> In the battlefield of poker, there are no allies. Every man for himself.

Joey awoke to the blistering light of the ceiling lamps as he blocked his eyes with his hand. Remembering what happened, he first became angry, and then afraid. 'Amy's insane. If she wanted me dead, she wouldn't hesitate to poison me at any time...' Joey decided it was probably best to pretend nothing happened.

He looked up to find that the game was still going, but it was quite late now. Amy was standing by the snacks table. When Joey woke up, she was already watching him. She pressed a button on her watch and it beeped. Then she took out a pocket notebook and starting writing notes while occasionally glancing at Joey.

'Oh my god, she's using me to do human experiments!' Joey felt a chill in his spine. He walked over to the snacks counter to get some water, taking his time to find a bottle that hadn't been opened yet.

Amy looked at him in anticipation. "How are you feeling today? Have you experienced any strange sensations? Perhaps noticed the growth of a new arm somewhere?"

Joey gulped. "Great...what was in that...lovely drink you gave me?"

"Vitamin C. Good for your body and mind," Amy answered.

'VITAMIN C DOESN'T KNOCK YOU UNCONSCIOUS!' Joey roared internally. He didn't feel any healthier.

Angelo walked over at this time. "Hey kid, did you have a nice nap? Don't answer that. You're dealing next." Then he looked at Amy. "Why do you keep dosing all of my employees?" he asked her.

At this moment, Joey, Pedro, Anwar, and all 10 players at the table nearly broke their necks as they twisted their heads towards Amy, their eyes still pretending to look in other directions. Their ears twitched in anticipation of a reason, a purpose, anything...

"Fewer dealers awake means I deal more. I deal more means more tip money. More tip money means I can buy more white powder. More white powder means fewer dealers awake. I've been reading a book on business. It says this is how you form a virtuous cycle of profit."

'There's no book that says that!!!' Everyone thought but they didn't dare contradict her.

Joey gulped. "Would I pass a drug test now?" he questioned Amy.

"Pass? You'll pass with flying colors for sure. You'll get the highest score out of all the examinees," she answered.

...

'I'll never get a normal job now. She just sealed my fate as a gambling degenerate.' Joey waved goodbye to any respectable future.

Sometimes, life makes choices for us.

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After this little sideshow, the players went back to playing, and the dealers back to dealing. As the end of the night approached, Joey was getting ready to go home, when he received a call from Andrew.

"Joe, Pocket Rockets has a freeroll tournament tomorrow. You want to go?" Andrew offered.

"What's a freeroll?" Joey inquired. He had heard about tournaments at this point. He knew there were two main game formats in poker: cash games and tournaments.

Up till now he had only seen or played in cash games which consisted of buying in for however much you wanted and leaving whenever you liked. It could be considered an open, flexible format.

Tournaments are different. In tournaments, everyone pays an entry fee which is then combined to form a prize pool for the tournament winners. The tournament has a set start time and everyone starts with the same number of chips. It doesn't end until there's only one player left standing.

"A freeroll is a tournament with no entry fee. Some clubs host them to attract more players. The prize money isn't anything amazing, just 1000, but it's free and it's a nice change of pace to playing cash games all the time," Andrew answered.

Joey thought it sounded like a good chance to experience tournaments, so he agreed.

***

The next day, Joey walked from school to Pocket Rockets. Reaching the desolate industrial block again, he knew he'd arrived when he heard a random scream in the distance. '...This is not a prime real estate location.'

Andrew met him out front again and they went up the stairs to the club. Like last time, Charlie was there to greet them, seemingly wearing the same exact clothes from days ago. "Hey boys, you here for the freeroll?" Charlie asked. The two nodded. "It's a good turn out today. Not an easy lineup of opponents though, some good players and even the staff are going to play," Charlie said.

"The staff play in the freeroll also?" Joey questioned.

"Yea, it's free so anyone who doesn't have to work can play," Charlie answered.

"Is it not weird playing against your friends and coworkers?" Joey hadn't run into this situation before.

"Listen, kid. In poker, once you sit down at the table, you've gotta go all out. You can't hold back even against your own grandmother...On that note, I better not see that old swindler in here today..." Charlie raised his head as he scanned the crowd of players who arrived before him.

...

The club set aside a lot of tables for the tournament. They usually ran the freerolls early in the day as a type of promotion to get players into the room. The club knew that as players were knocked out of the tournament, they would go and join cash games. That way, the club would make back the freeroll prize money and more through the cash game rake.

Everyone participating in the tournament signed up on a list, then a staff member placed them in random seats across the tables. Another staff member went around handing out an equal number of chips to everyone--1000. The blinds started at 5-10 and would increase every 15 minutes.

With every blind increase, additional pressure would be added to the players to play more hands. Otherwise, they could lose the tournament just by being "Blinded out," which is when the blinds are so big that you gradually lose all your chips just from posting the blinds, even if you don't play a hand to the flop.

Joey looked at the bright red 5 dollar chips in front of him. The number of chips was modest, but everyone was on the same starting line. In this way, tournaments could be seen as a true test of skill; Under equal conditions, only the best could become the ultimate winner. Soon, the dealers took their places and the tournament was ready to start.

Joey looked around at the ten players at his table. These were his competitors and also the ones he needed to devour to grow his chip stack and go further in the tournament. At this moment, the tournament director started the clock for the 15 minute round. "Start!" he shouted. The cards whizzed from the dealers' hands. Joey felt a fire in his chest.

'Only one man left standing? I like the sound of that. Sorry. For me to live, you all need to die.'