The King of Cheating

Chapter 6: Winning Without Gambling

It was Old Hei's turn. Despite his broad shoulders and bear-like physique, which made him look fierce and powerful, his playing style was careful and cautious. He rarely played blind.

This hand was no different. He glanced at his cards—just a scattered hand—so he folded without hesitation.

Only the three of us remained at the table.

Hou Jun kept betting without looking at his cards, and the player to my left and I both followed. After a few rounds, Hou Jun began to feel a bit uneasy. He pushed Old Hei back slightly and said, "Move back a bit, you're blocking my view of Chuliu..."

Old Hei leaned back in his chair, while Hou Jun continued staring at my cards, repeatedly looking them over. I knew he could only see the top card, but had no clue what the second card was. I deliberately revealed the corner of the second card while covering the suit marker with my finger. That way, Hou Jun could only see that I had a Jack but couldn't tell that it was a Jack of clubs.

A 10 and a Jack. Hou Jun assumed that at best, I had a straight. Feeling reassured, he continued playing blind.

After a few more rounds, the player to my left hesitated. He peeked at his cards, saw a pair of sevens, and hesitated before following with 20 yuan. A pair of sevens isn't a strong hand in Zha Jin Hua, but he figured since none of us had looked at our cards yet, there was a chance both Hou Jun and I had weak hands or small pairs, and his sevens could win.

Seeing him check his cards, I pretended to do the same. After all, in these small games, you can't play too aggressively. There was already 300 or 400 yuan on the table, and I could walk away with a decent sum.

After glancing at my cards, I hesitated on purpose before betting 20 yuan. Seeing my hesitation, Hou Jun became even more certain that my best hand was a 10, Jack, Queen straight, or maybe just a pair.

Feeling emboldened, Hou Jun bet 10 yuan and, with a dramatic flair, declared, "Fortune favors the bold, and cowards starve! Damn it, I'm playing this one blind all the way!"

The player with the pair of sevens saw that I was still in, and Hou Jun was playing blind too, so he decided to fold. Now, it was just me and Hou Jun. I'd bet 20 yuan, and he'd follow blind with 10.

After about a dozen more rounds, Hou Jun started to waver again. After all, he hadn't seen the suit of my Jack, nor my third card. He turned to look at Chen Xiaoxue and asked, "Honey, should we take a look at our cards?"

Without hesitation, Chen Xiaoxue shook her head. "No, play it blind till the end!"

Hearing this, I realized that Chen Xiaoxue also knew how to read cards. It seemed Hou Jun had brought her along specifically to help him in these situations. However, she was sitting behind him, blocked by Old Hei, so she couldn't see my cards clearly either.

After a few more rounds, Hou Jun suddenly paused. I thought he was contemplating whether to open my hand. But to my surprise, he leaned forward and quickly reached out, trying to flip my cards.

I slammed my hand down, staring at him angrily. "What are you doing touching my cards? Do you even know how to read them?"

I wanted to warn Hou Jun to behave himself, but instead, he snapped back at me, raising his chin. "You're full of crap. If I knew how to read cards, would I be losing this much? Fine, I'll challenge you blind!"

Challenging blind meant he wouldn't look at his cards or raise, just directly compare hands with me. As he said this, Hou Jun flipped his three cards over with a flourish. Everyone saw that he had a flush with a King of spades.

"Wow, Captain Hou hit a flush without even looking! Impressive!" someone exclaimed.

"Yeah, looks like Captain Hou's getting his money back in this round! Still the best!" two of his colleagues chimed in.

Hou Jun glared at me and said, "What are you waiting for? Show your cards!"

All eyes turned to me as I slowly revealed my hand, one card at a time. An Ace, a Jack, and a 10. All clubs.

"Whoa!" the crowd gasped. What everyone thought was a powerful hand from Hou Jun turned out to meet its match. He had a King flush, but I had an Ace flush.

"Captain, your luck's really down today. A King flush, and you still lose to an Ace flush..." someone muttered.

Hou Jun's face turned pale with anger. His fists clenched, and through gritted teeth, he cursed, "Damn it, what kind of luck is this? How the hell do I lose with a flush? I must have run into a ghost today..."

Still fuming, Hou Jun took out his frustration on Chen Xiaoxue. "This is all your fault! I wanted to open earlier, but you insisted on playing blind. Lost an extra 200 because of you!"

Chen Xiaoxue, clearly unhappy but too afraid to argue with Hou Jun, shot me a venomous look and muttered, "Holding the cards like they were offerings for his dead parents..."

I was gathering my winnings when I heard Chen Xiaoxue's insult. I turned to her and asked coldly, "What did you say?"

Chen Xiaoxue, who had never shown respect to us workers, raised her voice, "I said you're offering those cards like they were for your dead parents!"

When I was six years old, I watched my father die in front of me. Since then, I swore I would never allow anyone to insult my parents. Not unless I was dead.

I glared at Chen Xiaoxue, my eyes filled with fury. "Say that again."

Before she could reply, Hou Jun stood up, pointing angrily at me. "Say what? You wanna fight, huh? Let me tell you, kid, if you want to play, then play. If not, get lost! One more word, and I'll take you out!"

Hou Jun, always arrogant and disrespectful, especially toward us service workers, was used to acting like he was above everyone.

As soon as he finished speaking, Old Hei also frowned and snapped at me, "Can you play or not? If not, then leave. Stop wasting our time!"

I smirked to myself. Play? Of course, I could play! Today, I was going to give them exactly what they wanted.

I began shuffling the deck.

In the world of card tricks, shuffling is fundamental. There are many methods—false shuffles, jog shuffles, riffle shuffles, even perfect shuffles. The goal of all these techniques is to position the deck in a way that allows you to deal yourself the best cards.

And dealing tricks? Those come in all varieties too. With techniques like second dealing, the card you seem to be dealing from the top isn't really the top card, but one from below. Then there's bottom dealing, or center dealing, where you deal from the middle or bottom of the deck.

When I first learned to deal cards, I asked Liu Ye, "If I master these techniques, will I always win?"

He shook his head.

I asked, "Then how can I guarantee a win?"

Liu Ye told me, "There's only one way to always win."

"Don't gamble."

Winning without gambling—that was the lesson.

I understood the logic. But as a cardsharp, my life was bound to the gambling world.