The Universal Language of Poker

If you've ever been to a big live tournament, you'll be able to picture this scene outside the tournament room during break.

The corridors are packed full of people on cell phones updating their family and friends on their status, as well as all manner of players catching up with each other, trading chip counts, mulling over recent plays, and relaying stories of river heroics and big-pot suck-outs. As you walk down through the tangle of players, it goes something like this:

"... tanks for like a year before he finally folds. Dude, I was sweating so hard you can't even..."

"... I know my range is ahead of his all day, and twice on Sunday..."

"... just open shoves, and I look down at Ace-Queen. Just shoot me now..."

"... horrible play, but I only had 1,200 left so I thought that..."

"... friggin' check-raises me for the fifth time..."

"... pepperoni pizza and a Coke. Make it a lucky Coke, please..."

"... under-the-gun makes it 1,500. No, wait, 1,000. He makes it 1,000 and the guy behind him..."

"... up to 25,000 and now I'm back to 7,500. Unbelievable..."