I think in an episode I watched last week, Reid won a poker game on the plane at the beginning of a scene. I can't remember if anyone commented on it or not, but I think it had the feel of him winning often. And I watched most of Season 1 more or less at once, so I can't recall now which ep it was.

He's definitely something of a card sharp, and they've attributed it to his Vegas upbringing.

Right, yes, that was the talk.

I read the chess thing as more a comment on Gideon. Reid, it seems, is supposed to be good at chess (it's not a gap in his abilities), but Gideon is just that much better.

I'm only vaguely remembering the poker game with Emily, but he's quoting stats etcetera at her, and she pulls it out with the last card, or something. And Morgan is watching.

I think.

I'm only vaguely remembering the poker game with Emily, but he's quoting stats etcetera at her, and she pulls it out with the last card, or something. And Morgan is watching.

That was in "A Thousand Words" towards the end of S5. He draws one card to her three and presents a Full House. She grimaces, says she always forgets that he grew up in Vegas and he looks smug as he goes to pull the pot toward himself. She stops him and says that she, too, has a full boat and lays down a Full House that trumps his. He looks confused and says something to the effect that he can't believe she got a full house from drawing three cards, that it's something like 100-1 odds and she interjects, "Ninety-seven to one."

I love it because it's one of those subtle moments where the writers show us that in her own way, Emily's as brilliant as Reid. It harkens back to her first assignment with the team in S2-- when she, Reid, and Gideon went to Guantanamo to interrogate the POW and Reid was playing chess with Gideon and the plane banks sharply because of the approach into Guantanamo and Reid is disappointed because he thought he was finally going to beat Gideon and Emily absent-mindedly says, "He would've had you in three."

She is, in many ways, the closest thing to an intellectual equal that Reid has on the team. With better social skills from being a diplomat's daughter.

Thank you, Barb. I thought I couldn't have hallucinated that much of a scene.

Reid is brilliant, but, yes, reasonably conventional.

Hm... favorite episodes:

S1

• LDSK
• Riding the Lightning
• The Tribe
• The Fisher King Pt. 1

S2

• The Fisher King Pt. 2
• Lessons Learned
• Revelations
• Jones
• Legacy

S3

• In Name and Blood
• Scared to Death
• Penelope
• True Night
• Damaged
• Elephant's Memory

S4

• The Angel Maker
• Minimal Loss
• The Instincts/Memoriam
• Masterpiece
• Soul Mates
• Zoe's Reprise
• Demonology
• Conflicted
• Amplification

S5

• Faceless, Nameless
• The Performer
• Outfoxed
• 100
• The Uncanny Valley
• Moseley Lane
• A Thousand Words
• Exit Wounds

Yeah, I tend to the Reid and Prentiss episodes and I'm definitely heavier in the S4/5 eps.

He's definitely something of a card sharp, and they've attributed it to his Vegas upbringing.

When he, Hotch, and JJ are playing gin at the end of Empty Planet, Hotch walks away mid-hand and orders Reid specifically not to cheat, whereupon Reid immediately lifts up Hotch's face-down hand to check it out. However, JJ ends up winning, and he's so bummed he has to inspect her hand. Definitely not a happy loser when it comes to cards!

Thank you, Barb. I thought I couldn't have hallucinated that much of a scene.

Oh, it was such a brilliant scene, made even better with the coda with Morgan, where he asks, "Okay, Prentiss, I gotta know—Sin to Win Weekend?"

And she replies, "Morgan, you know I respect you tremendously, but there are some things that if you have to ask, you're just not ready to know," and she walks off leaving Morgan shaking his head and musing, "There's a whole 'nother side to that woman— a whole 'nother side," while Reid is sitting there looking through the cards and muttering, "I never lose."

Rare moment of levity but completely appropriate for the characters.