Locals in a remote mining town in Wyoming found themselves in a surreal scene this week when Bill Gates crashed one of their poker games.
The billionaire, 68, joined a group of regular workers at Wyoming Fossils in Kemmerer on Monday for a $600 game of Texas hold ’em, a popular variation of the traditional game of poker.
He was in the area as his energy company, TerraPower LLC, started construction on a next-generation nuclear power plant Gates believes will “revolutionize” how power is generated.
But posing with Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon and TerraPower executives was not the only thing on the billionaire’s agenda.
After taking part in a groundbreaking ceremony for the project, Gates headed over to Wyoming Fossils to sit down with five locals to play a game of poker.
The Microsoft founder drank Diet Coke as he traded hands with the group, which included Wyoming Fossils owner Robert Bowen, food service director Joyce Chadwick, wholesale fossils business owner Tony Lindgren, cattle rancher Steve Peternali and retired maintenance manager Larry Shoemaker.
Each member of the group put in $100 cash and played for around 30 minutes while purchasing their own drinks: Gold Peak Iced Tea and pre-mixed margaritas. All the while they chatted about what they do for a living and where Gates planned to visit next.
The workers called him by his first name but avoided the topic of politics, according to the Cowboy State Daily.
While it is not clear who won, Gates is said to have played a tough game — though there are conflicting accounts on that score.
Bowen said the billionaire got into a showdown with Peternali and tried to call his bluff. “Bill smelled the bulls*** on the cattle rancher,” he said, adding that the Microsoft founder had two fives and continued to call Peternali out when “every card out there would have beat him.”
“He was able to pick up this guy’s bluffing him and just trying to take his chips. He called him all the way down in one hand,” he said.
“Bill was able to read this other player [Peternali]. He’s very intuitive, very sharp and a very intelligent man.”
Despite Gates’ excellent bluffing techniques, Bowen said he thinks Peternali won the game.
Chadwick added that she thinks Gates actually folded after the price of the hand was raised.
“I think Bill folded to him. I think when Steve raised bid, Bill folded and then Steve never showed his hand,” she said. “We just kind of figured he bluffed.”
She continued: “You know, it was absolutely amazing playing with Bill. I felt like he was as normal as he could ever be. He was there to play cards.
“I think he took his hat off, you know, and just relaxed and enjoyed himself for about 30 minutes.
“He was enjoying his time there. OK, you got a ton of money, but you certainly don’t act like it. He was normal just like the rest of us. I was very impressed.”
Chadwick said she won a game against Gates with five consecutive cards of different suits. “All I know is I needed an eight and the eight hit,” she said.
“He was really studying his cards. He was focusing on his cards, and the cards out on the table, and he was really good. He knew what he had.”
Shoemaker added: “He was just as good as everyone else at the table. He had some pretty good hands.
“We didn’t talk much at the table. There’s nothing that really sticks in my mind. He was really nice and shook everybody’s hand when he left.”
Following the game, the group praised Gates for his performance, saying that he was “very down-to-earth.”
“To have someone of his stature sit down with local people and talk with us shows that he really cares about us,” Bowen said. “We’re honored he considered to be part of our community, and sit down with us. He’s a very down-to-earth man.”
Gates has been known to play poker on occasion. In a 2002 Harvard Crimson article, friends commented that his time at the university including some regular card games. According to friends, “his mathematical ability did not always translate into winning hands,” the Crimson noted, with his friends reporting that he often finished in the red and was an average player.
“He was known to be an aggressive player,” friend C. Greg Nelson told the Crimson. “But in the crowd at Currier House where we played, he was about the median — definitely not in the top quartile.”
