Photo by Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Lee Childs (center) rakes in the chips Sunday after taking a pot from Clayton Foster (left) during a poker tournament. Childs, a former Roanoke County resident, held a two-day Texas hold 'em training session this weekend at the Carpenters and Millwrights Union Hall in Southeast Roanoke.

Lee Childs might have the coolest job ever.

The former Cave Spring High School athlete, who now lives in Alexandria, always wanted to be a coach. "I thought it would be football or wresting or something."

But not only has Childs made a name for himself, and quite a load of a money, as a world-class poker player -- he also gets paid to teach techniques to eager new competitors.

Childs, 36, brought that high-stakes know-how back to Roanoke this weekend, teaching a two-day Texas hold 'em workshop at the Carpenters and Millwrights Local Union building on Jamison Avenue in Southeast Roanoke. The lessons culminated, of course, in a tournament.

His students included 39-year-old Kirk Davis, a friend from the days when Childs wrestled for Cave Spring and Davis was a junior high coach, as well as a number of regulars at Davis' weekly poker game.

Davis had lost touch with his friend after Childs graduated from Cave Spring in 1990.

When Davis next saw Childs, the younger man was on television in the World Series of Poker, playing in the no limit Texas hold 'em event. Childs finished in seventh place with $700,000 in winnings.

Davis and some of his friends later joined Childs in a Pros vs. Joes charity tournament in Washington, D.C.

Childs is an instructor with the World Poker Tour Boot Camp and has his own business, Acumen Poker. His rates generally aren't cheap -- $500 for a one-day session and $750 for a two-day session -- though on Sunday, players in the final tournament had at least the possibility of winning refunds on the cost of the workshop.

Attendees such as mortgage broker Jason Bialek, 31, and Norfolk Southern Corp. engineer Tripp Bane, 28, said they enjoy the competition. "Not being able to play as many sports anymore, I think this kind of takes over," Bialek said.

"You can outwit people, show deception, and it'll pay off," said Bane. He described how he once duped Davis, his friend and co-worker, into putting in all his chips by claiming he had two pairs when he was actually holding four of a kind. Davis thanked him, sarcastically, for publicizing that incident.

Mark Stragand, owner of Fleet Transmissions on Williamson Road, pointed out another aspect of poker's appeal: the money. In an official tournament, it's possible for a player to turn a relatively small entry fee into a huge payoff. "It's one of the things that the average guy, if he applies himself, can do."

Childs said that part of the point of his lessons is to save someone serious about entering tournaments from "a very costly learning curve."

In poker tournaments, an unknown can find himself pitted against the best players in the world. "All of the sudden, you're sitting there playing with guys you've been watching on TV," Childs said. "That's what happened to me last summer."

Without the cameras in the televised tournaments that give spectators sneak peaks at the pair of cards in each player's hand, a Texas hold 'em game can be a little tough for a novice to follow.

The 12 players in Sunday's tournament were so focused that often the clink of poker chips was the only sound in the room.

After an hour, none of the players at either table had been eliminated. Perhaps not surprisingly, Childs had the biggest pile of chips at his table.

At the other table, 26-year-old Blake Ratliff had the lead at the end of the first round, causing his opponents to jokingly dub him "Lee Jr."