By Kahari S. Nash — The BooRay! King & CEO KSN GAMING

Before the deals get signed, the legislation gets passed, or the hands get played, it all starts in one place: the table.

Not the metaphorical kind. The literal one. The roundtable, the boardroom table, the card table, the dining table. From Clarksdale to Capitol Hill to the Oval Office, that slab of wood has seen more truth, more betrayal, more alliances, and more opportunity than any digital dashboard or political press release ever could.

For those of you who don’t know what Hearts is or how to play Hearts, it’s a Trick-Taking card game similar to BooRay! As our late mutual friend, Carol “Bandaid” “Brother X” Willis, “The Political Godfather” & Founder Carol Willis’ Buffalo Soldiers – 40+ Year Aide to President Bill Clinton going back to Governor Clinton and Law Student to Professor Clinton at the University of Arkansas told me, “if you don’t know how to play Hearts, learn because this Old Boy ‘President Clinton’ loves to play.”

As Pastor Darrell Jaskson Sr, Bible Way Church of Atlas Road, Columbia, South Carolina, said, “There are people that are so powerful and so great, and you’d never know it because they don’t promote it.”

He was talking about Carol Willis, whom he called Bill Clinton’s “right hand” during Clinton’s time as governor of Arkansas and, according to Jackson, “his No. 1 chief African-American adviser” when Clinton became president. “There was a running joke that the most powerful man in America was a country boy from Arkansas named Carol Willis that nobody … knows,” Jackson joked.

“If you want Bill Clinton to do anything, you’ve got to go through Carol Willis.”

As President Clinton said, “I loved Carol Willis and Hillary and I will always be grateful to sharing so much our lives with him.”

President Bill Clinton wasn’t just running the country—he was reading people over games of Hearts, President Clinton’s favorite card game.

Some of President Clinton’s Hearts games are legendary and some of its participants are Political Heavyweights and Hollywood legends too. From Air Force One’s Conference Room Table to Marine One to Andrews Air Force Base to Martha’s Vineyard to Maine to Little Rock, these Hearts’ games have included everyone from Leon Panetta (White House Chief of Staff) to Bruce Lindsey (White House Deputy Counsel) to Sylvia Matthews (White House Deputy Chief of Staff) to Mike McCurry (White House Press Secretary) to Joe Lockhart (White House Deputy Press Secretary) to Doug Sosnik (White House Political Aide) to Bob J. Nash (Assistant to President Clinton & Director of Presidential Personnel – Co-Founding Member Carol Willis’s Buffalo Soldiers) to Rodney E. Slater (Secretary of Transportation – Co-Founding Member Carol Willis’ Buffalo Soldiers) to Chelsea Clinton to Hollywood Film Mogul Steven Spielberg (Co-Founder Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks – Partners Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen) and Secretary Hillary Clinton hates playing Hearts.

That wasn’t a hobby. That was prep. That was muscle memory for decoding power plays in high-stakes meetings. When you know how to win at the table, you know how to win in the world. That’s not a theory. That’s strategy. That’s survival.

Global leaders don’t just deliver speeches or draft policies. They shape history from the very same tables where they sip coffee, whisper to allies, and yes—play cards. Because the psychology of the game and the psychology of leadership are one and the same. Bluffing, patience, reading the room, staying cool when your hand ain’t great but the pot is worth chasing—that’s business. That’s politics. That’s life.

Behind every trade agreement and every IPO roadshow, there’s a room where someone said, “Let’s sit down.” They don’t finalize anything until it’s tabled, talked, debated, and sealed with a nod across that flat surface. The war rooms? Tables. The negotiation summits? Tables. The casino floor? Same story. From Macau to Manhattan to Mound Bayou, the table is where things go from idea to outcome.

Regulations are written from tables. Laws are challenged from them too. Entrepreneurs pitch at them, artists eat off them, families build on them, and players—real players—play.

And let’s not forget: when public meets private, it doesn’t happen in theory—it happens face to face, chair to chair. When power meets potential, they don’t exchange emails—they lock eyes across the table. When stories that change the world are told, the opening line is almost always, “We were sitting at this table…”

The table isn’t just a surface. It’s a symbol. It holds weight, it commands presence, and it demands respect. Whether you’re playing BooRay! in Atlanta, closing a funding round in New York, or reimagining economic policy in Abuja, the table is the stage. No filters. No algorithms. Just people, perspective, and play.

So when I say the world is dealt in at the table, I’m not being poetic—I’m being honest. Every major move you’ve ever read about was made at one. The only question is—when you get your seat, do you know how to play?

Because if not, the table doesn’t care. It’s always waiting for the next hand, so let’s make it a winning hand.

— Kahari S. Nash, The BooRay! King 🤴🏾

Member Carol Willis’s Buffalo Soldiers