Vegas Knights (21 page)

  Misha swept a hand past the cards in front of them. "These are the common cards you use to make the best five-card poker hand available. Once a card appears face-up, it's fixed. No one is allowed to change it."

  "How about before it's flipped?" I asked.

  "Then it's fair game," said Melody, "but you have to wrestle with everyone else here at the table to change it. There are easier targets on the table."

  "Like our hole cards," Bill said, pointing at the facedown cards before him.

  "Right," said Alejandro, "but it's not just your cards that you can try to change. Anyone's hole cards can be targets at any time, right up until they get turned face-up."

  "That's insane," I said. "Won't we all just see the common cards and come up with the best hole cards to make the best possible hand?"

  "You might think that," Gaviota said, "but it's not that simple. Nothing ever is."

  Misha splayed his hands on the table. "Can I finish teaching the rules here, fellas?"

  Everyone nodded or waved their assent for him to go on.

  "There's three catches to the game," the stout man said. "First, everyone else in the game is trying to change the cards too. That makes it hard for you to decide which cards you should work on. Do you try to change someone else's cards, or do you protect your own?"

  "If Bill and I are both trying to change Melody's cards, and she's trying to stop us, how do we know if we succeed?"

  "You don't," said Melody, "but I would, since I can look at my own cards."

  "Some of the best players can change several cards on the table at once," said Ryan. "This, of course, requires dividing your attention, which means that your chance of changing any single card goes down, even while your chance of meaningfully affecting the round goes up."

  "Just play the game," Peter said. "You'll figure it out fast enough."

  "Do you still have rounds of betting just like in regular poker?" Bill asked.

  "Yes," said Cindi. "That's the best time to try to change some cards too – when people are distracted by the betting."

  "But why would you bother changing any cards early on in the round?" I rubbed my forehead, trying to massage an understanding of the game into it. "Wouldn't you be better off just waiting for the end?"

  "Sure," said Christian, "you could wait for the showdown, but it's easier to defend cards from changing than it is to change them. If you manage to change a card early on – maybe while someone's not paying much attention to it – then you stand a better chance of keeping that card the way it is later on."

  I nodded, hoping I understood it as well as I would need to.

  "What are the other catches to the game?" I asked Misha. "You said there were three."

  He smiled. "Ties get thrown out."

  I cocked my head at him. "What's that mean?"

  "What happens if you have two hands that are equal to each other in a regular game?" Alejandro asked.

  "You split the pot," said Bill.

  "Right. Not in Mojo Poker. Instead, you throw those out, and the hand goes to the next best hand."

  "So if we had two royal flushes, they'd both get tossed, and the next highest hand would win?"

  "Exactly."

  "What happens if everyone left in the round gets knocked out?" I asked.

  "That's the best part," said Christian. "The money rides, even if the players bust out. It stays on the table and becomes part of the next pot."

  I chewed on my lower lip. "All right. What's the third catch?"

  "Any obvious cheats in your hole cards gets your hand tossed," said Misha.

  "How's that work?" I said. "Aren't we all cheating like crazy throughout the whole game?"

  "And that's just fine," said Cindi, "right up until you reveal your hole cards. If those are copies of each other – or if any of them is a copy of the common cards you're using in your hand – that counts as an obvious cheat, and that disqualifies your hand."

  I sat back and blew out a long breath as I stared at the table with my eyes open wide.

  "You fellas ready?" Misha asked.

  "The real problem here is that Bill and I don't have a thousand dollars each for the buy-in," I said. "We can't play."

  "I'll spot you your first stake," said Gaviota. "That's the tradition around here." He surveyed the people sitting around the table. "That's one reason these sharks are always sniffing around for fresh blood."

  "As an advance or as a loan?" Bill had on his "I just want to be sure about this" face.

  "As a gift to our guests," Gaviota said with a magnanimous smile.

  "More like a gift to the rest of us," said Peter. "Chances are you won't last long. The game is fantastic, but it moves fast – maybe too fast the first time you play."

  Bill and I looked at each other and nodded. "Deal us in," I said.

  Misha gave Bill and me each a stack of chips that totaled up to a thousand dollars. Then he went around the table and sold chips to the rest of the players one at a time.

  Then Misha gathered up the cards and shuffled them with a deft and practiced touch. I half expected him to show off with a few card-manipulation tricks while he worked them, but he was all business. As the dealer, he theoretically didn't have a stake in the game, but that didn't mean he might not help someone else cheat – someone like Gaviota. With the cards as mutable as they could be during a game like this, though, I wondered how much dealing off the bottom of the deck would help anyone anyhow.

  Misha dealt everyone two face-down cards. I peeled back the corners of my cards to see what I had in the hole. The Ace of Hearts and the Jack of Diamonds peered back at me.

  In a regular Hold 'Em game, these would be fine cards. In Mojo Poker, I had no idea how well they might do.

  Before the first round of betting, I decided to change the Jack to the Ace of Diamonds. The picture on the card faded, and the Ace symbol replaced it. I put the cards back down, satisfied.

  We had a gentlemanly first round of bets. Gaviota started out with the dealer's marker in front of him, although Misha actually handled the cards. Since Bill was next to him, he had the little ante, so he tossed a green twenty-five dollar chip into the middle of the table. As the second from the dealer, I had the big blind, so I pushed two of the green chips in my stack over to join Bill's lonely chip.

  Everyone called the big blind without a raise until it reached Ryan. He called the bet and raised it another fifty dollars. We all covered the raise, even Bill and me.

  The betting over, I peeked at my cards and saw that my Aces had turned into deuces, both of Clubs. I wasn't sure who was messing with me. It could have been everyone at the table. I hadn't been paying any attention to my cards, and I'd already paid the price for that.

  That sort of hostility so early in the round surprised me. We hadn't even seen the flop yet, so it was impossible for anyone to tell how my cards might fit with the common cards. Tinkering with my hole cards so early reeked of hostility or desperation – maybe both.

  I decided to take the offensive. I ignored my cards again, but this time I put everything I had into altering the flop. In one sense, this worked just like messing with the cards in the Bolthole the other night. I just had to focus on each card as Misha dealt them.

  They came up the Ace of Spades, Two of Hearts, and Two of Spades. I'd been going for three deuces, and I'd only gotten two. That meant that someone else – maybe several people – had been concentrating on the first card out instead and overruled my wishes.

  Bill folded. "I think I'll just watch," he said.

  "Check," I said, betting nothing.

  The others all checked until it came around to Peter. "Let's make it interesting," he said as he tossed a hundred-dollar black chip onto the table.

  A lot of people folded then. Gaviota, Ryan, and Cindi each called the bet, as did I.

  I glanced at my stack of chips. I'd already put two hundred dollars on the table, a fifth of my stake. That made me nervous, but I was determined to see the round through.

  That was probably my biggest mistake. I should have just folded like Paul and watched the game develop for a bit. Then I would have learned more about it before I got sucked too far in.

  On the turn, I concentrated hard, and Misha dealt another Two of Spades.

  "Is that cheating?" Bill asked.

  "Only if someone tried to use it along with the other Two of Spades," Alejandro said. "Essentially, it makes one of the cards useless."

  I did my best not to grin.

  I peeked at my hand. Still an identical pair of deuces. I bet two hundred dollars to start the next round of betting. Gaviota raised me the same amount. I called him, as did Cindi. Ryan folded.

  Misha pulled the river from the top of the deck and turned it over. I ignored it and concentrated changing one of my hole cards to the Two of Diamonds. That would give me four of a kind, which I didn't see anyone else beating.

  The river came up the Five of Spades, and I panicked. I realized that there was a hand that could beat mine. With the Ace, Two, and Five of Spades showing, someone holding the Three and Four of Spades as hole cards would have a straight flush.

  Of course, within the three hands still standing, there could be a tie. If Gaviota and Cindi had identical straight flushes, their hands would be tossed out, and I'd take the pot. If I changed to a straight flush, I risked sharing that fate.

  I scanned Gaviota's face and then Cindi's, searching for some kind of a hint, a physical tell that would let me know what they were planning. Cindi showed me a charming, close-mouthed smile that told me absolutely nothing. Gaviota didn't even look at me or show any kind of expression. He just kept his eyes on the common cards.

  The bet was up to me, so to start the round, I took the remainder of the chips in my stack and shoved them into the middle of the table. Hoping I sounded far more confident than I felt, I said, "All in."

 
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
 

The bet came around the table to Cindi first. She peeled back her cards to look at them and grimaced. This was the last round of betting, and I'd just shoved all my chips onto the table and dared her to call my bluff.

  At that moment, I wished I knew more about the other people at the table. I'd boxed Cindi into a corner. Was she the kind of person who refused to back down, even when the odds were against her? Or was she devious enough to lay a trap for me that I'd just charged right into? Might she be unwilling to fold to a rookie when playing in front of her friends and her boss?

  I couldn't tell. I didn't have that information. Of course, she knew damn little about me too. I worked to keep my face as impassive as I could. I'd already made my play here, and I didn't want to inadvertently show her anything on my face or in my actions that she could use against me.

  Cindi let her cards fall back down onto the dark felt and gave me one last appraisal. She reached out for her chips and shoved them into the center of the table with both hands. "Call."

  The players around the table murmured with concern, approval, and delight. Other people from around the room picked up on how quiet our table had become, and the serious atmosphere drew them closer to the moment's gravity well.

  All eyes turned to Gaviota. We already had four thousand dollars on the table. Was his hand good enough that he wanted to risk his last six hundred dollars for a shot at grabbing the pot? More importantly, was he willing to risk getting shut out of the game on the first hand?

  I suspected that losing a thousand dollars meant little to Gaviota. He probably kept that much money on him as pocket change. For him, the game was a matter of prestige. Would it be worse for him to let me knock him out in the first round or to fold in the face of my aggressive play? Which path made for the bigger personal risk for him? And what did he think I had for hole cards anyway?

  Gaviota sat back in his chair and arched an eyebrow at me, milking the moment. "Are you sure about this, kid?" he asked me.

  "The bet's already made," I said. "Your concern's a little late for me now."

  "True."

  He pursed his lips as he stared into my eyes. I willed myself not to blink and wondered how long I could hold out – or if he'd read my steely stance as a total bluff.

  While protecting my cards, I reached out with my mind and messed with one of Gaviota's cards too. I didn't know what he'd started with, of course, but I knew that if I changed one of the cards I could guarantee he'd lose. I focused on the one on top and visualized it as the Jack of Diamonds.

  "All right, kid." Gaviota pushed his chips into the center of the table with a casual wave of his hand. "Let's see what you got."

  According to standard Poker rules, since Gaviota had called my bet, I had to show my cards first. As I reached to flip them over, Misha intervened.

  "All hands gotta be shown at once," he said. "Turn them over on my count."

  This made sense. If I had exposed my hand first, there would be nothing but honor to keep the others from doing their best to change their cards around to beat me. When there's money on the table, it's best to never have to rely on the trustworthiness of others.

  "Three. Two. One."

  On the unspoken beat for "Zero," Gaviota, Cindi, and I flipped over our hole cards.

  I had my Two of Diamonds and Two of Clubs. Combining that with the cards on the table gave me a hard-to-beat four of a kind with the Ace of Spades as the kicker.

  Cindi had the exact same hand.

  "Dammit," she said. "Goddammit."

  I couldn't help but agree. I looked over at Gaviota's hand. My only hope then was that he somehow had the same hand as me. Having changed one of his hole cards, though, I knew that was impossible. I clung to the thought that maybe I had failed and not realized it – or that Gaviota had somehow changed the card to something else.