Poker skills can come in handy in a business setting. Just ask Johanna Storella.
Storella is one of the top executives at the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, and has lately served as the agency’s public face as its board searches for a new executive director.
But on the weekends, the chief strategy officer heads up north to New Hampshire or south to Connecticut to pursue a different passion: playing poker.
Storella grew up in a family that loved playing cards, but she didn’t take up poker seriously until 2011. She says she found the blend of math, psychology and strategy appealing — skills she employs when she’s negotiating a deal and needs to read the faces of people on the other side of the table.
“It’s the skills that I have in my day job that I carry over to poker,” Storella says, “making sure you take calculated risks, always understand your odds and your percentage of winning, and being smart about the math.”
She has placed in the top 10 in a couple of big tournaments and often wins money — but not enough to leave the MCCA. She says her net winnings totaled $14,000 last year, her best so far, although she’s down about $4,000 so far in 2015.
Storella says she’s been busier at the convention center this year, making it tough to get to Foxwoods where the big-paying tourneys take place.
Instead, she has made a number of trips to the Poker Room in Hampton Falls, N.H. The payouts aren’t as big, but the commute is much shorter.
“Every poker player is used to that, those kind of swings,” Storella says. “You just have to roll with it.” — JON CHESTO
‘Quality, comfort’. . . and profanity
Bernie & Phyl’s is one of the last retailers you would expect to offend people. This is our parents’ furniture store we’re talking about, after all — the one that offered us “quality, comfort and price” all in one package.
But the Norton-based chain’s latest ad, showing grainy footage of a 1950s-era family sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner, prompted complaints after it appeared two weeks ago. In it, a voice is dubbed over a boy saying, “I’m thankful that Bernie & Phyl’s doorbuster sale is here so we can finally get rid of this . . . dining room table.” He uses a certain adjective that rhymes with “city” to describe the table. The swear word is bleeped out, but just barely.
President Larry Rubin said he personally returned one unhappy customer’s call to explain: “I told him, ‘There are other furniture stores in the marketplace that spent a lot more money on advertising than we do. We have to get a little creative so people remember our spots.’”
Rubin isn’t worried. After all, store sales have increased, year over year, throughout 2015 after the chain started running similarly irreverent ads designed by New York ad agency DeVito/Verdi. — JON CHESTO
Bob Kraft’s preferred ride
Turns out that even the biggest executives in town can’t resist the lure of a fast, cheap ride.
During his appearance at Tuesday’s packed Boston College CEO Club luncheon, Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick was asked when he knew the ride-for-hire company was going to hit the big time.
Was it raising more than $8 billion in investor cash? Expanding to 300 cities in nearly 60 countries? Hiring one of President Obama’s former advisers?
Kalanick said the real pinch-me moment had actually occurred just minutes earlier, when members of Boston’s business elite were telling Kalanick how much they loved his service.
“I think it’s when Robert Kraft told me he took an uberX,” Kalanick said to a chorus of laughs. “That’s when I’m like, OK — we’re in a different place now.”
UberX, for those who don’t follow the company’s lingo, is the service that allows drivers to charge for rides in their everyday commuter cars. Think Nissan, not Mercedes.
Kraft wouldn’t expound on his Ubering experience when approached after the luncheon.
“I’m not talking to the press today,” he said with a smile.
— CURT WOODWARD
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