When it was Old Hei's turn, despite his burly and fierce appearance, he was very cautious when playing cards, rarely playing passively.
This round was no different. He glanced at his cards, saw that he had scattered cards, and immediately discarded them.
Only the three of us were left in the game.
Hou Jun continued to play passively and place bets, and the player before me and I also continued to follow without seeing.
After a few rounds, Hou Jun started to feel a bit uneasy.
He nudged Old Hei back a bit, saying:
"Move back a bit, you're blocking my view of Chu Liu…"
Old Hei then leaned back in his chair.
Hou Jun kept staring at my cards, looking over and over again.
I knew that Hou Jun could only see the top card.
He had no idea what the card underneath was.
But I deliberately revealed a corner of the second card, while pressing my finger on the suit marker.
This way, Hou Jun could only see that I had a Jack, but he couldn't see that it was a Clubs Jack.
A 10 and a Jack.
Hou Jun concluded that the highest I could have was a straight.
He felt more at ease and continued to play passively.
After a few rounds, the player before me started to get a bit timid.
He looked at his cards, saw that he had a pair of 7s, hesitated for a moment, and followed with 20 yuan.
A pair of 7s is not considered big in Three Card Poker.
But he thought that none of us three had looked at our cards.
If Hou Jun and I both had scattered cards, or small pairs, then his pair of 7s would win.
Seeing him look at his cards, I also pretended to look at my cards.
After all, in this small game, I couldn't be too ruthless.
There were already three to four hundred yuan on the card table, I could take the money and run.
After looking at the cards, I deliberately hesitated for a while before placing 20 yuan.
Seeing me hesitate, Hou Jun became even more certain.
He thought the highest I could have was a 10, Jack, Queen straight, or maybe not even a straight, possibly just a pair.
Now Hou Jun was even more confident, he placed ten yuan, and deliberately said:
"Those who dare, win; those who hesitate, lose. Fuck it, I'm not going to look at my cards this round, I'll follow you guys till the end!"
The player with the pair of 7s saw that I was still following, and Hou Jun wasn't looking at his cards.
He thought for a moment and chose to discard his cards directly.
Only Hou Jun and I were left in the game. I placed 20 yuan, and he followed passively with ten yuan.
After we had gone back and forth for more than ten rounds, Hou Jun started to hesitate again.
After all, he hadn't seen what suit my Jack was, let alone my third card.
He turned his head to look at Chen Xiaoxue and asked:
"Honey, should we look at our cards?"
Chen Xiaoxue, however, didn't hesitate at all and shook her head directly:
"No, follow him till the end!"
Upon hearing this, I understood that Chen Xiaoxue also knew how to read cards.
It seemed that Hou Jun knew his eyesight wasn't good enough, so he specifically brought Chen Xiaoxue to help him read other people's cards.
Unfortunately, Chen Xiaoxue was sitting behind Hou Jun, and was also blocked by Old Hei, so she couldn't see my cards clearly.
After a few more rounds, Hou Jun suddenly stopped.
I thought he was hesitating whether to reveal my cards or not.
But unexpectedly, he suddenly leaned forward, stretched out his hand, and tried to flip over my three cards.
I quickly pressed down on them and glared at him.
"Why are you touching my cards? Do you know how to read cards?"
I intended to warn Hou Jun to behave himself.
But unexpectedly, Hou Jun took me for a fool, stiffened his neck, and yelled at me:
"What the hell are you talking about? If I knew how to read cards, would I have lost so much? Fine, I'll reveal your cards without looking at mine!"
Revealing without looking, meant that he didn't look at his cards, didn't need to double the bet, and directly compared cards with me.
As he spoke, Hou Jun violently flipped over his three cards.
Everyone saw that he had actually followed a Spades King flush, and they said:
"Team leader Hou is awesome, he followed a flush, he's sure to win!"
"Yeah, he broke even with one hand, team leader is really amazing!"
The two colleagues from the bathhouse were all flattering Hou Jun.
And Hou Jun stared at me, asking:
"What are you hesitating for, reveal your cards?"
Everyone's eyes were on me.
And I slowly flipped over my three cards one by one.
Ace, Jack, 10.
All Clubs.
"Wow!"
Everyone let out a gasp.
They had thought that the hand Hou Jun followed was quite big.
But they didn't expect that he had met his match.
He had a King flush, and I had an Ace flush.
"Team leader, you're really unlucky today, a King flush met an Ace flush…"
Hou Jun's face turned ashen, he was gritting his teeth in anger, his fists clenched, and he cursed:
"Fuck, what kind of luck is this, I can even lose with these cards? It's like I've run into a ghost…"
After cursing a few times, Hou Jun was still not satisfied, and turned around to vent his anger on Chen Xiaoxue.
"It's all your fucking fault, I wanted to reveal the cards then, but you insisted that I continue to follow. I lost more than two hundred!"
Although Chen Xiaoxue was not convinced, she didn't dare to contradict Hou Jun.
She glared at me fiercely and muttered:
"Holding the poker so tightly, if I didn't know better, I'd think it was paper money for his parents…"（Note:in chinese, the paper money is for the dead people.）
I was collecting the money and shuffling the cards, but when I heard Chen Xiaoxue cursing me, I stared at her and asked:
"What did you say?"
Chen Xiaoxue always looked down on us service workers.
When she heard me questioning her, her tone immediately rose.
"I said you're burning paper money for your parents!"
Since the age of six, when I witnessed my father's brutal death in front of me.
I swore to myself that I would never allow anyone to insult my parents.
Unless, I was dead.
Looking at Chen Xiaoxue, my eyes were filled with anger.
"Say that again?"
Chen Xiaoxue didn't expect that I, a service worker, would dare to question her in this tone.
Before she could speak, Hou Jun stood up, pointed at me angrily, and cursed:
"What if she says it again? Do you fucking want to fight? Let me tell you, son of a bitch, if you can play, play, if you can't, get the fuck out! Say one more word, and I'll deal with you today!"
Hou Jun was always arrogant and dismissive in the bathhouse.He was used to being arrogant, not taking us waiters seriously at all.
As soon as Hou Jun finished speaking, Old Hei also frowned, expressing his dissatisfaction to me:
"Can you play or not? If you can't, then get lost. Don't hold us all up!"
I sneered inwardly.
Play?
Of course, I can play!
Today, I'll play along with you all!
I began to shuffle the cards.
In the world of poker, mastering the Swindler techniques, shuffling is fundamental.
There are many methods, such as false shuffle, jump shuffle, riffle shuffle, and the perfect shuffle method, etc.
No matter how you shuffle, it's all for the sake of dealing cards, to get better cards.
And the Swindler techniques of dealing cards are also varied.
Like the jump cut, it looks like you're dealing the top card. But in reality, the top card doesn't move at all, and you start dealing from the second or third card.
There's also the bottom deal and the middle deal.
The principle is the same as the jump cut, only one starts dealing from the bottom, and the other starts dealing from the middle.
When I first learned to deal cards, I asked Master Liu.
If I learn these, can I win?
Master Liu shook his head.
I asked again, then how can I ensure a sure win?
Master Liu told me, there's only one way to ensure a sure win.
Don't gamble!
Win by not gambling!
I understood the principle.
But I am the Swindler, my world is destined to be on the gambling round.