The moment the topic of playing cards came up, everyone got excited, even though it was the early hours of the morning... they couldn't sleep at all. This was their usual practice. The first thing they did after returning to shore was to gamble, because they would receive money every time they returned to shore. With the money, they could gamble or visit prostitutes if they wanted.
A large carpet was laid out in the cabin. Several people took off their shoes and sat in the middle. Uncle Yu was in the cockpit steering the boat, while Lao Jiang, Guan Lin, the three Fu brothers, and the other three sat on the carpet.
Fu Bao glanced to the side and saw Zhou Xuan putting things away. He immediately waved and called out, "Hu Yun, stop doing all that. We're not women, why are you making such a fuss? Come on over, come on over, let's play cards. The more the merrier."
Zhou Xuan shook his head and said, "You guys play, I don't have any money, so I'm not playing."
Old Jiang glanced at Zhou Xuan, thought for a moment, and said, "Once we get on the boat, we're all tied together by a rope. It's no fun if we don't play, and the games aren't very big. It's just a way to kill time. Come on, you can play whether you have a lot of money or a little. If you really don't have any money, I can lend you five hundred. Anyway, we'll give you the money when we get back."
Old Jiang was naturally not worried about not getting the money back from Zhou Xuan, because he was in charge of calculating everyone's salary and wages, then Uncle Yu would review it, and finally hand it over to Zhao Chengguang to distribute the money. If Zhou Xuan had borrowed the money, he naturally wouldn't be able to escape it.
To be honest, Zhou Xuan didn't want to gamble or play cards. As long as it involves gambling, no matter how well it is said to be just for entertainment, how can one be happy once they lose money?
However, Lao Jiang also said that if he didn't hang out with them on the ship, the relationship would naturally not be good. Zhou Xuan thought about it and took out the money he had on him. He counted it and found that he had 170 yuan left. Zhao Chengguang gave him 40 yuan for the handling fee, so he had 210 yuan left in total.
He smiled and said, "I still have 210 left. If I lose it all, that's fine. I don't know how to play. You guys said it's no fun if you don't play, so I'll count you in."
Zhou Xuan didn't ask what kind of cards they were playing or what the gambling rules were. He went straight to sit down next to Fu Bao because there was plenty of space next to Fu Bao.
Seeing that Zhou Xuan was very casual and said he didn't know how to play, Lao Jiang and the others persuaded him to sit down immediately. His personality suited them. Men should know a few of these things, like eating, drinking, gambling, and whoring. If you don't do any of them, you won't be liked. People won't call you a good person or a good role model just because you don't know how to do these things. If Fu Bao and the others saw that kind of person, they would call him a hypocrite.
Old Jiang held a new deck of cards, picked out a pair of jokers, and said, "Let's play Texas Hold'em. It's the most common and the most fun, right? It's lively with lots of people."
When Lao Jiang dealt the cards, everyone took out cash and placed it in front of them. Zhou Xuan explained that he only had 210 yuan, and he would settle the matter after losing. The others didn't take out much either. It was estimated that Yu Qiang and Guan Lin had the most, with about ten hundred-yuan bills, totaling at least 1,000 yuan. Fu Bao, Fu Gui, and Fu Shan only had five or six hundred yuan. Lao Jiang probably had around 1,000 yuan, and Zhou Xuan had the least.
Seeing that Zhou Xuan didn't ask to borrow money, Lao Jiang didn't say anything. He thought to himself that he could borrow money after he lost it all. Two hundred yuan was enough to gamble with Guan Linyu and other ruthless gamblers. He figured it wouldn't take more than a few rounds to lose it all.
When playing on the boat, I lose to these two guys nine times out of ten. They must be rich, bold, and smart. They're good at Texas Hold'em. The three Fu brothers are the biggest losers. At least half of their monthly salary of five thousand yuan ends up in Guan Linyuqiang's hands. Old Jiang is a more stable player. Although he also loses more than he wins, he doesn't lose much. At most, he loses two or three hundred yuan. He plays too steadily. Even if he gets a big hand like three of a kind, as long as it's not the supreme three of a kind, he'll reveal his hand if he loses two or three hundred yuan. So even if he loses, he never loses much money. But naturally, he also doesn't win much money.
Guan Lin glanced at Zhou Xuan and immediately said, "We have a new guy, Xiao Hu, today. He's a newcomer, so let's go over the rules first. Same as before, three Aces are the highest, two, three, and five are the lowest. Two, three, and five of different suits can beat three Aces. The pot is two yuan, capped at two hundred. Doubling is based on the cards you play. Understand?"
To put it simply, the person looking at him was Zhou Xuan. Zhou Xuan, of course, understood that the rules were actually being explained to him alone. He nodded, knowing that he understood the rules as soon as they were explained.
Old Jiang dealt the cards, starting with Fushan, then Yuqiang, Guanlin, then Zhou Xuan, Fubao, Fugui, and finally Old Jiang himself last.
The first person was bound to place a hidden bet. All seven people put in two yuan for the bottom of the pot. Fushan put in two more yuan as a hidden bet. Yuqiang and Guanlin threw in two yuan without thinking and followed suit.
Zhou Xuan thought for a moment and then took a look at his cards. Although his superpower had detected that he had a pair of Kings, he still didn't want to do it that way from the beginning. Moreover, playing cards with these people on the ship was different from playing with those big gamblers. He didn't want to win their money and ruin his relationship for a few hundred or a thousand dollars.
Zhou Xuan picked up his cards, looked at them, then covered them up and asked, "If I call, how many dollars should I bet?"
Several people stared at him, and Guan Lin said, "Let's go for five yuan. Everyone rides the same horse, everyone gets the same price."
Zhou Xuan nodded, then took a five-yuan note from the money in front of him and put it in.
Zhou Xuan was followed by Fu Bao, who picked up his card, looked at it, and then threw it away. Then Fu Gui and Lao Jiang also threw away their cards.
When it was the turn of the first person, Fushan, to speak, he took out a deck of cards, looked at them, hesitated for a moment, and then put in a five-dollar coin.
Yu Qiang smiled, and without thinking, he put down a ten-yuan note, saying, "Let me check whose cards are genuine. I'm betting ten yuan."
If Yu Qiang's blind bet is ten yuan, then the next person to follow would have to pay twenty yuan. With Zhou Xuan's capital, he couldn't follow that many times. However, Zhou Xuan used his special ability to detect that Fu Shan was indeed bluffing. He only had a loose hand of AK ten. But seeing that Yu Qiang and Guan Lin had blind bets, and that only Zhou Xuan, a newbie, was following up with his hand, and that he didn't have much money, Zhou Xuan would probably scare him away if he suddenly bet a lot of money. What could two hundred yuan possibly do?
Yu Qiang had a pair of tens in his hole cards, while Guan Lin had a terrible hand. However, after Yu Qiang blindly bet ten yuan, Guan Lin followed suit without hesitation.
Zhou Xuan knew that his bottom line was the highest, so he naturally bet another twenty yuan. Fu Shan muttered a couple of incomprehensible curses and then threw down his cards.
Yu Qiang smiled slightly, glanced at Zhou Xuan's cards, then placed twenty yuan down and said with a smile, "Let me review it again, twenty yuan blind bet."
According to the rule Guan Lin just mentioned about the hidden two and five, if Yu Qiang secretly bets twenty, Zhou Xuan has to follow with fifty.
Guan Lin stared at his bottom card for a moment, then picked it up to take a look, and then threw it away, expressionless.
Zhou Xuan lost again. At this point, Zhou Xuan only had less than 180 yuan left. If he played again, it would be 50 yuan. If he wanted to see Guan Lin's hole cards, he would have to spend 100 yuan. Although his pair of Kings in his hole cards would definitely beat Guan Lin's pair of Tens, if he didn't see Guan Lin's hole cards and Guan Lin raised the price again, Zhou Xuan wouldn't even have enough money to see his hole cards.
Zhou Xuan thought for a moment, then put down a hundred-yuan bill and said, "I'm out of money. Let me see your hand; I have a pair of Kings."
Zhou Xuan had no choice but to look, because if Guan Lin raised the price again, as long as it didn't exceed the cap of two hundred, it wouldn't be against the rules. That had been agreed upon before, and it wouldn't be considered deliberately trying to pressure Zhou Xuan with money. So, to prevent himself from running out of money, Zhou Xuan decided to see his trump card himself.
Guan Lin turned over his hole cards and saw a pair of tens. He chuckled and said, "Little Hu is really lucky. He won money on the first hand. Looks like I'm not doing so well today. I managed to get a pair with a blind bet on the first hand, but I'm still going to lose money. This is a bad omen."
Seeing that Guan Lin's smile was forced and his aura remained unchanged, Zhou Xuan figured that this guy was very calm and that his words were just a smokescreen. He shouldn't take them seriously; if you believed them, you'd be in for a world of hurt.
Zhou Xuan won over fifty yuan in this round, including the pot base, which wasn't a huge amount, but the total cash amount rose to around two hundred and seventy yuan.
According to the rules, the winner deals the cards, so Zhou Xuan has to shuffle and deal the cards.
Zhou Xuan's shuffling technique was truly clumsy. This wasn't an act; it was the truth. He wasn't good at it to begin with and relied solely on his special ability. The people around him could all see that Zhou Xuan's win this round was just luck, unrelated to gambling skills. In the end, he was still the one who got fleeced.
After Zhou Xuan shuffled the cards, he began dealing. His next player was Fu Gui, followed by Lao Jiang, Fu Shan, Yu Qiang, Guan Lin, and Fu Bao. However, while dealing the cards, Zhou Xuan noticed that Yu Qiang and Guan Lin were staring intently at the back of the playing cards. With a thought, he sped up the dealing, and then stacked the cards on the back of the previous card for each player. He quickly dealt all three cards.
After dealing the cards, he used his supernatural ability to observe Yu Qiang and Guan Lin. Although he didn't look at them with his eyes, he could see their movements more clearly than if he had eyes.
Zhou Xuan's supernatural ability followed Yu Qiang and Guan Lin's gaze, focusing on a specific point on the back of a playing card. He noticed they were both looking at that same point on the face of the card, so he immediately paid closer attention and discovered the problem. He then compared the point on the back of the other cards with the point on the face of this card, and suddenly realized the truth.
It turns out this is a set of cards. The dot on the back is the corresponding mark on the face of the card. Each card has a different mark, but they are mixed together in the suit on the back, making them very difficult to spot.
Zhou Xuan quickly probed the cards held by the others again, and this time he found that they had a few good hands.
Lao Jiang had a straight seven, Guan Lin had a flush of two, six and seven of diamonds, also known as a flush, Yu Qiang had a pair of Aces, Zhou Xuan had a bad hand, and the others also had a bad hand.
The first player was Fu Gui, Zhou Xuan's next player. He must have a concealed two-dollar bet. Then Lao Jiang looked at his cards. When he saw that the bottom card was a straight seven-of-a-kind, he clearly showed a regretful expression on his face. He sighed and then put in five dollars. The concealed bet of two dollars was five dollars.
Then it was Fushan's turn. Old Jiang had already called after seeing the cards, so Fushan naturally wouldn't bet blindly anymore. He immediately took out his cards to look at them, got annoyed, and then threw them away.
Guan Lin continued to place his bets discreetly, but this time he raised the stakes to 20 yuan. He would bet 2 and 5 with his concealed bets. This guy was good at calculating. If he had bet 10 yuan, he would only have to bet 20 with his revealed cards. But if he bet 20 yuan, he would have to bet 50 with his revealed cards. It was a good deal.
Yu Qiang, who was behind Guan Lin, glanced at Guan Lin, then picked up the bottom card, sighed, and said, "What a terrible hand." He then shoved the bottom card into the middle of the discarded cards.