NOVEL NEXT Ch 2.71: Luck
Things were going fine, Elaina was trying to assure herself. As fine as they could, really. Flora was almost completely out of chips, but one of Rain’s team was out entirely, taken out in a close gamble with Carly. Tira and and the boy next to the girl that had been knocked out were about half down as well, leaving just Rain, the man next to her, Carly, and Elaina herself with more chips than when they started.
It was painful though, seeing bad hand after bad hand come her way. Elaina was barely up from when she won that big hand from Rain right before the attempted deal, and she was starting to worry what would happen if she couldn’t repeat that again.
“All-in,” the boy with about half his coins left said.
Elaina glanced back down to the flop the dealer had just laid out. Queen of shields, ten of hearts, king of crystals. Elaina had called the blind with a respectable ace and two of swords, but there was no way of staying in after that flop.
Carly seemed of the same mind, folding immediately, and Elaina following after. Tira hesitated though, rolling her fingers over the back of her cards as she stared down at her pile of chips. Elaina did the quick math, realizing that Tira wouldn’t have to bet her entire pile to call, but that she’d be left with only one gold and two silver after.
“Call,” she eventually said, pulling those three coins off the top and shoving the rest in. Elaina could feel her heart racing, but she trusted Tira. The other group had gotten away with too many aggressive calls early in the hand to let them keep doing. There was a high chance the other woman was bluffing, and they were the only two left that had called the blind. If Tira had a decent hand to play, Elaina figured they would have a pretty good chance.
“Raise. One gold, two silver,” Rain said, shoving forward a giant stack of chips of her own.
Elaina felt her heart skip. Rain had been the big blind, but she hadn’t bet anything at the start of betting after the flop, and if she had anything good she would’ve bet at least something then, right? Elaina had considered her to be completely out of this hand. And it seemed Tira did too, she was mostly pensive, but Elaina could see her hand under the table, the long nails on her left hand digging into her skin as she balled her hand into a fist.
It didn’t even matter though. Poker faces did you no good when you were the last person with the option to make a bet anyway. She had to either cut her losses, almost surely a death sentence with the other stacks growing, or hope her hand was better.
“Call,” she said through gritted teeth, pushing her last chips forward.
“Showdown,” dealer said. “All players flip your hands.”
Elaina was a little confused by that, not having been briefed on this, but the other players seemed to understand, each revealing the two cards they’d bet with. Elaina had a moment of panic thinking how that would affect betting, before she realized that with two of three players all-in, there wouldn’t be more betting anyway.
That made the whole thing a little more sensible, she realized as she looked at the cards on the table. Tira had a queen and king of hearts, a perfectly reasonable hand to call the initial bet with, and a great hand considering the flop gave her two pairs and possible royal flush! Inexplicably though, the other girl who’d gone all-in had complete trash, the nine of hearts and a four of shields. Elaina was still staring at that sorry excuse of a hand when she heard Tira shout, “Fuck!”
Elaina looked over to see why, and her heart dropped when she did. Rain had revealed the tens of both swords and shields, giving her three of a kind, enough to beat two pairs. Which was absurd. Rain had checked once she saw the flop, with three of kind? That made absolutely no sense. Unless the other girl was in on it too.
It all clicked. Worse case scenario, a couple of chips would have floated to their struggling player in this scenario. Best case though, this happens. And that meant they’d somehow coordinated this, signaled the all-in player to make that bet even with trash, to bait Tira into thinking Rain had nothing with her check.
But it wasn’t over. The turn came, the jack of hearts. “Yes!” Tira said, abandoning all attempts to maintain her composure. That was it, still the possibility of a flush, a royal flush even. “Come on, I need you, ace!”
That confused Elaina a little bit. If the last card was an ace or a nine, the hand was still Tira’s, after all. But then Elaina saw it again out of the corner of her eye, the nine of hearts laying on the table, discarded from the other all-inners trash hand. That left only the ace of hearts as Tira’s out, but that was still a chance. If they were lucky, they’d have knocked out two of the opposing team, crippled another. Their victory was all but assured in that case. Just have to have a little bit of luck.
And then it hit her. Elaina’s heart began pounding, a painful beat as her breath increased. The dealer was still reaching for the river card, the last card they could potentially, but Elaina couldn’t even look at it, didn’t even need to look at it. The only card to save Tira was the ace of hearts, but Elaina knew it wouldn’t be coming; it was already in the hand she’d folded herself. She watched as Tira’s anticipation sunk away off her face, eyes going dead.
Luck had dictated: Tira was out, Flora nearly so, and Rain had just become the largest chip holder by a large margin.