We each put down a three thousand yuan ante.

I took the dealer’s seat and began to shuffle.

My shuffling was slow.

Clumsy and awkward, I didn’t look like someone who played cards often.

One card wasn’t shuffled properly.

I accidentally bent the corner of a card.

“The card is bent…”

I feigned an embarrassed look and raised my head to see Li Dabiao’s reaction.

“You useless fool, what can you even do? If you can’t shuffle, then get lost!”

Li Dabiao was instantly furious.

He grabbed a cigarette from the table and threw it at me.

I knew why he was so angry.

He had marked almost the entire deck of cards.

But his marks weren’t made in advance.

After all, the poker cards were provided by the card room.

He needed to mark them while playing.

To mark the entire deck would take a long time.

Seeing Li Dabiao react like this to me,

Old Hei was about to rush to my defense.

I immediately gave him a look, signaling him to stay put.

A few curses didn’t matter.

Because I was about to let him know what true despair was.

Understanding my cue, Old Hei pretended to be indifferent and said:

“Big Biao, what’s the rush? Just change the deck and it’s all good…”

As he spoke,

The person responsible for the rake threw a new, unopened deck of poker onto the table,

And casually took a hundred yuan for the cards.

Although Li Dabiao was angry,

He had no choice.

The cards were shuffled and dealt again.

The game began.

Li Dabiao’s luck seemed good.

In no time, he won over ten thousand.

Of course, I let him win on purpose.

A skilled swindler

Not only needs to have excellent techniques,

But also must understand the opponent’s psychology.

The past few days, I let Li Dabiao win

To give him a taste of victory.

But today, my goal was to let him win first and then lose.

Winning first then losing, as opposed to losing first then winning,

Has a completely different psychological impact on a gambler.

Losing first then winning,

After the anxiety of losing money,

If the gambler breaks even and wins a little, they might be satisfied and stop playing.

But winning first then losing is different.

The gambler will believe they can definitely win back.

And they consider the money they won before as their own.

At this point, they’re sure to get carried away.

Unknowingly,

There was already over twenty thousand on the table.

When it was my turn, I dealt myself two face-up cards.

One was an Ace, the other a Queen.

This hand, in the game of Dragon Gate, was the second best.

As long as the next card dealt was anything from a 2 to a Jack, I would win.

The odds were greatly in my favor.

But I still looked back at Old Hei, pretending to be cautious and asked:

“How much should I bet on this?”

“Do you even have to ask? Go all in!”

“Isn’t that too much? Maybe just half…”

I pretended to be timid.

Old Hei frowned.

“Go all in, listen to me!”

With a nod,

The pot had a total of twenty-two thousand.

I pulled out twenty-two thousand and placed it on the table.

Then,

I dealt the next card to myself.

I could feel it.

Li Dabiao was very nervous.

His eyes were fixed on me,

His mouth opening and closing, muttering something silently.

I slowly twisted the card in my hand.

Old Hei also widened his eyes, standing behind me, seemingly nervous as well.

The room suddenly became extremely quiet.

Even the rake collector seemed to wake up from his drowsiness.

He opened his mouth wide, leaning forward,

Eager to see my card.

“Damn!”

Old Hei shouted.

Everyone was focused,

And his shout made everyone jump.

I slowly revealed my card.

A King of Spades.

I lost.

Li Dabiao laughed heartily.

With a “smack,” he kissed Chen Xiaoxue on the face.

Then, pointing at me, he said:

“Chu Liu, oh Chu Liu, I used to deal with you as a kid, and I still deal with you now. In this lifetime, I, Li Dabiao, will always be your nemesis. My turn, deal the cards!”

His words sent a chill through my heart.

Nemesis?

I wanted to see who would be the nemesis today!

I dealt Li Dabiao two face-up cards.

As soon as the cards were revealed,

Chen Xiaoxue immediately cheered.

Li Dabiao also turned around and high-fived Chen Xiaoxue.

Both of their faces were filled with excitement.

The two cards were an Ace and a King.

This was the best hand in Dragon Gate.

If the next card was anything from a 2 to a Queen, they would win.

“All in!”

Li Dabiao shouted.

He pulled out forty-four thousand and threw it onto the card table.

I was ready to deal the next card.

My hand had just touched the deck, not yet moving,

When suddenly, Li Dabiao loudly said:

“Wait a minute!”

I looked up, puzzled.

“I don’t like the smell of your hands! Leave the cards there, I’ll draw myself!”

With that one sentence,

Old Hei and Chen Xiaoxue immediately tensed up.

Both of them knew,

If I were to deal, Li Dabiao would definitely lose.

Because whether I was dealing two cards, bottom dealing, or middle dealing,

I could give him the Ace and King.

But if he drew the card himself,

It would be different.

However, Li Dabiao’s request was reasonable.

No one could say anything.

I had no choice but to place the cards on the table.

“JQ, come to daddy!”

Li Dabiao muttered to himself.

He reached out and touched a card,

Slowly bringing it closer.

He used another card on the table to scoop up the drawn card into his hand,

Starting to reveal it bit by bit.

Just a glimpse,

And Li Dabiao’s face changed dramatically.Chen Xiaoxue cheered from the side:

“Hit, hit, hit!”

She pretended to be in a rush, shouting loudly.

“Damn it!”

Li Dabiao slammed his hand down with a “smack.”

Throwing the cards onto the table.

It was unclear whom he was cursing.

In any case, his eyes were nearly bursting with rage.

The card that had been flung onto the table

was a King.

In the game of Shooting the Dragon Gate, this was called hitting the pillar.

Not only did he lose,

but he also had to pay double.

Li Dabiao, unwilling to accept defeat, threw another forty-four thousand onto the card table.

The money on the table had already reached one hundred and thirty-two thousand.

Li Dabiao had brought money today, plus what he won the day before and just now, including Chen Xiaoxue’s twenty thousand.

In total, it was one hundred and seventy thousand.

He had invested over ninety thousand in this round alone.

There was about eighty thousand left on the table.

On my side,

Old Hei had mortgaged his car for one hundred and fifty thousand, and I had brought him another fifty thousand today.

That made it two hundred thousand in total.

Subtracting the losses and the money paid to Chen Xiaoxue for setting up the game,

I had just over one hundred and twenty thousand left.

In other words, no matter what cards were dealt next,

neither I nor Li Dabiao had enough to cover the bottom line.

Of course, this was exactly the effect I wanted.

“Reshuffle the cards!”

Li Dabiao said bitterly.

In Shooting the Dragon Gate, the deck can be reshuffled after half the cards have been played.

This is mainly to prevent someone from remembering which cards have been played

and to deduce the probability of the remaining cards.

But I knew

that Li Dabiao’s request to reshuffle

was definitely not for that reason.

It was because he had marked more than a dozen cards in this deck.

Although not many, it was still better than none.

What Li Dabiao didn’t know was

that I was still the dealer for this round.

As long as I shuffled,

he wouldn’t see the cards he had marked at all.

I didn’t need to destroy the marks he had made.

I just had to place them towards the back half of the deck, or deal them as face-up cards.

Then, the marks he made would be useless.

This round, I dealt myself two cards that were seamless next to each other.

I bet three thousand, without the right to deal cards.

It was Li Dabiao’s turn again.

His eyes were fixed intently on the cards in my hand,

as if trying to discern which one had been marked by him.