It was Old Black's turn. Despite his muscular build and fierce appearance, his style of playing cards was cautious—he almost never played blindly.

This round was no different. He glanced at his hand, saw it was a scattered hand, and immediately discarded his cards.

That left only the three of us at the table.

Hou Jun continued to play blindly, betting without looking at his cards. The player before me and I also continued to play blindly.

A few rounds later, Hou Jun seemed a bit uneasy.

He nudged Old Black back and said,

“Move back a little. You're blocking my view, and I can't see Chuliu anymore ”

Old Black leaned back in his chair.

Hou Jun then stared at my cards, looking carefully.

I knew that Hou Jun could only see the top card of my hand. He had no idea what the other cards were.

I purposely exposed a corner of the second card, pressing my finger over the suit’s symbol. This way, Hou Jun could see that I had a Jack, but not that it was a Jack of Clubs.

One 10, one Jack.

Hou Jun was convinced that my hand was at most a straight.

This put him at ease, and he continued to play blindly.

A few rounds later, my opponent, the player before me, seemed a bit hesitant. He glanced at his cards and saw he had a pair of sevens. After thinking for a moment, he decided to bet 20 yuan.

A pair of sevens wasn’t strong in Zha Jin Hua, but he figured that none of us had looked at our cards. If both Hou Jun and I were holding scattered cards or small pairs, his pair of sevens might win.

When he checked his cards, I pretended to take a look at mine as well. After all, this was a small round—I didn’t want to push too hard. There was already about three or four hundred yuan on the table, and I could stop while ahead.

I looked at my cards, then hesitated for a moment before betting 20 yuan.

Hou Jun noticed my hesitation and became even more certain.

He thought my best hand was probably a 10, Jack, Queen straight, or maybe even just a pair.

With that, Hou Jun became more confident. He bet 10 yuan and said loudly,

“Fortune favors the bold, starvation favors the timid. Damn it, I’m not even looking at my cards this round, I’m going all in with you guys!”

When he saw that I followed his bet and the other player wasn’t looking at his cards either, he thought for a moment and decided to fold.

That left only Hou Jun and me in the game. I bet 20 yuan, and he blindly matched it with a 10 yuan bet.

We played back and forth for several more rounds before Hou Jun began to hesitate again. After all, he hadn’t seen what suit my Jack was or what my third card was.

He glanced at Chen Xiaoxue and asked,

“Wife, should we take a look at our cards?”

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Without hesitation, Chen Xiaoxue shook her head and replied,

“Don’t look, let’s keep playing blindly until the end!”

I immediately understood—Chen Xiaoxue knew how to play cards too. It seemed that Hou Jun had brought her along because he realized his eyesight wasn’t enough, so he needed her help to figure out our hands.

Unfortunately, Chen Xiaoxue was sitting behind him, blocked by Old Black, so she couldn’t see my cards either.

After a few more rounds, Hou Jun suddenly stopped.

I thought he was hesitating about whether or not to reveal his cards, but to my surprise, he suddenly leaned forward and tried to swipe my three cards away.

I quickly pressed my hand down on the cards, glaring at him.

“What do you think you’re doing? You know how to read cards?”

I intended to warn Hou Jun to behave, but unexpectedly, he looked at me with a defiant neck and shouted,

“You’re talking nonsense! If I could read cards, would I be losing this much? Fine, I’ll just go all-in!”

By “going all-in,” he meant that he wasn’t looking at his cards anymore and wouldn’t use multipliers—he was simply going to compare hands with me.

With that, Hou Jun flipped over his three cards.

The crowd saw that he had a flush with a King of Spades and began to talk excitedly:

“Leader Hou is amazing, he went all-in with a flush, he’s got this in the bag!”

“Yeah, one hand and he’s got his money back, the leader is impressive!”

Two colleagues from the bathhouse were fawning over Hou Jun.

Meanwhile, Hou Jun stared at me and said,

“Why are you taking so long? Reveal your cards!”

All eyes were on me, and I slowly flipped over my three cards.

An Ace, Jack, and 10.

All Clubs.

“Wow!”

The crowd gasped.

They had thought Hou Jun’s flush would win, but it turned out he had met his match.

He had a King flush, while I had an Ace flush.

“Leader, you’re really unlucky today. A King flush against an Ace flush…”

Hou Jun’s face turned pale, and he clenched his fists, gritting his teeth in anger. He cursed,

“Damn it, what kind of luck is this? How can I lose with these cards? It’s like I’ve met a ghost on the way…”

After cursing for a while, Hou Jun was still not satisfied. He turned around and vented his frustration on Chen Xiaoxue.

“It’s all your fault! I told you we should’ve revealed our cards, but you insisted on playing blindly. I lost over 200 yuan because of you!”

Although Chen Xiaoxue was upset, she didn’t dare retort to Hou Jun. She glared at me fiercely and mumbled,

“You’re holding those cards so tightly, I thought you were burning paper for your parents…”

I was in the middle of collecting the money and shuffling the cards when I heard her insult me. I stared at her and asked,

“What did you say?”

Chen Xiaoxue had always looked down on people like me, the service staff. When she heard me ask her, her tone immediately became sharp.

“I said you’re burning paper for your parents!”

When I was six years old, I witnessed my father die a violent death right in front of me. From that moment, I swore I would never allow anyone to insult my parents.

Unless I die.

Looking at Chen Xiaoxue, my eyes burned with rage.

“Say that again?”

Chen Xiaoxue didn’t expect me, a mere service worker, to talk back to her in that tone. Before she could speak, Hou Jun suddenly stood up, pointing at me angrily and shouting,

“Say it again and see what happens? You wanna fight? Listen here, little brat, you can play if you want, but if you can’t, get lost! Keep talking, and don’t blame me for teaching you a lesson today!”

Hou Jun had always acted arrogantly in the bathhouse, looking down on everyone. He was so used to being obnoxious that he didn’t consider us service workers worth his time.

After Hou Jun finished speaking, Old Black frowned and, in an annoyed tone, said to me,

“Can you even play? If not, get lost. Don’t waste our time!”

I sneered inwardly.

Play?

Of course, I can play!

Today, I’m going to show you how it’s done!

I began to shuffle the cards.

In the world of card tricks, shuffling is the foundation.

There are many methods: false shuffling, jump shuffling, tilted shuffling, and perfect shuffling, to name a few.

No matter how it’s done, the goal is always the same—to get better cards when dealing.

The methods for dealing cards are just as varied. For example, “jump dealing” makes it seem like the first card on top is being dealt, but in reality, it hasn’t moved, and the second or third cards are dealt instead.

There’s also “bottom-dealing” and “middle-dealing,” both of which are tricks to deal from the bottom or middle of the deck instead of the top.

When I first started learning how to deal, I once asked Grandpa Liu,

“Does learning these tricks guarantee a win?”

Grandpa Liu shook his head.

I asked again,

“Then how can I guarantee a win?”

Grandpa Liu told me,

“There’s only one way to guarantee a win. Don’t gamble!”

"Not gambling is winning!"

I understood the logic, but I’m a cheater. My world is destined to be in the gambling tables.