April 8 - Koji, the Stone-Faced Tutee

I was hired by Koji's parents to help him improve his English prior to studying applied mathematics at MIT. At 18 years old, he was one of the youngest students ever admitted to their master's program.
I had my first tutoring session with him the week after he learned he'd been accepted. After his mother introduced us briefly, she left us to begin our session.
"So," I started. "MIT. Good school, huh?"
"Yes," he said, as if reading from a script. "I'm very pleased to be attending such a prestigious university. Theirs is one of the top mathematics programs in the world."
"Your mom told me they gave you a full ride?"
"Full ride? I'm not sure what you mean."
"A scholarship. Like, they'll pay for everything. Tuition, room and board, everything."
"I see," he said, writing it in his notebook. "Yes, they gave me the full ride."
"Guess that's what happens when you graduate the top of your class from Tokyo University. Number one student at the number one university."
"Yes," he said. "Being the valedictorian at the top ranked university in the country does open some doors." I couldn't detect any emotion in him: pride, embarrassment, arrogance, nothing. I gave him a moment to elaborate. He didn't. And so I started with the lesson.
And so it went. We met every Monday and Thursday for two hours, and he was the best tutee I'd ever had. He always did his homework and then some, coming to every session armed with questions he had about tricky idioms and grammar points he'd come across in his reading. But what stood out the most to me about him was his complete and utter lack of emotion. Never smiled, never frowned, never did anything. Never showed frustration when he didn't get something or pleasure when he did. Dude made Spock seem like Jack Black.
For instance: A couple of days before one session, his grandmother passed away. Three weeks later, his parents told him they'd decided to pay for him to take a two-week trip to the States in July to practice his English. His response to both pieces of news was the same. No response. He was incredible.
As a bonus for me, his parents offered to pay my way to accompany him on his trip and serve as a sort of round the clock guide/tutor/travel companion. I might have balked at the idea under different circumstances, but then I figured:

Mathematical genius.
Genetically incapable of showing any emotion.
In the United States for two weeks.

If you're not visualizing Koji and me going down a Vegas escalator together in matching suits Rain Man style, you and I obviously aren't on the same page. Koji was put on this planet to play poker, and teaching him the game became the focus of our next few weeks' worth of lessons. He devoured the books I gave him, inhaled the ESPN videos of the World Series of Poker I downloaded for him, and picked up the strategies and nuances of the game like a baby dolphin picked up swimming. When I felt like he was ready, I took him out to poker night with my buddies and the kid was a cold blooded assassin. No emotion, no fear, no mercy. Dismantled my friends one by one like he was some guy named Kansas City playing with a bunch of first timers who should've stuck with Uno. Afterwards, my friends were mostly polite, but they didn't invite him back. Not that we cared. The test run was a success. Vegas was next. Vegas, baby!
Vegas was built on the failed dreams of suckers who think they've figured out the secret to winning there. But with Koji things were different because he was the secret to winning there. Dude was unreadable. And ice cold. Just knew where the cards were, who had what, who needed what. Almost wasn't fair. Who am I kidding? It definitely wasn't fair. Setting him loose on a Vegas table was like setting Lebron James loose in an amputee dodge ball tournament. Viciously lopsided, yes. But fun to watch.
Our winnings: 3K at the Bellage, 2K at Caesars, 4K at Hard Rock. And that was just the first night. And as a bonus, it turned out he was deadly at blackjack, too. All tolled, we walked away from Vegas with close to 35K. We would've taken the place for more, but we had to log some hours and take some pictures at places like the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam so Koji's parents wouldn't get the wrong idea, but that's OK. He'll have a week off from MIT at Thanksgiving.
And I've already booked the tickets.