NOVEL NEXT Ch 2.72: Turn
Rain burst out laughing as she started pulling coins over to her side. “Gods, that’s actually hilarious.” Elaina turned back to the woman, then the table, finally realizing which card had been flipped, yet another ten, giving Rain four of a kind. “I was worried you’d get a full house or something, but I definitely didn’t expect to win like that,” Rain said as she slumped back into her chair.
Full house? No, Rain was right. Elaina had been focused on the royal flush, but there were other ways Tira could’ve won the hand. That was scarier, that Elaina was still misreading the table after all her studying anyway. But that didn’t matter, there was only the future, and she needed to win. It was still three people on their side to two on the other side.
That didn’t last, of course. Flora had been in rough shape already, and she didn’t last her next set of blinds, forced into pots with bad hands. Carly had actually seemed to try and bail her out of one of them with a bad hand of her own, but the table cards ended up giving Carly that hand anyway, and Flora was out after the next round.
Which meant there was one thing to do. Rain was almost untouchable with her chip lead right now, but the man she was sitting next to actually had a little less betting power than either Carly or Elaina after the last few hands. If they could knock him out, they’d still be able to guarantee one spot in top two, one person moving on to the second round. At least that way I’ve matched her offer from before…
Soon the opportunity came to Elaina: a pair of tens, hearts and crystals. It was the same hand Rain had knocked Tira out with, just in opposing suits. And she was the big blind, no need to give away anything before betting.
Rain called, the man beside her called, Carly folded.
Carly folding was, realistically, the best thing for Elaina. They had about equal stacks of coin, so Elaina didn’t want to siphon from her right now. And Elaina was pretty sure that she’d win the hand anyway. Rain’s team had gone for too many hands statistically for them to have been in good positions the whole time, so Elaina wasn’t going to fold to pressure alone.
“Raise,” she said, sliding two gold forward. Both her opponents paused, looking back at their own cards, but both called again. That was a little scary, but also offered a greater potential reward. Elaina checked, not wanting to risk re-raising, but still fairly confident.
The flop came, and Elaina couldn’t have been more ecstatic. A two, a seven, a queen, of swords, crystals, and hearts. No straight chances in sight, no flush in sight. She was still beat by a pair of queens, but what were the odds of that? She really wished she knew the answer.
“Raise,” she said, pushing forward three more gold chips. She didn’t know the odds, but she knew she was doing okay, and maybe it was time for a little more bullying at the table.
The other two were hesitant, both staring down at their cards, both taking a little too long, both holding their hands a little too high up.
“Hey!” Tira shouted, standing up and pointing. “They’re showing each other their cards!”
Both players slammed their hands on the table as the dealer turned to them, shrugging.
“Oh,” Rain said. “Held my cards up a little too much maybe, but didn’t know he could see, and I wouldn’t expect him to cheat and try to look at mine intentionally.”
“Same,” the man said with an innocent smile.
The dealer nodded and then turned back to the table.
“Dealer, what the fuck?” Tira said.
“It may be strategically inadvisable to hold your hand in a way where other people can see, but doing so doesn’t give you an advantage. Cheating would only occur if a player intentionally tried to look at another’s hand while it’s in a standard holding position.”
“Yeah,” Rain said. “It was my mistake if he saw my cards. I’ll be sure to be more careful. Call, by the way,” she continued as she matched Elaina’s bet.
Gods was Elaina’s blood boiling. How long had they even been doing that? Every hand? With that type of information, Carly would know who would win every hand, Elaina was sure of it!
“Raise,” the man next to Rain said.
Elaina slunk into her chair. A pair of tens didn’t seem so strong anymore. What was she supposed to do? The pot total was amassing, and she couldn’t afford to lose if she went in. But could she even afford to back out now? Carly would know what to do, maybe she could try and show her cards and ask? No, too risky. Asking for outside advice would surely be cheating, and Elaina wasn’t sure Carly would even realize she could offer advice, or maybe that wouldn’t be allowed? Fuck!
Elaina pushed chips in again, raising three more gold. That actually caused another moment of hesitation from Rain, who did decide to fold. The man beside her called instantly though, and worry coursed through Elaina.
She had a pair of tens though, and the only thing beating her right now were queens. She let the dealer continue with the turn, and she could’ve almost screamed when she saw him flip over the ten of swords. Three of a kind, surely the best hand she could have with the table cards this way, right?
“One gold,” she said. Best hand possible or not, she’d learned her lesson about going all-in so quickly. She didn’t want to scare this guy; she wanted to squeeze him for everything he had.
“Raise,” he said, pushing forward three gold.
“Raise,” Elaina replied instantly, pushing five more forward.
He froze. He looked back at his cards, looked back at the folded cards from Rain. She actually went to touch them, had the gall to start lifting them up to remind him of what they were before the dealer’s hand fell on them. “Miss, you may not touch your cards again after you’ve folded. Consider this a warning.” Elaina let out a sigh of relief. There were some rules after all, it seemed.
But the man moved forward anyway, shoving his whole stack forward. “All-in.”
Gods, that was too much. He had so much information, and even if Elaina remembered everything she’d studied about the game this week she wouldn’t know how that affected her odds. If he had a pair of queens and saw that Rain had the fourth ten, that would lock Elaina out of winning, she was pretty sure. But what were the odds of that? Elaina still had more chips than him anyway, wouldn’t be out completely if she lost. Have to do it.
“Call,” she said, starting the laborious process of counting out the exact number of coins to push forward.
“Showdown,” the dealer said.
The man flipped his cards over the same time Elaina did, and she could have jumped for joy again. A pair of twos. Not impossible to lose to, but beyond unlikely. She saw that same look of terror that was on Tira’s face earlier spread across this man, and then saw him nearly cry as the dealer turned over the last card, a four. She’d won the hand, knocked out another. And the look on Rain’s face was almost better than the look on his.
Elaina barely had time to collect her thoughts as she pulled and organized her coins before the next cards came her way. She had more chips than anyone, was two people up against Rain, and as she peeked at her cards, she couldn’t help but smile, poker face or not.
Ace and queen of hearts. She could do it, in this one hand she could knock out Rain. She was riding the high of gambling, ready to go all-in again, and nothing was going to stop her now.