mentioned a few news stories you would recognize them and I was the one that was behind the ideas. I have a partner that builds what I design. I am finishing up at Cambridge this year with a degree in computer science. I did turn eighteen earlier this year.”

One guy called me and the flop came Ace, queen, four. I raised another $120 and the other guy folded. I raked the chips as the dealer collected the cards. Ron said, “Boy genius. Maybe I should cash out now before he takes all my money.”

“I hope to be saving you money. More than you could lose here at the tables.”

Ron did have a good night and was up about $5k when we both got up to leave for dinner. I was up close to $20k as I was aggressive with my good cards. That and I won $10k in one hand. I asked Ron if he wanted to have dinner. He replied, “I have another vendor that asked me before the show to have dinner with him tonight. I have a team of regional managers that are with me. I’ll stop by at 9am by myself. If I like the concept, I’ll bring them by around lunch-time and we can all see it in action.”

“How many do you have with you?”

“I have about two hundred stores. That means there are twenty territory managers and five regional managers. The regional managers are in town for the show.”

“I’ll reserve a table for six at lunch time.” We shook hands and went our own ways. I ran into Adam on the way back to the room. He was sitting with Tim and Andy in the bar. “Is the booth ready to go?” I asked.

“With no thanks to you. Where have you been all day, slacker?”

“Staying out of your way and getting into trouble.” Turning to the bartender. “Can I get a club soda?” She nodded and reached for a glass.

Tim asked, “What kind of trouble did you get in?”

“I played cards, won some money and met some people in the restaurant business. Two good leads.”

Adam asked, “How many did you sell this time?”

“None yet. They wanted to buy the program, but I told them to come by tomorrow for a demo. He’s coming by at 9am and then during the lunch rush with his regional managers. I also talked to a guy from American Food Supply, Steve Kline. He may be a good guy for distribution and or sales if we need help. He is going to stop by tomorrow afternoon for a drink and to talk.”

Adam said, “If he got lost in the desert he’d come back with a mermaid and bucket of gold. I don’t know how he does it.”

“ABC, always be selling.”

“That’s ‘always be closing’ but it’s close enough,” Adam said.

“What’s the plan?”

“We learned a lot at the show in England. We have more people and more space to accommodate the larger crowd. One of the selling points is that we can handle them with fewer workers. Mainly servers, but we have more people to sell and explain the concept. I’m expecting good things out of the show.”

“I’ll help out wherever I can. Just let me know if you need something. Otherwise, I’ll just help where I see a need.”

Andy said, “We have one kitchen but four different lines and restaurants. It’s allowed us to show more products and the vendors have all been a big help. I will be working both front and back as needed.”

With all of us coming from the east, and needing to be at the show and ready to go early the next day, we all went to bed early. The next morning we met at the booth at 8am and Rodney gave the pep talk and last minute instructions to the crew and everyone was ready when the doors opened. There was a lot of preshow hype about our booth and many made a beeline to see what the hype was about.

We were ready and started the service as the person out front would ask a few questions to determine if the customer was worth the time of a salesperson. The customer would then be turned over to the hostess for seating and then the ordering, serving and demo would be done based on the needs of the customer.

Ron strolled up a couple minutes later and had one of his managers with him. I flashed three fingers to the hostess, and she led us to a raised booth so that we could see what was going on. Ron was with a guy named Chuck and we talked about Vegas, cards and where they were from. The company was based out of Dallas but Chuck lived in Pittsburg and ran the eastern half of the US.

As we went through the service, I explained what was happening and pointed out things for them to watch. The new thing for the Vegas show was a camera in the kitchen so that more could be seen. The meal was quick as designed to move more people through the booth and then I showed them the back office, the inventory management, the anomaly detection or loss prevention and the data to track ordering trends.

Ron saw the benefits as did Chuck. He said he would like to bring the rest of his team back for lunch.

“Ron, would you mind making it a late lunch? We just opened so the trends are still being built as more people show up and order. If you come later we can show the trends a little better.”

“How about 1:30?” he asked.

“That should work well. If you see any of the fixtures or products that might be of interest to you, grab a brochure as you exit and visit the booth as you explore the show.”

“I liked the plastic cups. They didn’t feel cheap and would be both safer and last longer than the glass we use now. We don’t serve breakfast so the recipes don’t fit our needs although I really enjoyed the food.”

“Feel free to walk around all four set ups to see if there is anything else that catches your eye.”

“Nick, thanks for the tour. We will see you at 1:30.” He and Chuck left to see the rest of the show. I saw Chuck pointing out the slip resistant tile on the floor as they walked away.

As the table was cleared, the hostess came up and said, “Nick would you mind talking to this group? We are already getting slammed.”

The day was back-to-back meetings with many either signing up or asking for a follow up call. I only had one that I spoke to that wasn’t interested and that was because of cost. I don’t think they were doing well and spending money on our products wouldn’t be the silver bullet that saved them and I told them that.

Ron and his crew were there at 1:30. The hostess seated us when she pulled up the reservation. I went through a similar talk as I did in the morning but also let Ron and Chuck point out things that caught their eye and had impressed them earlier in the day. The food came out as ordered. I even made the order extra difficult. I almost created a custom dish.

All of Ron’s team could see the advantages and then were even more impressed when they saw the software and all the things it could do to properly order food, detect loss of inventory and even place orders for food and drinks around the clock. They all saw the savings, efficiencies and benefits to the company. They all left while Chuck and Ron stayed behind to talk pricing and timing. I called Adam over to go over the logistics and there were a lot of smiles and handshakes as they left the booth.

Steve showed up near the end of the day and we sat down with Adam and ordered some food and drinks. I explained how the system worked and focused on inventory management and ordering. Steve started to nod as the light bulb went off and he could see the benefits to his company. Adam talked about sales, distribution and maintenance as well as delivering supplies and Steve’s only response was, “Where do we sign up?”

It took a few drinks to work out the details and the representatives from NCR and IBM were on hand to talk about installations. It all came together in the end and even though the booth was closed for the night, we all went out to dinner and had some good food. Steve would spend the rest of the show at our booth to understand the workings better and learn how to sell to those customers that didn’t make it to the show.

As we were walking out he said, “Do you want to play some cards? I’m feeling lucky.”

“Sure. Adam, do you want to play with us?”

“I guess I could lose a few dollars.”

Tim and his family say that they are going to have a few drinks and sit down after a long day. We all sat at the $10-$20 table and Ron was there playing. As we sat down he said, “I guess great minds do think alike. I just got here.”

There were five others already at the table. When we sat down, I dropped a $10k chip in front of me and one in front of Adam. He just smiled and nodded. We would settle up later if at all. The next couple hands went slow as the dealer made change for us and we settled into the game. Two of the guys were locals and two were in town for the show. One was just in town to play golf and cards.

The talk around the table was about the show for the most part when the other two at the table found out that we had the big booth. One had stopped by but never spoke to a sales person.

He said, “I would have liked to have heard more about it but everyone was too busy.”

Ron laughed and said, “You probably downplayed who you were when asked.”

He thought for a minute and said, “I did but they still should have told me more about the products.”

I had a nine-three off suit and tossed my cards in the muck. “I hope you had a good experience, a good meal and a drink. Our goal is to treat everyone like a valued customer but as I told Ron yesterday, we don’t want to waste your time or our time if it isn’t a good fit.”

“Why wouldn’t it be a good fit?”

“The cost is prohibitive for small mom and pop places. Large chains, or mega restaurants can see a return that makes the investment worthwhile but small businesses struggle to see the value. We may come out with a version for smaller restaurants in the future but this is brand new and was designed to help bigger chains.”

“Well, I guess it was my fault for hiding who I was.”

Ron said, “I did the same thing and got the same response.”

Adams said, “Maybe we should try to sell to everyone.”

“People that see the value can flag someone down. I’m Nick and this is Adam. Why don’t you stop by tomorrow and we can talk about the size and needs of your company and see if it would be a good fit.”

“I will stop by and see if using your products would benefit me. My name is Brad McDaniel. I’m with Sublime sub shops.”

I was up and down most of the night and then got on a roll and was up ten thousand when I was dealt the Ace and King of diamonds. The flop had the nine and jack of diamonds with a four of clubs. I had the flush draw and straight draw. I needed a queen or any diamond. I bet and was called by a couple others. The next card was a jack of clubs, which opened up a full house possibility but I bet and was called again by two others. The last card was the 10 of diamond and I had hit the Ace high flush.

I bet three thousand and the guy next to me folded and Brad went all in. I doubted that he had the full house and called him. He flipped over the eight and queen of diamonds to show that straight flush eight through the queen. I was lucky that he started the hand with just over $8,000 in front of him so I was still up for the night but most of the winnings I’d made to that point went over to Brad. I played a while longer but that one hand wiped me out of my big profit for the night. I applauded his hand and paid off what he’d won from me.

I walked away up a few hundred for the night. I went to bed and slept well. The next morning I arrived at the booth and Adam came up to me. “Hey Nick. One of the organizers stopped by and asked if we could speak at one of the sessions. The person that was supposed to speak got sick. Since we are a big sponsor, we were offered the spot. I told them that you would speak.”

“When and what am I speaking about?”

“Just after lunch. You can talk about whatever you want but the guy was speaking on selling at a higher margin.”

“Why aren’t you speaking?”

“I’m busy then.”

“What will you be doing?”

“Watching you speak. You are better in front of crowds. I’ve seen you before. Just get up and talk about what we do or talk about sailing to Florida or living in Japan. I don’t care.”

At 1:30 I was standing at a podium in front of 250 people. It wasn’t the entire show but a large crowd. I started by asking, “How many are here to understand how to sell at a premium?”

Almost everyone raised their hands. “Derrick got sick. I think he went out drinking last night and passed out under a table somewhere on the show floor but that’s just my guess. I was asked to step in. I don’t have any slides, or weeks of practice. I came in this morning and they asked me to speak. If I ramble or chase a tangent please forgive me.”

I had been pacing but stopped and paused. “If you want to sell your product for more money. Do something to make them worth more. Under promise and over deliver. Why do people pay more for a Coke than a Shasta cola? It is a better product. I’ve had barbeque that was cooked and then I’ve had some that melted in my mouth. I can taste the difference and would gladly pay double for the real deal. If you came here to find out how to rip people off, then we will have to see if Derrick has the magic formula. I say to do more and don’t cut corners. If your goal is 30% profit, give them more or better food at higher prices. For every dollar the price goes up, you will make an extra thirty cents.”