If the seven people went to the gambling table and relied on their own abilities, the final result would be unpredictable.
Those with good gambling skills and good luck might very well take it all.
And Jiang He and her two companions had neither gambling experience nor any particular confidence in their luck, which would obviously put them at a severe disadvantage in this situation.
Jiang He's plan ensured that everyone could take turns winning the base bets, so no one would suffer major losses, making everyone happy.
Of course, this plan also had risks.
If someone changed their mind at the gambling table and stopped honoring the agreement, refusing to fold when it was their turn and instead raising the bet based on their good hand, then this plan couldn't be executed.
But as Lu Xinyi said, this possibility wasn't high.
Because according to the rules, the card game was fair, and no player had the confidence to take on six others alone.
And if the four people from Community 3 conspired together, they would need to solve two problems:
Second, Jiang He and her two companions weren't completely powerless. With three people cooperating, there would always be one with relatively good cards, so they wouldn't be completely without a chance of winning.
Even if things turned ugly, it would just revert to the original situation where everyone fought for themselves based on luck, without any additional losses.
Most importantly, if they didn't adopt this plan, the others couldn't come up with a better solution for now.
Ideally, the other community would only send one person to gamble against their three, but the other side wasn't stupid either and wouldn't agree to such conditions.
If they remained deadlocked and no one could get to the gambling table, the final result would be everyone getting their money deducted together.
After brief consideration, everyone could only acknowledge that this was the best solution they could think of at present.
Qin Yao was still somewhat worried, "One last question: we're three people, and you're four people. If we really turn against each other at the card table, we'll be at a disadvantage.
"Could you also only send 3 people, so we can play 3 against 3? That would be more fair."
However, Lu Xinyi shook her head and decisively rejected this proposal.
"No.
"According to the game rules, everyone must play ten rounds against players from another community, otherwise they'll have ten thousand minutes deducted from their visa time when leaving.
"If we go 3 against 3, what about the remaining person?
"If they play alone against you three, that would be 3 against 1, which isn't fair to our person.
"If we find two more people to start another 3 against 3 game, there isn't enough time, and it's unnecessary.
"Moreover, after your first 3 against 3 game, if you refuse to start the next game, wouldn't our remaining person have no options?
"The fact that you only have 3 people is your own problem and has nothing to do with Community 3. We're already showing sincerity by accepting this plan, and you should also show your sincerity.
"Otherwise, we can also choose not to cooperate. At worst, when we leave, everyone will have their visa time deducted together."
Lu Xinyi paused briefly, and her tone became more gentle, "Sorry, although I lean toward cooperation, as a player from Community 3, I still have to put protecting our own interests first."
Qin Yao hesitated for a moment, then looked at the other two, and finally could only nod, "Alright, let's do it this way."
Time was pressing, so everyone found a gambling table and took their seats.
The countdown on the big screen continued ticking away second by second.
1:19:33 1:19:32...
This multiplayer gambling table also had mechanical arms for dealing and collecting cards. All players only needed to sit in their positions to look at cards and place bets.
The mechanical arm extended from the center of the gambling table, and it would use a new deck of poker cards for each round, probably to avoid situations where cards got stained with sweat or other forms of cheating.
Just as stated in the game rules, the gambling table would ensure absolute fairness in the game.
Qin Yao carefully examined the multiplayer game rules and card type diagrams for "Simplified Golden Flower" on the gambling table.
It was similar to when she played against the "Chip Exchange Machine" before, with only some minor differences, such as:
In multiplayer games, the first dealer was randomly selected by the gambling table, and in each subsequent round, the winner of the previous round became the dealer;
The dealer raised last;
Everyone got three cards, unlike the "Chip Exchange Machine" situation where you could draw four cards;
If only one person chose to raise while everyone else called, cards would be revealed automatically; if two or more people chose to raise, cards wouldn't be revealed, and another round of raising would start from the beginning, with no limit on raises.
Qin Yao breathed a slight sigh of relief. Obviously under this set of rules, everyone's chances of winning were about the same, purely based on luck.
The dealer raising last gave a slight advantage, since they could observe others' behavior to roughly estimate the card strength, but this advantage wasn't very significant.
Soon, everyone took out chips worth 1000 and placed them in the betting area in front of them, while the mechanical arm dealt the shuffled cards to everyone.
Jiang He's expression showed some joy, because her luck was quite good, not luck with card types, but luck with being the dealer.
The mechanical arm started dealing from Su Xiucen on her left, meaning Su Xiucen was the dealer for the first round.
According to the previously agreed plan, after each round of the game began, the player to the dealer's right would call first, choosing to raise, while everyone else would choose to fold.
This way, the player to the dealer's right would win everyone else's base bets and become the dealer for the second round.
The second round would follow the same logic. Like this, the seven people would take turns being dealer in counterclockwise order, each sitting as dealer once and winning the other six people's base bets once.
Of course, the game had to proceed for at least ten rounds, which meant three people would sit as dealer twice, earning an extra 6000 chips.
While the others would lose an extra 3000 chips.
But there was no way around this, because the base bet was 1000, and ten rounds with seven people couldn't be divided evenly, so it could only depend on luck.
So everyone agreed to this plan.
At this moment, Jiang He and Qin Yao to her right were quite lucky, as they would definitely win the base bets once, meaning they'd earn an extra 6000 chips.
This was no small amount.
"Alright, then I'll raise as we agreed beforehand."
Jiang He placed a 1000 chip in the betting area.
And Qin Yao to her right also chose to fold as previously agreed.
"Fold."
"Fold."
The two players from Community 3 also both chose to fold.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly, developing according to the predetermined script.
Soon it was Lu Xinyi's turn, sitting across from Jiang He.
However, an unbelievable scene unfolded before Jiang He's eyes.
Lu Xinyi took out two 1000 chips and threw them in the betting area.
"Raise."