Author Games: Ace of Spades

Task Three: Males

Adam Burke

The Burke family Christmas was always an affair. Jessa got back from college or work or whatever vacation she was on with her famous boyfriend (it made headlines when one of the Burke heirs started dating a male model; she was so much richer than he was), I returned from weeks of papers and work and pretending to care, only to jump into more pretending to care, and of course, there was the Winter Olympics, where the young men and women of the business world competed in tennis and skiing and frost-covered golf.

The one thing I actually enjoyed out of that, including winning at tennis, was Christmas Eve poker nights with Father, Barry, the Worth brothers, and whoever else we could scrounge for a good old game of betting and bluffing - dealer's choice. Father had always told me to pick Five Card Stud, but Barry liked Texas Hold 'Em. If the girls were there, we'd play Bullshit, but they were usually drinking wine and gossiping in the living room above the den.

I wouldn't be the best at that table, but I could bluff well and bet smartly, and I knew enough about probability to guess my chances, so it was with a smile that I sat and the dealing began.

I didn't know much about my teammates, but they all seemed mostly capable. I was worried about the redhead and her neighbor, who looked too gorgeous to be good at bluffing, but the blondes who sat on either side of me looked confident enough.

"Mr. Orange, you post the small blind."

He threw in a few chips, enough to be about twenty. The girl next to him glanced at the bet, then stacked up fifty.

"Ready? First deal."

Zahra quickly dealt two cards to everyone at the table. I glanced, and mine weren't bad - eight of spades and jack of clubs. Not bad, especially if I could find a nine, ten, and seven in the flop. The betting started around, started with an old woman who checked, then me.

I glanced around the table and let a slight grin grace my face before throwing in a ten. "Raise ten," I announced clearly.

The next girl called, and so it went, raising by tens or twenties every few people. By the end, we'd gotten up to one hundred-fifty, already. It wasn't much, but with the way blackjack went, I was certain there was more at stake than a few dollars.

Everyone was silent, their breath near-held as Zahra burned one card and flipped the flop cards- one, two, three. In sequence, she revealed an ace of clubs, the eight of hearts, and the ten of hearts.

Not bad, I thought, glancing at my hole cards. With the flop cards, I had a pair of eights and was on my way to a straight, if I could get a nine and a seven or a queen. Still, there was a lot riding on the last two cards.

Around the table, three people checked quietly. I rapped my knuckles on the table twice and let it pass me - this time, I'd try to save my money.

The first fold came not two turns after I'd checked - the brunette who sat after the young blonde next to me glanced around the table and dropped her cards, face-down. "I fold," she announced.

A grin spread across the man's face. "And with that, my team is winning, Zahra."

"Quiet," the woman snapped. "Folding comes with a price. Tell us something, darling. Val, correct?"

"Yeah. My name is Val, and I need money to pay off my debts."

"Everyone's got debt, darlin'."

I don't. My family had been so different from theirs - I'd been born with a silver spoon in my mouth and eight hundred more in the china cabinet. My father had never let me have enough control over the money that was meant to be mine for me to be in any sort of debt.