Yang Wei frowned but remained silent. After all, Yang Er was right beside her, and she couldn't appear too intimate with me. Besides, that kiss in the banquet hall earlier…
Before she could even finish her hesitation, Qiaoqiao had already rushed over and followed me to the gambling table.
Just then, a waiter quickly approached, brought a chair, and placed it beside me so that Qiaoqiao could sit down. At the same time, a man in a suit also came over, holding a small, miniature electronic device, and said in a low voice, "Excuse me, sir..."
I immediately understood that they were going to check to prevent anyone from carrying cheating devices.
I readily opened my arms. The person quickly scanned my body with the instrument, then bowed and said, "Thank you, sir. Please have a seat."
Then a waiter brought over a round plate with a warm, damp towel on it, and I wiped my hands.
Would you like something to drink?
I thought for a moment, and realized I'd already had quite a bit to drink tonight: "Please give me a cup of tea."
The white man opposite me didn't say anything, just glanced at me. Actually, he was losing too, just not as much as we were. The Japanese man, however, looked me over carefully, glancing at my hands. Suddenly, he laughed, "Oh, you've finally changed players… Sir, is he even better than Pete? And are you Chinese? Sigh, I've never heard of any Chinese gambling masters. Oh, by the way, how many chips do you have left?"
I glanced at the chips in front of me, and to be honest, they were pitifully few. I did a rough calculation, and at most, I had less than ten million.
It seems Yang Er's meaning is very clear: he will only allow me to lose this many chips at most. If I cannot win, he will simply be straightforward and admit defeat, preferring to pay out 100 million and let the other party leave.
"Don't worry, our chips will soon increase." Qiao Qiao replied quickly with a sweet smile.
The Japanese man's gaze fell on Qiao Qiao, and without any attempt to hide it, his eyes suddenly flashed with amazement. His gaze was undisguisedly aggressive, filled with naked covetousness and fervor. He even openly sighed in a low voice, "What a beautiful lady... Hmm, whether it's wine or women, China is indeed the best!"
Upon hearing this, my expression immediately changed, a chilling glint flashing in my eyes as I stared at him. He, however, seemed completely unfazed by my threatening gaze and laughed loudly, "Beautiful lady, sigh, why do I get to see two such beautiful ladies here tonight... Hmm, that Miss Yang has already ruthlessly rejected me... So what about you? How about we make another bet? If this gentleman loses later, may I invite you to lunch tomorrow?"
I was furious!
Damn, you dare to poach my employees just because I'm on your side? If there weren't so many people around, I would have already taken some men and killed you!
Qiaoqiao, however, showed no anger whatsoever. Instead, she smiled and asked, "Oh, can you add extra bets to your bet?"
The Japanese man smiled and said, "Of course not, but this is just a small personal suggestion of mine. If the gentleman next to you is not confident of winning, he is free to refuse me."
Just as I was about to speak, Qiaoqiao gently pressed my hand down from below, signaling me not to speak. She then smiled regretfully and deliberately sighed, "Alas, it's just a pity that I've never liked dealing with Japanese people."
“You don’t need to worry about that.” The Japanese man immediately smiled and said, “Actually, I’m not a pure Japanese. My maternal grandmother was Chinese, so I have one-quarter Chinese blood! My name is Ozawa Taro, but I really like beautiful ladies from China, so I gave myself a Chinese name. I used my maternal grandmother’s surname, ‘Wu,’ so my Chinese name is Wu Taro!”
"What a great name! It really is a great name!" Qiao Qiao clapped her hands and said with a charming smile, "But it's such a pity that although your name is very heroic, it's just 'a little bit' short of being perfect."
"Just a little bit short?" Ozawa Taro was taken aback.
“Yes, it’s just a little bit off. If we had changed that little bit, ‘Taro’ would have become ‘Daro,’ which would have sounded much better!” Qiao Qiao said with a regretful expression.
I tried my best to suppress my laughter and not lose my composure. I quickly picked up the teacup the waiter offered and used the act of drinking tea to hide my suppressed expression.
To everyone's surprise, Taketaro's eyes lit up, and with a look of utter infatuation, he stared at Qiao Qiao and exclaimed, "Great! Great idea!"
He abruptly turned around and loudly announced to the group of Japanese behind him, "Remember this: from today onwards, my name is Wu Dalang! Understand?"
"Hey! Mr. Wu!" A dozen or so Japanese people stood up and bowed in unison.
Pfft! I spat out a mouthful of tea.
Qiaoqiao was probably stunned too. She looked serious and gave a thumbs up: "Great! Great name!"
This young man, Wu Dalang, was a little smug from Qiaoqiao's praise, but he didn't forget our bet: "By the way, I just suggested, beautiful lady, what do you think? If I win, may I invite you to lunch tomorrow?"
"But what if you lose? What will you use as a wager?" Qiao Qiao asked with an innocent and charming smile.
“Well, if I can invite you to lunch, you might as well place your bet.” Wu Dalang looked very confident. I guessed that he dared to talk big because he was confident in himself and believed that he would never lose: “Or, if I lose, I am willing to add an extra ten million US dollars to the bet.”
"Sigh..." Qiao Qiao shook her head: "I don't care about money, but I thought of something else, but I don't know if you dare to agree." After saying that, Qiao Qiao blinked, deliberately putting on a charming and alluring expression, her eyes sparkling as she looked at the other person.
"Why wouldn't I agree to that!" Wu Dalang laughed loudly. "Beautiful lady, please speak."
“Hmm, okay… I want you…” Qiao Qiao’s eyes flashed, she gritted her teeth slightly, and then said with a wicked smile, “If you lose, I want you to take off your outer trousers and walk all the way out of the casino lobby!” Her eyes gleamed as she stared at Wu Dalang: “I just don’t know if you have the guts? Or rather, do you lack the confidence to win?”
Wu Dalang's face immediately darkened. He wasn't a fool; he had already realized that Qiao Qiao was toying with him. He glared at Qiao Qiao a few times. Qiao Qiao, however, continued to add fuel to the fire, laughing loudly, "Of course, my suggestion might be too much... because if you lose, someone of your status would really lose face."
Almost everyone in the room, except the Japanese, was watching Wu Dalang with suppressed laughter. The Japanese man's expression shifted between anger and uncertainty, then he suddenly shouted, "Fine! I'll take the bet!!"
His fair and delicate face held a hint of ferocity as he stared intently at me: "I refuse to believe that there is any Chinese person in this world who can beat me at the gambling table!!"
I remained silent because Qiaoqiao kept holding my hand down, preventing me from speaking. I sighed inwardly: it seems Qiaoqiao truly trusts me; does she really believe I'll win...?
But since that's the case, if I don't teach this Japanese guy a lesson, am I supposed to just watch him take Qiaoqiao out to dinner tomorrow? Damn it!
But just then, I seemed to hear Mr. Yang suddenly beckon to one of his men and order in a calm, unhurried voice, "Have someone turn on all the CCTV cameras along the route from here to the hall entrance. Remember to record them later, don't miss the show." He seemed to be giving the order on purpose, and he didn't lower his voice at all, which made the Japanese glare at him with anger.
Yang Er didn't care at all. Instead, he sighed and muttered to himself, "Sigh, I hope he's wearing underwear today... Otherwise, someone will be running around naked on the first day my casino opens, and it'll definitely be on the front page of the newspaper tomorrow."
Part Two: The Road to Success, Chapter Eighty-One: The Gamble
When it comes to gambling skills, they always seem mysterious to outsiders. Especially in movies, special effects, sound and light effects, and a little bit of deliberately mysterious filming techniques can easily give people a "mysterious" illusion about such things.
The real art of gambling, when you break it down, is actually quite simple.
There are no special effects like the flying poker cards in gambling movies, nor are there any extremely flashy shuffling techniques (even if there were, shuffling is the dealer's job).
Frankly speaking, I've gambled with people a few times before, whether it was playing cards with Li Wenjing and Minister Jin in China or other places. I won purely by relying on the incredible luck that the ring gave me. As for my card skills, they are really, really mediocre.
However, ever since Yang Wei gave me the eye of the storm ring, and as my relationship with Yang Wei has become increasingly close, I have become very interested in how Yang Wei's family prospered through the casino business. When I'm at home, I often chat with some brothers in the gambling circle who know a lot about gambling and ask them about these things.
The most traditional forms of organized crime controlled by gangsters are, of course, gambling, prostitution, and drugs. The "big circle" is a criminal organization, and naturally, it includes many peripheral members who make a living through gambling.
Especially before coming to Las Vegas this time, I specifically asked someone to give me a crash course on some basic gambling concepts.
In general, gambling skills can be divided into two types: real gambling and fake gambling.
The kind of card-switching with special abilities or using sophisticated techniques in movies... that's not gambling skill, that's cheating. True gambling masters are also proficient in cheating; it's essential knowledge to avoid being tricked in the gambling world. However, cheating is something true masters disdain.
The real art of gambling, in essence, is quite simple, consisting of only two things: First, an exceptional memory. Second, an exceptional ability to calculate probabilities!
In expert terms, it's called having "keen eyes" and "quick reflexes." If you can master these two qualities and combine them perfectly, you'll be an outstanding gambling master!
"Sharp eyes" naturally refers to excellent memory.
Skilled gamblers are adept at remembering cards! Before each round, the dealer shuffles the cards. In professional casinos, dealers follow a fixed routine and pattern for shuffling. First, they shuffle the cards, then let the gamblers examine them. This card-examination process is crucial! Everyone has seen in movies how casino dealers examine cards: with a casual sweep, they lay the deck out in a crescent shape on the table, neatly! Then they take one card, flip it over from the bottom, and repeat this process, showing everyone both sides of the deck…
This process is very short, less than ten seconds! But it also gives you a chance to glance at the entire deck of cards within those ten seconds!
A skilled gambler possesses a keen eye and an exceptional memory; in just a few glances, they can memorize most of the cards in a deck!
The most skilled players can memorize a deck of cards almost perfectly in such a short time!
In this way, when the cards are dealt, all the cards are in his mind, and he knows exactly what cards the opponent will receive!
However, only those at the level of gambling gods or kings can do that. In movies, any expert can memorize a whole deck of cards at a glance, without missing a single one—that's fake. In reality, most experts can only dominate the gambling world if they can remember 70-80% of a deck of cards.
Imagine, in just a few seconds, you can quickly glance at a shuffled, messy deck of cards and memorize most of it—what an incredible memory that is!
Of course, being able to "sharp-eyed" only means having half the skill of a gambling master.
The other half depends on being quick-witted!
Almost all gambling masters are incredibly fast at mental calculations! These people are either born with it or trained to do so. In short, they are extremely sensitive to numbers. They can quickly calculate the probability of winning each round by arranging the cards they have and the cards their opponents have, based on the order in which all the cards have been dealt.
The so-called "quick mind" means quickly calculating probabilities! A deck of cards has over fifty cards, and no matter how many variations there are, it's just different combinations of these cards. In this situation, a master can calculate all the cards that he and his opponent might receive, the probability of each combination, the probability of a high or low hand, and the probability of winning or losing!
And the key to being particular is one word: speed!
If a person can master both of these points, and at the same time be proficient in the rules of the game, then he can be considered a gambling master.
Of course, there are deeper techniques, such as performance skills. When you have a weak hand, you might feign an indomitable spirit – that's called "bluffing"... These are matters of inner psychological fortitude. Then there's the observation of your opponents. Their eyes, expressions, even the slightest body language – to a skilled gambler, these can all be used to gauge their confidence and the true strength of their hand...
Many skilled gamblers are also masters of psychological warfare. Of course, within gambling, there are different schools of thought; some emphasize technique, some focus on psychologically attacking their opponents, and some excel at acting to deceive them…
At this moment, the Mr. Wu Dalang I am facing is clearly a player who relies on technical skill.
I must say, his keen eye and quick thinking really surprised me!
In the first round, we were all testing the waters. But after the dealer shuffled the cards and let us examine them, I noticed that both the white man opposite us and Mr. Wu Dalang had suppressed their extraneous expressions and were intently scanning the cards. At that moment, they were undoubtedly very serious.
As for me, I seem much more of an amateur... To be honest, I don't have that ability to memorize the cards just by glancing at them.
However, my actions reassured the other party considerably. Although they didn't say anything, their faces involuntarily revealed expressions like, "This guy is an amateur."
In the following hands, the opponents clearly took the initiative because they had both memorized all their cards. They were also carefully calculating the probabilities of calling or not calling.
Even if you remember the order of all the cards, you still need to find a way to get the highest card into your hand.
what to do?
Simply put, it's about using the rules of the game to get the cards you want into your hand!
To put it simply: For example, you know from card counting that the next card to be dealt is the highest card, the Ace, and you really want that Ace. However, according to the order, the first card dealt is to your partner. In other words, according to the rules, that Ace will be dealt to your partner.
In this situation, what do you do if you want that Ace?
Stealing cards? What a joke, that's cheating! In a real international casino, the chances of cheating are extremely slim; almost every loophole that anyone could think of has been exploited! The possibility of cheating is negligible.
Then the only option is to use your skills to disrupt the order of the cards being dealt! In other words, to make good use of the rules.
Even though that Ace should have been dealt to your partner, you can deliberately raise the bet, show your confidence to intimidate and undermine your opponent! In this situation, you deliberately appear very strong, which will make your opponent think that you have a very good hand... while if their hand is not very good, they may fold, give up, or not call.
If the opponent doesn't call, then the next card, which is the Ace that originally belonged to the opponent, will be dealt to you.
This is just the simplest and most basic of countless techniques.
In short, a master gambler is someone who remembers the cards, calculates the probabilities, and then makes full use of the rules!
This Wu Dalang is clearly a master!
In the first round, I didn't keep track of the cards, but he didn't underestimate me at all. Instead, he carefully observed whether I would call or not... because there were three people in the game, and whether I called or not would affect the order in which the cards were dealt!
Out of curiosity, when I received my third card, I felt my chances of winning were slim, so I folded and said I wouldn't call. Although I lost 100,000 by folding, I didn't care. Instead, I carefully observed the duel between the Japanese man and the white man.
After I withdrew, both of them immediately calculated the order of the cards to be dealt. In the final round, the Japanese player won 1.5 million.
After that, I gave up halfway through five consecutive hands. I would always wait until the third card and then say "I'm not calling".
This happened several times in a row, which annoyed the Japanese man. He glanced at me and said, "Besides refusing to cooperate, can't you say anything else?"
I smiled and didn't argue with him.
By the seventh inning, the white man was getting restless.
In the earlier rounds, he was able to hold his own against the Japanese player because he remembered the earlier cards very well. But later on…
This clearly shows who's better!
Clearly, the Japanese had the advantage in card counting! Because from the seventh round onwards, the white player couldn't remember the cards that followed... In terms of memory, the Japanese won!