A strong point of Yeorum he could point out as her teacher would be that she had the heart of a beast. Perhaps because there was no turning back, Yeorum had no fear driving herself into the unknown.
That was just how her personality was like. It was something Yu Jitae, who always calmly formed plans despite having absolute power, did not have.
And her personality was being revealed in the casino.
“Raise. 1,000.”
Yeorum pushed black chips into the circle. Seeing that, the opponent gave a frown.
“Hey lady. Do you think you are always going to be the one coming out on top? You better stop. There’s this thing called beginner’s luck.”
“What?”
Smoking was allowed inside the casino. With a cigarette in his mouth, the middle-aged man opened his mouth.
“If you want to enjoy the casino for a long time, let me teach you something. Look at the table. There are three hearts within the community cards, aren’t there.”
[5♥] [2♥] [K♥] [A◆] [10♣️]
Yeorum similarly was smoking a cigarette. A mouthful of thick smoke dispersed with a sigh.
“And what.”
“Think carefully. Why do you think I was raising it by a 100 but suddenly went with 500 this time.”
“…”
“Do you think I won’t have two hearts in my hand?”
There was a fishy smile on his mouth. However, the bet had already been raised and the chips had left her hand. The middle-aged man gave chips worth a thousand dollars, before pushing 5 times the amount.
“Raise. 5,000.”
5,000?
This time, the players and the dealer let alone the audience widened their eyes in shock. “Did he say five thousand?” “What a jump!” They clamoured because 5,000 was the bet limit placed in this casino and although it was none of their business, they were interested in seeing who would be the one losing a fortune.
Yeorum looked back at Yu Jitae. Was it because she was scared? No. At this point, her expression was so hazy that it was hard to decipher.
Intention revealed from expressions – that was what Yu Jitae taught her. Following that, she was making an expression that hid any sort of intention.
However, it seemed that she still couldn’t hide the greed that was revealed in her eyes. With a faint smile, Yu Jitae gave her the card – the heart of the beast was going to make something big happen again.
She changed all the money in the card into chips and pushed them forward.
“Call.”
There were $14,000 dollars at stake in just one game. Due to the large amount of money, the dealer was also very excited and raised their voice.
“Showdown!”
Finally, it was time to reveal their cards. The man flipped his two cards.
[Q♥] [10♥]
“It’s a flush!”
“A heart flush with a Q! It’s a strong hand!”
The audience created a fuss.
Flush – the fifth strongest hand from the bottom. Besides, there weren’t any common numbers in the community cards so a full house or a four of a kind, which were both stronger than flushes, were impossible.
That wasn’t the end. Three hearts in the community cards and two in his hand – most importantly, Q which was the strongest after K was in his hand. And from the 52 cards of the deck, there were only 13 heart cards from which 5 had already been revealed.
98%
The man considered his chance to win as 98%*.
This was almost impossible to lose.
There was only one hand that could allow Yeorum to win at this point. However, the moment Yeorum flipped her cards, the confidence in the man’s expression crumbled.
Of all things, ‘that’ was in Yeorum’s hand.
[A♥] [4♥]
People shouted with excitement.
“Uwaaahhh!”
“A of hearts! A of hearts was just in her hand!”
“She actually won it? What a fiesta!”
It was the same flush but A of hearts which was a tick above the middle-aged man’s hand was in Yeorum’s hand. The moment his expression was filled with astonishment and shock, Yeorum giggled.
“People would think you had a royal straight flush or something with that confidence of yours.”
“Y, y, you damn girl…!”
“Here’s an A of hearts, and a heart from me too. Mmwah ♥”
Placing her hand on her lips, she blew a kiss as the middle-aged man begrudgingly stood up from his seat.
The defeated player left the table. Yeorum also stood up from the table after changing the chips into money and putting them into the card as the audience created a pathway like the red sea divide.
“That was amazing, lady.”
“How much did you freaking earn from one game?”
“Give me a share of your luck! I’ve been losing from last night.”
They were excited from the dramatical defeat of someone else. “Sure!” Yeorum replied as she bumped her fist with everyone on the way out.
However, that wasn’t the end of their games of the day. When the two of them had left the casino for a little breather, three men with large builds walked out of the dark alleyway and stood in front of them. They were all superhumans that had learned martial arts.
“What are you bunch?”
Yeorum relaxedly asked with a cigarette in her mouth.
“Look. No need to be so cautious. We’re not here to do bad things.”
“Then?”
“Don’t you want to bring your game to a bigger table?”
With their chins, they gestured and pointed at the middle-aged man who had lost his money, waving his hand with a smile. Then, the middle-aged man pointed at a shabby building in the corner of the dark alleyway that didn’t suit this paradisiacal city.
That place was the underground casino, where the ‘real’ ones bet money without any limits.
“What are you up to. Is it because you don’t want to lose all that money?”
“No, no, no. Don’t misunderstand us okay? We can’t harm tourists either because we don’t want the police to create a hole in our heads. You are free to go if you want to.”
The men revealed their harmless natures with a nod. Yu Jitae wasn’t really inclined because places with larger units of money tended to have bigger fluctuating madness within.
They had earned enough and had enough fun already so there was no reason to go in any further.
“Let’s go, Yu Yeorum.”
However, when he looked back at Yeorum’s expression, he found an incomparably excited look on her face.
“Don’t want to,” she replied.
“What?”
“How dare you tell me to do something? When I’m your master?”
He had forgotten it for a bit but Yeorum had paid him back.
“Slave. Let’s go there.”
“Oi.”
“Ehey! You have to call me master.”
“…”
She dragged him by the wrist and pulled him along while he was looking for words to return. With no other choice, he followed Yeorum and the group of men into the underground casino.
Unlike the shabby outside appearance of the building, the inside was dark yet flashy. The lights, the carpet and everything appeared like a proper casino and there were countless ‘true bettors’ playing their games.
The moment Yeorum and Yu Jitae entered the building, several gamblers walked up and welcomed them.
“Ohh! She’s here! The red-haired girl!”
“You’re the one that emptied the pocket of old man Sillon right?! Well done! Kuhahaha!”
“I heard you were in luck today!”
Without being intimidated by their energy, Yeorum nonchalantly made a V sign with her fingers.
“So, who’s playing against me?” she asked.
“Right. Did old man Sillon go somewhere?!”
“Shouldn’t have. He was gritting his teeth till now!”
“Ah, he’s coming!”
The middle-aged man who had lost a fortune to Yeorum was walking towards them with a short young man next to him.
Yu Jitae looked at the tiny young man. He couldn’t sense anything from him, meaning that he wasn’t even a superhuman. He was just a normal human but his eyes were bright and intelligent and it was a gaze that was rare to find in a place like this where people only had eyes intoxicated in alcohol, drugs and money.
“Isn’t that Dennis?”
“Shameless old man. Why would you bring the winner of last year’s poker contest here?”
“He really didn’t want to lose I guess. Kukuk.”
The middle-aged man gave a scowl hearing the voices of the bystanders while Yeorum grumbled.
“What, you’re gonna use a substitute?”
“What if I am?”
“Don’t want to do it now.”
“Hmph. It’s up to you to take the game. Go away if you don’t want to.”
“Stupid old man.”
“What, you immature young kid. You scared or something?”
His lowly provocations did not work and Yeorum simply had the question of whether it was fine to play or not. She turned towards Yu Jitae, looking for his consent.
He decided to let the child do whatever she wanted to do. I will take all the responsibility so do whatever you want to do today – Yu Jitae signalled that with a nod as Yeorum sat on her seat with a bright expression.
The game soon began. There were more than 10 people watching the game and because it was a fairly big game, the underground casino dealer raised his voice.
“Small blind.”
Dennis, who was the first to bet, pushed a black chip forward. It was 100 dollars from the get go… Seeing the difference in the scale of the bet, Yeorum gave a frown.
“What a lunatic. Straight up like that?”
“…”
The opponent was quiet. His expression was saggy like a dead man while his eyes appeared indifferent. Both his posture and attitude were stiff like a machine.
There was nothing she could sense from his outward appearance… Realising that, Yeorum also turned serious. She bet 200 dollars for the big blind followed by the preflop – two cards were given each to the two players.
The two of them stealthily looked at their cards as the opponent, Dennis, started betting. He pushed forth a black chip worth 100 dollars. Yeorum called.
Until then, the game was peaceful. There was no reason to get worked up from the start and because the night was long, the audience was also thinking of relaxedly watching the game unfold. However, the moment three community cards were revealed in the flop, the atmosphere of the game turned upside down.
[J♠] [J♣️] [J♥] [?] [?]
People screamed in shock.
“Uaaak!”
“What?! It’s already a J triple?”
“You fuc*ing shithead! Are you sure you fu*king mixed the cards properly!?”
When the eyes of the crowd fell on him like arrows, the dealer who himself was also surprised, quickly pointed at the authentication certificate of Las Vegas attached to the shuffle machine.
“My word…! I can’t believe what I’m seeing right now!”
“Is this going to be the ultimate finisher?”
The ones who had been planning to enjoy a long relaxed game turned bloody-eyed as the lightened mood immediately vanished. Even in ‘Texas Holdem’, one of the poker games where high hands were quite frequently spotted, a triple coming out on the flop was a rare sight that can only be seen once in three months or so.
If the two of them had a pair in hand, it would immediately be a full house.
And if there was one of them with the last J in hand, that would be a four of a kind.
And usually, a higher hand than four of a kind could hardly be seen in half a year. At this rate, the game would end in a single round.
In the midst of the chaotic crowd, Dennis was calm. He quietly grabbed several black chips and pushed them forth.
The number of chips he pushed were 10 in total.
“A thousand dollars from the start…!”
“What’s gonna happen now? Will the redhead fold here?”
“Fu*k no! What kind of coward would take their hands off here!?”
All the listeners agreed with the final shout. No matter how much was at stake, it didn’t make sense to turn tail from this.
With a coldly settled expression, Yeorum opened her mouth, “Raise. 20.”
Dennis indifferently raised it again. 50.
Yeorum continued the raise by calling out 100, which Dennis continued raising all the way to 200.
Only then did Yeorum call.
One thousand dollars.
Five thousand dollars.
Ten thousand dollars.
And twenty thousand dollars at the end. By the time it all ended, there were 72 black chips in front of the dealer, worth a shocking 72 thousand dollars!
The onlookers were astonished.
Was there something they were believing in that allowed their full-on sprint? Did one of them perhaps have another J, while the other had a pair for a full house?
When the fourth card was unveiled,
[J♠] [J♣️] [J♥] [J◆] [?]
They once again let out voices filled with screams.
“A four of a kind! Damn it! There’s a four of a kind on the board!”
“Damn it! What the f*ck is going on!? You sure you mixed the cards properly!?”
“Wait, that means none of them had a J in the first place!”
No J in hand.
Maybe both of them already had a full house in their hands?
In the following bet, Yeorum raised to 50,000. Dennis followed suit with a preposterous call to raise it to 100,000.
More and more chips were being built up and as the scale increased, tension was built upon tension like a sandwich. People couldn’t even breathe out loud as they quietly waited for Yeorum to reply.
Nonchalantly, she agreed to the ridiculous bet.
“Call.”
372,000 dollars.
A mountain of black chips were placed on the table.
At this point, it would not end until one of them headed to complete annihilation. The onlookers knew its nature because they had seen similar situations once every few months so they watched the game unfold with eyes filled with excitement.
It was the beginning of a race to ruin.