Double Blind (9 page)

“What if they
are
in order?” Ethan asked. “What if it’s 2-3-4-5-6, all hearts?”

“That’s a straight flush, and it’s a very fine hand. The best hand of all is a royal flush, which is 10-jack-queen-king-ace, all the same suit.”

“So aces are high,” Ethan said, making a mental note.

Randy shook his head. “They can be low too. You can run ace-2-3-4-5 for a straight.”

“What about jokers?”

“No jokers in casinos, not in the cards, anyway. But in a home game, jokers are usually wild. That means they can be whatever you want them to be.” Randy shifted on his stool and held up his hand, ticking off his fingers one by one as he named the hands again. “Royal flush. Straight flush. Four-of-a-kind. Full house. Flush. Straight. Three-of-a-kind. Two pair. One pair. High card. That’s the hand ranking in order from high to low. That’s what you’re paying attention to, all the time. You’re looking for the highest-ranked cards in the highest-ranked hands.”

“What’s a full house?” Ethan asked, his head spinning. He would never remember all this.

“A full house is one pair and three-of-a-kind together in one hand. Three 4s and two 8s. Three kings and two jacks. Three aces and two queens. Another way to say it is ‘aces full of queens’. That means you have three aces with two queens. The three set full of the two set.”

“Okay,” Ethan said, trying to iron it out in his head. “Except that I’ve already forgotten half the orders of the hands.”

Randy waved the thought aside. “You’ll learn by playing. But do you get the concept? You’ll be dealt five cards. You want to form the best hand you can from what you’re given. Now in this game”—he tapped the monitor in front of Ethan, which was flashing INSERT COIN TO PLAY!—“you’re only playing against the hand you’re given, and you only get one discard.”

“Discard?”

“You get five cards, and then you get a chance to hold or redraw however many you want, up to five. In this game, unlike at a table game with live people, you’d need to get jacks or better. That means any single pair lower than a jack is garbage, so you ignore it. In a real game you could win with a pair of 2s, if you had the best hand or the best bluff or if nobody else had any other pair. But you can’t bluff in video poker, and nobody’s playing against you.” He leaned to the side, pulled out his wallet, and rolled off a twenty, which he fed into the machine. “Just bet one at a time to start,” he said, pushing a button. The screen immediately changed, and five cards came up. “Now.” Randy leaned back on his stool. “What do you have in this hand?”

Ethan blinked at the screen. He saw, beneath the leering face of a jester, digital images of a hand: 5
e
3
w
A
r
2
w
K
q
. He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“You have jack shit, is what. But don’t worry about that. Look at it again, Slick, and tell me what you
could
have. What hands do you
almost
have, or what could you have if you discarded some and drew again? What possibilities are here?”

Ethan studied the cards again. He still had no idea. “I have an ace,” he said cautiously. “That’s good, right?” Randy said nothing, so Ethan kept looking. “I have two clubs. Oh—and they’re in order.” He looked again, starting to see it. “I have a 2, a 3, and a 5. If I had a 4 and a 6, I’d have a straight.” He stopped. “Wait! No, I have the ace! I almost have a straight!”

Randy smiled. “Very good. What else?”

Ethan squinted. “I have an ace and a king. If I had a queen, a jack, and a 10, I’d have a straight.” He looked again. “I have two clubs, which meant if I had three more, I’d have a flush.” Randy seemed to be waiting, so he looked one more time. “Oh—either the ace or king could get me a pair that would pay.”

Randy nodded. “Good. Now, you’ve got to discard and redraw. What are you going to hold onto?”

Ethan tried to remember the hand rankings. “The ace, 2, 3, and 5? To try for a straight?”

“Well, see, this is the trouble. The odds of you getting one of the 4s is not high. Of course, neither are your odds of getting anything else. You’re probably going to lose this one.”

“Can I fold?” Ethan asked.

Randy shook his head. “Not with video poker.” He pointed at the screen. “The only other thing worth trying is to hold the king or ace alone and try for a pair, if you don’t go for the straight.” He looked straight at Ethan. “It’s about
odds
. If you go for the straight, you have one shot to draw one of the four 4s. But if you try for an ace or king pair, you have three shots of getting one of the remaining three.”

“So I should try for the pair?” Ethan asked.

“Ah.” Randy pointed to the side of the screen. “This is where we talk about payouts. Check the payout for a straight verses a pair.”

Ethan leaned forward and scanned the list of how many credits each hand made. His eyes went wide when he saw the straight. “Shit!”

“You can get your credit back for going for a pair, or you can get eight credits for going for a 4 to complete your straight. Which would you rather have, Slick?”

“I want a fucking straight,” Ethan said, and Randy laughed.

“Then you have the best of it with trying for a 4.” Randy pressed several buttons below the cards, which made the word HOLD appear over the ace, 2, 3, and 5. Then he sat back and nodded at the DRAW button. “Hit it, baby.”

Ethan held his breath and hit the button. The screen shifted, and where the king had been, he now had a 9 of clubs. His shoulders fell.

“Sometimes that’s the way it rolls.” Randy hit BET ONE again, then DRAW. “Try again.”

Ethan tried again and again. He got several pairs and a few three-of-a-kinds. He lost most of the hands, and after ten minutes of playing, he was down thirty credits overall. But he understood why Randy had sat him down here, because he was really starting to see the hands. He could see how they played out, and he knew what to hold and what to discard, He knew, too, what hands were the better choice for odds. Sometimes Randy would stop him and point out something he’d overlooked—twice he’d missed a near straight—and sometimes he’d coach Ethan through a debate on what to hold and why. After another half hour of playing, Ethan was really starting to get into it. Two aces came up, so he held them and then hit DRAW.

Another ace and two 5s came up, and the screen exploded into light and a merry tune blared out of the speakers. Ethan started and drew back, and Randy clapped and laughed.

“You did it, Slick!”

“What?” Ethan cried. “What did I do?”

Randy clapped him on the back. “Full house, baby. Ten credits.”

“I did?” Ethan looked at the screen again, at the five dancing jesters prancing their way back and forth across the screen. Then Ethan laughed, too, and he stood, pumping his hands over his head. “I
did it!
” He whooped, then turned to Randy, gripping the sides of his head and—

Ethan stopped halfway to Randy’s mouth, realizing what he’d been about to do.

Randy’s grin tipped up, but only slightly. “It’s only a quarter to ten, Slick. Better hold out.”

Ethan let him go, feeling embarrassed, but then he looked back at the screen and felt his chest puff out from the inside. “
God!
”

Randy smiled and reached over and pressed CASH OUT. “I think,” he said, “that you’re ready for Phase Two.”

“What’s Phase Two?” Ethan asked, taking the receipt from Randy. Forty dollars. He’d started with twenty, and now he had
forty
. He’d
made
money! By playing a game!

“In Phase Two I teach you the beauty that is the game of Texas Hold ’Em.” Randy clapped a hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “Unless, of course, you’d like to take your forty dollars over to the roulette table?”

“No,” Ethan replied, and Randy took his hand and led him off into another part of the casino.

Of all
the games available in the whole city of Las Vegas, the ones in the poker room at the Golden Nugget were Randy’s favorite.

The room wasn’t large, and it wasn’t small. It was cozy without being crowded, and it was elegant without being ostentatious. The tables were evenly spaced with ample room to maneuver around them, and while there were plenty of hanging lamps distributed over the tables, the room itself was low-lit, giving the place the same feel as Randy’s uncle’s living room where he’d learned the game. The room was done up in cream, yellow, muted orange, and brown, which when combined gave the place a golden glow appropriate to the casino’s moniker. Even the felt on the tables was brown. That part sometimes upset Randy, because felt should always be green, but other than this, in Randy’s opinion, the Golden Nugget Poker Room was perfect.

He wouldn’t admit to many that half his attraction was to the ambience, given how often he lectured people on the importance of the players in the game and the integrity of the host or casino, but the fact was, that element was here too. The people at the Nugget were usually good, but like anywhere else, they could be bad. But there was generally a reliable supply of live ones. A lot of tourists came to the Golden Nugget because they liked the ambience. And the dealers knew him there. He always tipped them well, so they were always happy to sit him down at tables he would be most likely to enjoy. They knew him well enough to know that for him the best table wasn’t necessarily the one where he was most likely to win.

One of his favorite floor hosts was working tonight, and she smiled when she saw Randy. When he slipped a twenty-five chip into her hand, she kissed him on the cheek.

“Hey, Mandy,” he said, touching her on the arm as he leaned in close. “Got any good tables for me, sweetheart?”

Mandy nodded at the back of the room. “Several. Number Six has a businessman from Atlanta going on tilt and two live ones, though I’ll warn you that Buddy’s over there already and might think you’re poaching. But Five has some good action, too, and it might be better, if you’re in one of your moods. Two little old ladies from Milwaukee. They know their poker, but they’re handicapped a bit because they’re used to playing home games for pennies and nickels. The rest of the players are pretty vanilla, and Steve is working prop there. I’ll have to pull him if you go over, but I could use him on Three, to be honest.” She glanced over Randy’s shoulder, noticing Ethan for the first time.

Ethan was oblivious to the both of them, too busy taking in the room and trying to bluff the fact that he was significantly intimidated. Randy saw Mandy take in Ethan’s handsome face and quiet, easy stance. Her eyebrows lifted, and she looked both appreciative and hopeful.

Randy stepped back and drew Ethan forward. “Slick, this is Mandy Carter, one of the prettiest, nicest floorpersons in Las Vegas.”

Ethan smiled and accepted her hand with a polite smile. “Ethan Ellison. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Pleasure’s all mine,” Mandy said, leaning into Ethan a little and turning up the wattage on her smile as he drew back again. “What brings you to Vegas, handsome?”

Randy caught the shutter that passed over Ethan’s face, but he also caught the quick recovery smile. “Just thought it was time I saw the place for myself.”

Randy was pretty sure that if Mandy could have reached Ethan’s sleeve she would have put her hand on his arm. “Let me know if you need someone to give you a tour.”

“I’m teaching Ethan how to play poker,” Randy said. “Thought I’d start him out with some nice low buy-in, no-limit Hold ’Em.”

“Table Five’s what you’re after, in that case.” Mandy winked at Ethan. “You’re learning from the best there is, honey. But if he roughs you up too much, you just holler, and I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”

“Thank you,” Ethan said politely. Then he glanced at the tables again before frowning at Randy. “Do you really think I’m ready?”

He wasn’t even close, but Randy wasn’t going to tell him that. He clapped Ethan on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Slick. I won’t let the little old ladies eat you.”

“Little old ladies?” Ethan repeated.

Randy passed Mandy another ten chip as he led Ethan past, but she grabbed his hand and held him there, her eyebrows lifting in inquiry before she jerked her head discreetly at Ethan, who had his back to them and was watching the tables again. Randy gave her a rueful smile, then reached over and placed a bold hand against a firm, fine globe of Ethan’s ass.

Ethan jumped, then glanced over his shoulder and gave Randy a quelling look.

But Mandy caught it and all the undertones the look carried, and she sighed. “Do me a favor Jansen,” she murmured. “Next time you come, skip the toke and bring me one who looks like that and plays for my team.”

Randy laughed and kissed her cheek before sliding his hand up from Ethan’s butt to his lower back, leading him gently with the touch toward the back of the room. He didn’t take them all the way to Five, though, but rather held him back and to the side. Here, Ethan could see the tables and players clearly, but they could still speak to each other without disrupting the game. Keeping his voice low, Randy did his best to explain Hold ’Em.

“There are a lot of different versions of poker. What you were playing on the computer was Five-Card Draw, which is probably what you’ve seen in westerns on TV. But the most fun are the community card games, like Seven-Card Stud and Omaha. This one, Texas Hold ’Em, is the most popular.”

He pointed to the dealer at the nearest table. “Everyone gets two cards of their own, dealt right away. These are your ‘hole cards’. You look at them and keep the information to yourself. You might decide to fold based on what you see there alone. Or you might look at them and know you’re going to go all the way unless you get the whiff of someone with nuts. That’s a hand you know statistically cannot be beat. If you get one of those, your biggest job is to keep the information off your face. But more on that later.” He nodded to the center of the table. “Those cards laid out there in front of the dealer are called the board. They’re public cards, five in total, dealt in three waves that you will hear people call ‘streets’. The first three are dealt at once, and they’re called the flop. The fourth card is called the turn. The final card is called the river.” He glanced back at Ethan. “You taking all this in, Slick, or do you want a rewind?”

Ethan was studying the table intensely, his pale eyes sharp and focused. He nodded once. “I have it. I think. Keep going.”

Randy nodded back, pleased. “So here’s how the play goes: You get dealt your two cards, and then there’s a round of betting before the flop.” He pointed again at the table, to the white chip with DEALER printed on it lying before one of the players. “In a home game you’d take turns dealing. In a casino or club, there’s an assigned dealer. But since the blinds have to rotate, they put that chip out—it’s called the button—so everyone knows who the ‘dealer’ for the round is. The first two players to the left of the button are the blinds. Hold ’Em doesn’t have antes where everyone tosses a little something into the pot. Instead, it’s a double-blind system. Everybody takes turns betting blind, and two people go at a time. The first blind is the small blind, which is for slightly less money than the big blind. Those two positions have to bet no matter what, and everyone takes their turn there. After that, the players move around back to the dealer, and they call, raise, or fold. To call, you place the minimum bet for that round, which is posted at the table. We’ll be playing at a five dollar table: five early, unlimited late. You raise, though, if you think your hand is pretty good and you want to drive up the betting. The bigger the pot, the more you get. But you have to be careful how and when you raise, or you’ll drive the live ones out.”

“Live ones?” Ethan whispered.

Randy hadn’t realized he’d used the lingo, that one was so ingrained. “Poker shorthand for ‘a player who probably doesn’t know what he’s doing and whom you can probably beat’. Or, if you want to be really crude, a patsy. But if you’re out to make money, live ones are critical in a poker game. Always treat live ones well, because they’re probably buying your dinner. Oh, and when you win, or when you leave a table, be sure to leave a toke for the dealer.” He smiled when Ethan looked at him blankly. “A ‘toke’ is a tip.”

“Then why didn’t you just say ‘tip’?” Ethan frowned at the table. “I’m a live one, aren’t I?”

Randy shook his head. “Not while I’m here with you. But you will be if we both sit down and play, because then I can’t help you without getting us both in a lot of trouble. People will be thinking we’re a team as it is.” He saw the question in Ethan’s face, but rode over it. “Back to the play. If you don’t call and you don’t raise, you fold. You fold if your hand is garbage—7-2 offsuit, for example—and depending on the game, anything offsuit and lower than a 10 is a good benchmark for throwing away to start. You also fold if it’s clear from the raises and re-raises before your turn to act that your hand isn’t strong enough to compete. The later your position after the button, the better off you are.

“Once play has gone all the way around and everyone has called and met raises or folded, the flop is put down. Now you bet again, only this time you’re looking at what is in your hand. You get to make a hand of five cards using any from your hand and anything on the board. Maybe you felt bold and even called with that 7-2 offsuit I told you to fold because the betting was low; maybe now the board shows you another 7 and another 2, and you’re sitting on two pair heading for a potential full house. Maybe you folded because betting was aggressive and now you sit there and kick yourself through the rest of the hand. Maybe you had Big Slick—that’s an ace and a king of any suit, connected or off—and nothing’s panning out, no straights, no pairs. You might have a strong hand with just five cards, and you might have had a strong hand turn to garbage. You don’t fold with Big Slick unless it’s clear someone is plowing their way toward something serious, but you see what I mean about the way the flop changes your hand. Right?”

Ethan nodded. He’d maybe absorbed a tenth of that, Randy guessed. But Ethan was also looking at Randy oddly. “Are you calling me Slick because of poker?”

The question took Randy off guard, and he laughed to cover his surprise. “Maybe I am.”

Ethan lifted an eyebrow. “Am I a king, or an ace?”

Randy took in the cool command yet complete lack of artifice in Ethan’s handsome face. “Ace, baby.” He added a wink, because his answer felt too bald, and then he turned back to the board. “So. You’ve bet on the deal and the flop, and now you get the turn. This usually doesn’t change much, though sometimes it makes you lucky. Same procedure—except on all the board bets you can check instead of call until someone else calls first. If you check, you don’t put in money; just knock the table, and play moves on. You can’t check after a call, though—you have to meet the call. So you check, call, raise, or fold through the turn, and then you get the river, the final card. If everyone stays in all the way to the end, you show your cards and whoever has the best hand wins. That’s Hold ’Em.”