Chapter 201

Holding a card in hand—while slightly lifting only the edge from the deck on the table, if that act of holding is included—insidious glances exchanged among the players.

However, aside from the similar treatment of gazes, ironically, the methods for managing the stress of Hold’em Poker, which is strongly characterized by a thorough one-on-one mentality of ‘everyone else is an enemy,’ diverged sharply.

It still feels a bit awkward to divide it this way.

The girl team with Sasha and I, sipping on snacks and drinks beside us, released tension together, while Mr. Alfred and Mr. Sugar maintained their composure, brushing their facial hair as if to display a certain heavy charm. It’s a bit amusing to see what looks like a preference for mental stabilizers based on gender.

“Raise, 4 million.”

“Hmm… This guy has strange raising timing? I’ll call for now.”

“…I’ll accept that, and add another 1 million!”

The blue chips, which were being spent in increments of 100,000 during the previous few rounds, all rolled into my possession after that, leaving no lower bets either.

Still, should someone stubbornly begin to press on, it could rapidly escalate into a battle worth millions, and losing that would significantly cut into their capital. Naturally, those who want to play a long game adjusted their amounts accordingly.

“Check raise, 10 million! …If you’re scared, you can leave now.”

“Cough…!”

“Ah~ really. Look at this guy!”

With disapproving glares directed my way as if to say, “Are you seriously going this far?” …Well, what can you do?

If you can’t handle it, feel free to follow me to the showdown? If not… then don’t.

In reality, rising stakes indiscriminately doesn’t yield good results.

While the concept of pot odds—that is, the relationship between the pot and the cost incurred by the player—is utterly disregarded in my reckless raises, all players displayed a trace of confusion.

Was it a desperate bluff since they were angered by their losses? Or a strong enough hand to make such a bold move?

Regrettably, my first loss was shockingly impactful, and I’ve armored myself with a stubborn mentality of hitting my head against the wall rather than charging in with conviction for a long time.

In the initial round, I doubted my odds and clumsily kicked away my chance to win. So what would they think about my confident expression and wild betting?

In order to obscure my established strategy and prevent reading the situation, maintaining a poker face is certainly advantageous, which is why it has its own nomenclature. Yet, is it necessarily bad for emotions to show on one’s face? Seeing Mr. Alfred struggling like I did earlier seems to highlight some positive aspects of that too?

“…”

“Damn…!”

Without any particular words, as soon as Mr. Sugar saw my chips, he quickly folded, while Sasha seemed to sense something was off and threw her hand away a beat later. The dealer quietly swept four cards away, marking it as a dead hand, a fold.

On the contrary, the old man, who had already been giving me a hard time in earlier rounds, seemed to assume this time would be his emotional revenge from the first game as he boldly raised.

“Call!”

“Well then, I will open hands in order!!”

An employee in a hurry gestured for the black chips to be placed in the box, as if they were Go stones. They asked for the hands to be submitted because they would reveal them centrally.

Check-raising is the act of accepting the opponent’s betting amount and then adding chips.

As such, the bulging pot size and prize might distract even more, yet the old man kept his eyes fixed on me while revealing his cards for the showdown… it was plain to see he was worried that this could escalate into an emotional battle between guests.

But do you know the saying “once thrown, cards cannot be taken back”? It’s a long-standing proverb in card games that once a hand is thrown onto the table, it cannot be retracted!

“Hmph…♪”

I loosened my previously stiffened mouth and gave a slight smile.

What unnecessary worry the dealer had~ Who would get worked up just because they lost a card game? I don’t recall even suggesting to laugh it off after the odd antics initiated by someone sitting next to me.

Ah, Mr. Alfred? You can stare as intensely as you want, but I don’t know!

I’m not calculating precise probabilities or making cool-headed judgments; I play mostly based on animalistic instincts, so I couldn’t be too sure until after the showdown.

“Player Alfred, two pairs: Q and 8.”

He unveiled one Q from his hand and pushed forward the two 8s from the common cards and the remaining Q, highlighting the completed hand.

Of course, they likely checked for possible combinations with their cyberware, yet directly showing them was a formality.

…Seeing him maintain composure after viewing my hand, did I perhaps win? Oh, of course, I won! How could you even question that??

“…Player Anastasia has won with two pairs: K and 8. It was a close match.”

“Bullshit!?”

“Aha! Then, I’ll enjoy this~”

Why is this older gentleman making such a fuss, worrying about his health?

Anyhow, while I was dodging lightly clapping my hands, Zero swiftly organized the incoming chips, emphasizing once again that the ownership of the sparkling black chips had shifted over to me.

Whether I won with a narrow hand or with an overwhelmingly high hand, the total prize doesn’t change, so why does winning with a lower hand feel better? I suppose it’s because even if it’s a mindless result, it feels like I’ve overwhelmed them in a psychological duel, earning bonus points…

By the way, how much is all this? It seems that in sheer volume, I’m slowly catching up with the others.

– You currently hold a total of 86.42 million in chips; however, it appears that since you possess a large number of blue and red chips, your real assets are slightly lacking… However, if this momentum continues, you might just recover soon. –

“Is this not enough? That’s a shame…”

To pique my interest initially, all three of them generously accepted my bets, so despite winning significantly several times, it seems I fell short of hitting the hundreds of millions.

If I had won just a little more, I could’ve easily afforded a younger sibling for Zero or a spare body… What a pity.

Huh? If you ask how much I’ve won to make my wallet grow so quickly in such a short time, the answer is simple.

I can confidently say I’ve won “quite a lot.”

Oh, of course, this doesn’t mean I’ve won every single hand. The second round, when I had the fewest chips, was the toughest. I would dare say that I have been overwhelmingly victorious overall, yet the losses I experienced along the way remain painfully memorable.

After all, you can’t keep winning by only betting big when holding a strong hand and folding at your weakest—as straightforward as that sounds, in this community poker game with four sequential betting chances, if you play so blatantly, no one will engage with you, so I naturally learned to interact physically through the rounds.

Ultimately, I’ve relatively cheaply grasped that I need to provoke the opponent into charging in like just now.

I’ve adapted to this Haven Hold’em, where I have to face off against billionaires rather than simply clicking against a game AI.

Above all else, mastering the senses and flow I felt during the first game contributed significantly to my high win rate.

The intuition when the river card, which decides the final state for players, was revealed.

With that basis, the strange premonition tickling my chest as I was deciding my last action.

Despite respecting those two factors over the logic or probability, I’ve won most of the showdowns till now—need I further elaborate? My skills can be commended for building my 2 million into nearly 90 million. Hmph.

…Well, put another way, during those initial three betting stages, I was merely focused on flowing along; and when luck wasn’t on my side, I sometimes lost all the chips I’d thrown in!

“Tsk tsk… After relying solely on money power for a while, is your poker skill really getting rusty?”

“Ugh!! Shut up! To put it bluntly, even with my worst, I still own 60% of that lady’s chips, so why complain like it doesn’t concern you!”

“…Pft.”

Mr. Alfred, who seemed genuinely bothered about having lost by a narrow margin, still hadn’t calmed down, while I watched Sasha teasing him… My drink, having been consumed, led me to spit out my straw.

Indeed, it was Alfred who suffered a glorious defeat at the turning point, but if one examined the source of those chips, it appeared that Sasha, who was betting carelessly without major loyalties to winning or losing, had seen her chip count gradually decrease throughout the rounds.

To share the specifics of my earnings, maybe Sasha is at 60%, and Mr. Alfred at 40%? Mr. Sugar was quietly losing little by little but managed to recoup the losses at the opportune moments from the other two, maintaining a relatively stable standing.

Still, everyone still has more chips than me for now anyhow.

Is it really because these high-floor customers are prevalent, or has curiosity been piqued by the fact that the three people at this table have a particularly large number of chips? They all seemed to show little regret about losing money.

Isn’t it somewhat difficult to attain a state of being without desire even for monks? Do the affluent businesspeople holding a firm each carry a more relaxed attitude towards minor payments?

Or perhaps that “malicious hobby” they’d even suggested trying together has exceeded any desire for credit.

As proof, since it seemed like the four of us were beginning to tire of the Poker game, the old man abruptly stood up.

“Cough! I thought this girl was just bored with daily life really, but she’s a real lioness, huh? I’ll check if there are any more guests invited down below, so enjoy yourselves for a moment, you three!”

“…Yes, feel free.”

“If possible, bring back a cute boy, old man!”

The declaration of a new player—sacrifice—coming to join us was just a bonus.

I can’t prevented others from coming, so it couldn’t be helped, but I am a bit worried that I might inadvertently get lumped in as a malicious gambler too.