The waitress led Wei Haihong and Zhou Xuan inside again. When they arrived at room 212, she opened the door and invited them in.
After Wei and Zhou went inside, the waitress gently closed the door and left. Inside the room were three men, two in their thirties and one in his fifties. They smiled at Wei Haihong and said, "Brother Hong, you're here?"
The three men stood up and invited Wei Haihong and Zhou Xuan to sit down. There was a deck of cards on the table, and the three men were probably playing cards. Each of them had some chips in front of them.
As soon as Wei Haihong and Zhou Xuan sat down, a middle-aged man in his thirties on their left handed them some chips.
The old man smiled and asked, "Brother Hong, is this young man the expert you mentioned?"
The old man was in his fifties, but he also called him "Brother Hong," so it seemed that he knew Wei Haihong's true identity.
Wei Haihong smiled and said, "You'll only know if it's good or not after you try it. Let me introduce you first. This is Zhou Xuan. He's my brother!" Then he introduced the three people to Zhou Xuan.
The middle-aged man in his thirties on the left is named Hua Jianxing, the man on the right is named Gu Yuan, and the man in his fifties opposite him is named Zeng Guoyu.
Wei Haihong only gave his name and didn't mention what they did, but Zhou Xuan noticed that both middle-aged men were wearing large, dark green jadeite rings. He used his icy aura to test them and immediately knew they were top-quality jadeite. The jadeite rings alone were worth over five million. From this, Zhou Xuan knew they were not ordinary people; they were at least wealthy.
Zhou Xuan is skilled at testing the authenticity of these jewelry and antiques. This is his strength.
Wei Haihong glanced at the cards on the table and laughed, "Old Zeng, which game are you playing?"
Zeng Guoyu smiled and replied, "You guys aren't here yet. We only played a few rounds of blackjack. Brother Hong, which one do you want to play?"
Wei Haihong glanced at Zhou Xuan and asked, "Brother, which one do you want to play?"
When it comes to gambling, Zhou Xuan doesn't care. As long as it's something he doesn't understand, he doesn't care about any kind of gambling, because he knows the cards others have up their sleeves. Big gambles are either cheating or relying on pure luck, but relying on pure luck requires mental fortitude, which he's not afraid of. He has the Ice Qi at his disposal. In a life-or-death gamble, he can even transform and devour others' cards, giving himself the upper hand.
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Volume 1, Chapter 273: The Three Dukes
He didn't care about any particular game. So Zhou Xuan smiled and casually replied, "We don't care what we play. We'll go along with whatever you want. You tell us which game you want to play!"
Hua Jianxing and Gu Yuan are both rich young masters; what haven't they done in their lives? Zeng Guoyu is a bit different. He used to be a member of the Green Gang and held a very high position. Later, he proposed a reform and transformation with several of the gang's leaders, shifting from fighting, collecting protection money, and guarding the premises to investing and doing real business, trying to guide the gang members onto the right path and make their identities legitimate. However, he eventually fell out with the gang's leaders and left the Green Gang in a fit of anger.
Unexpectedly, this turned out to be a good thing for him. A few years later, Hong Kong returned to China. Although it remained autonomous, the ownership of Hong Kong no longer belonged to the British. Hong Kong's pace basically followed that of the mainland, which greatly cracked down on gangs. Some far-sighted gang leaders who transformed early survived, while the rest suffered fatal blows.
The Green Gang never recovered from this setback. Zeng Guoyu's foresight was recognized by the gang. Although he was no longer in the gang, people in the industry still respected him. Many gangs that had successfully transformed themselves still offered him high salaries, but Zeng Guoyu refused them all, claiming that he had washed his hands of the gang and would never set foot in gang disputes again.
The incident stemmed from the fact that all three of them had recently lost a large sum of cash. Hua Jianxing and Gu Yuan were quite familiar with each other, but not so much with Zeng Guoyu. However, they often met in casinos and knew each other. In the underground gambling scene, a man in his thirties named Ma Shu appeared in Hong Kong's underground casinos. Whether he was lucky or skilled at gambling, he won money every time and was adept at everything he played. He seemed to get exactly what he was asked for. Hua Jianxing and Gu Yuan lost a lot of money at his hands.
Zeng Guoyu is a seasoned shrew in the underworld, and it's not easy to fool him. Hua Jianxing and Gu Yuan are also regulars at the casino. They are well-off and have a lot of money. They win and lose in the games, and they just want the thrill. Although they are not very skilled at gambling, they are definitely not stupid and will not be so foolish as to be manipulated and give money to others.
In previous games, although I lost more often than not, I also won sometimes, and by the end, the amount I lost wasn't particularly large. But this time was different. I lost from beginning to end, and when I got desperate from losing, I increased my bets, resulting in even greater losses.
Several people became suspicious, but no matter how carefully they looked and observed, they couldn't find any way for Ma Shu to cheat. As the saying goes, to catch a cheater, you need to catch them in the act; to catch a thief, you need to catch them red-handed. If you can't find any evidence that someone cheated, there's no use in being suspicious.
Wei Haihong was friends with these guys; they had met in Hong Kong before, especially families like Hua Jianxing and Gu Yuan. Their families were particularly eager to get to know and befriend high-ranking Beijing scions like Wei Haihong.
Wei Haihong casually called Gu Yuan for a chat, and Gu Yuan mentioned the matter. Wei Haihong immediately thought of Zhou Xuan, whom he had once taken to a gambling ship in international waters. On that occasion, Zhou Xuan had defeated the expert gamblers and won millions. The experience was still vivid in his mind. As soon as Gu Yuan mentioned it, Wei Haihong told him that he had a brother who was a gambling expert. Gu Yuan's interest was piqued, and he immediately asked Wei Haihong to bring his friend over. He promised that if Wei Haihong's friend really had such high gambling skills and could help them win back their losses, the three of them would pay the friend half of the reward, and they would also cover all travel expenses and gambling costs.
Wei Haihong's relationship with these guys wasn't particularly close, but it was acceptable. When he came to Hong Kong before, Gu Yuan and Zeng Guoyu had treated him quite well, so he could help them out without losing anything. All he had to do was take Zhou Xuan to Hong Kong for a quick look around and let him gamble a couple of times. If he won, great; if not, it didn't matter. They weren't here to risk their lives. Of course, these guys wouldn't dare to do anything to them either.
Wei Haihong had called the three of them before he arrived, and the three of them had already arranged a place at the leisure center, waiting for the two of them to arrive.
However, upon arrival and seeing Zhou Xuan, the three were clearly disappointed. How much ability could such a young man have?
Therefore, Zeng Guoyu spoke to Gu Yuan with a somewhat indifferent and nonchalant tone. He was simply giving Wei Haihong face and didn't want to show it directly on his face.
Zhou Xuan seemed indifferent, letting them decide what to play without requiring him to choose. Only Wei Haihong's confidence in Zhou Xuan remained unwavering. After experiencing so much, he had come to realize that Zhou Xuan's abilities seemed unparalleled. However, Wei Haihong didn't intend to say or explain anything further. No matter how much he said, it wouldn't be as convincing as having the three of them lose to Zhou Xuan on the spot.
Zhou Xuan smiled and didn't say anything more, just waiting for Hua Jianxing and the other two to tell him what kind of game they wanted to play.
Hua Jianxing glanced at Zhou Xuan, then at Gu Yuan and Zeng Guoyu. It was Zeng Guoyu who spoke up: "This must be Mr. Zhou. How about we play Three Kingdoms for now? Have you ever played Three Kingdoms before, Mr. Zhou?"
Zhou Xuan nodded and said, "I've never played it, but I know what it's like!"
Three cards in a set consists of three cards and their point values. Nine is the highest, and three face cards make up the set. King beats Queen, and Queen beats Jack. However, since the ranking is based on point value, in most local rules, three threes are considered the highest-ranking hand, even higher than three Kings.
“It’s good that Mr. Zhou understands!” Zeng Guoyu nodded, then added, “Mr. Zhou, you have one million chips in front of you. Take whatever you can win, starting with one million!”
Zeng Guoyu's meaning was that Zhou Xuan's initial stake of one million chips meant that whatever he won was his, but the initial one million wouldn't be considered. Essentially, he was saying that when betting against them, winning their money was a win, and losing didn't matter; he didn't have to pay anything himself.
Wei Haihong smiled but didn't say anything. This was just Hua Jianxing and the other two testing Zhou Xuan's gambling skills; it wasn't a real gamble, and he didn't need to join in.
After Zeng Guoyu finished speaking, he took the playing cards and shuffled them several times, then held them in his palm and asked Zhou Xuan to cut the cards.
Zhou Xuan casually cut about ten cards. Zeng Guoyu opened one half, and the bottom card was a five of clubs. According to the order, starting with himself, there were four people, and the five was just his turn. So he was dealt the first card. After three rounds, each person received three cards, for a total of twelve cards.
Zhou Xuanbing, feeling a surge of good fortune, first examined Zeng Guoyu's hand. Zeng had 30 to 43 cards, which totaled 7 points, not bad. Zhou Xuanbing's hand was 2, 3, and 5 points, which was worse than Zeng's.
Zhou Xuan was also unsure about the other two players, because this game only considered the banker and the player. Zhou Xuan, Hua Jianxing, and Gu Yuan were all players and had no conflict of interest with each other. He only had to compete with Zeng Guoyu, but he had five points, which was less than Zeng Guoyu's seven points.
Unlike other games, Three-Card Poker doesn't rely on skill; regardless of the amount you bet, the outcome depends on the hole cards. Therefore, it doesn't allow for bluffing or psychological manipulation like Flush or Stud Poker. It's purely based on luck, with little technical skill involved.
Many card players like to play this game because it's a popular game among ordinary people. The dealer usually bluffs, but this bluff isn't about playing mind games; it involves stealing cards, switching cards, or manipulating the hand. In the industry, this is called "cheating!"
After dealing the cards, Zeng Guoyu said to Zhou Xuan, "Mr. Zhou, please place your bets!"
Normally, when playing Three Kingdoms, you place your bets before the cards are dealt, not after they are dealt. However, this wasn't a formal game; they just wanted to test Zhou Xuan's gambling skills, so it didn't matter.
Zhou Xuan shook his head and said calmly, "I'm not playing this round!"
Hua Jianxing had six points and Gu Yuan had nine points, but according to the rules, they were not allowed to bet while looking at their cards, so they did not know how strong their hole cards were. They each placed a bet of 10,000, resulting in one winning and one losing.
After Zeng Guoyu dealt the second hand, Zhou Xuan also figured it out. Zeng Guoyu had eight points, while Zhou Xuan had three flower cards, JQQ, which is also called Three Kings, second only to King Three Kings and Three of a Kind.
Zeng Guoyu smiled and asked Zhou Xuan, "Mr. Zhou, shall we place a bet this time?"