Dead Man's Hand (Poker Face)

The episode follows Charlie as she finds that her friend Natalie has been killed, deducing that her death was staged to cover a bigger crime.

The series premiere received positive reviews from critics, who praised Johnson's directing, writing, editing, cinematography, Lyonne's performances and pacing as strong points.

She takes a picture with her phone and shows it to the head of security, Cliff LeGrand (Benjamin Bratt), and the casino's manager, Sterling Frost Jr. (Adrien Brody).

Sterling claims he will take care of the matter, discreetly deleting the photos from Natalie's phone and telling her to go home.

Earlier that day, Natalie had carpooled with her friend Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne), who works at the casino as a cocktail waitress.

Charlie has the ability to detect lies, which Sterling wants to utilize to fleece Caine during the illegal poker games he holds in his hotel room rather than gamble on the casino floor.

At the police station, Charlie is denied access to the evidence locker but sees a picture of the crime scene depicting Jerry with his gun in his right hand.

She shows him the footage of Jerry's expulsion: as he passed through the metal detector, the indicator light was green, proving he did not have his gun because Cliff kept it.

While the recording cannot incriminate him for criminal activity, it damages the casino's reputation, prompting Caine and other high-spending gamblers to leave.

Johnson stated that the series would delve into "the type of fun, character driven, case-of-the-week mystery goodness I grew up watching.

Johnson also used Magnum, P.I., The Rockford Files, Quantum Leap, Highway to Heaven and The Incredible Hulk as influences for the tone of the series.

[3][4] Johnson was interested in "doing that Columbo or even Quantum Leap thing of having every episode be an anthropological deep dive into a little corner of America that you might not otherwise see.

[4] The episode featured appearances by Adrien Brody and Dascha Polanco, who were announced to guest star in April and June 2022, respectively.

[10] Ron Perlman also guest stars in the series as Sterling Frost Sr., with his role credited as a voice cameo in the final scenes of the episode.

"[23] Lauren Milici of Total Film gave the episode a 4.5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Poker Face is a modern throwback of a genre we haven't seen since the '90s.