After the young man discarded his cards, the other few people, after thinking for a while, also chose to call.
Seeing this, I didn't even need the fat man to show his cards first; I already knew in my heart that he had won.
As expected!
With no one choosing to raise or go all-in, the fat man who had initially bet first opened his hand.
A spade seven, forming a winning three of a kind.
If anyone among them had three of a kind earlier, they wouldn't have simply called with a hundred thousand chips.
They wanted to gamble, betting that the fat man was bluffing with two pairs.
Little did they know, the fat man had already used every opportunity to mark the cards during the past ten minutes of playing.
Even if he hadn't completely figured them out, he at least knew the high cards and those that could form key hands like the back of his hand.
Therefore, the fat man had taken the initiative in this round and won.
No wonder Uncle Tuo always said: skills don't have to be new, as long as they work.
Indeed, in competitions of this level, a player's opportunities to mark cards are extremely limited.
To win, one must resort to cheating by any means necessary.
But cheating doesn't necessarily require stealing or swapping cards; the most straightforward marking can also suffice.
Unfortunately, I no longer had the chance.
At least until the next card change, I absolutely could not make a move.
It wasn't that I feared a marking expert like the fat man could see through it, but I had to guard against the dealer.
The dealers in the main competition, both in their eyesight and skill, were not comparable to those in the preliminary rounds.
If two cheaters marked a deck of cards differently, even if the marks were subtle, they would easily be noticed if there were too many.
So, at this stage, I had to hold back a little.
After the round ended, the dealer began collecting and shuffling the cards.
Propping up his jaw, he slumped his shoulders, leaning his entire body against the gambling table, hesitating whether to call.
As for us contestants, we placed our ante bets as per custom.
Just then, the young man with the ordinary appearance, while placing his chips on the table, his hand trembled for some reason, knocking over all the chips in front of him.
Several of those chips even rolled towards the deck of cards that the dealer was about to collect.
The incident happened very suddenly, and before we could react...
"Sorry, sorry!"
The young man quickly stood up and reached out to pick up the scattered chips on the table.
Suddenly, I saw the ring finger and pinky finger of his right hand tremble slightly, then curl inward.
The flawless card-stealing technique, "Zhe Mei Shou" (Plum Blossom Hand)!
Unlike "Zhe Hua Shou" (Flower Plucking Hand), "Zhe Mei Shou," due to the fingers, could only steal cards in a single direction and at a fixed point.
And it was mostly single cards.
But "Zhe Mei Shou" was fast and steady.
Generally, "Zhe Mei Shou" was suitable for card games with fewer cards.
To be honest, this was my first time seeing a cheater use "Zhe Mei Shou" in five-card stud.
Had this ordinary-looking young man lost his mind after being beaten by the fat man's hand?
Including the scattered rounds before, he had only lost less than three hundred thousand chips in total.
Although this amount was the most lost at the table, there were still seven hundred thousand chips remaining, and there was plenty of time. He really didn't need to risk himself now.
Almost the moment the young man retracted his hand, three out of the five people at the table exclaimed in unison.
"Wait a moment!"
The people who shouted this were me, the fat man, and the middle-aged glamorous woman.
Hearing several of us shout at the same time, a look of panic immediately appeared on the young man's face.
However, he still pretended to be calm and asked, "What is it?"
"You stole a card!"
We three replied in unison again.
Upon hearing this, the corner of the young man's mouth twitched uncontrollably.
At this moment, the dealer also cast a half-smile at him.
"You, you... what do you mean?"
This time, before the fat man or I could speak, the middle-aged glamorous woman closest to the young man suddenly reached out without warning, grabbed his right wrist, and pulled.
In an instant, the young man's face turned pale, and cold sweat began to seep uncontrollably from his forehead.
Just as the young man regained his senses and his eyes showed panic, wanting to resist, the middle-aged glamorous woman's palm suddenly exerted force, pinching and pulling, and then pushing and releasing...
A playing card silently slid down from the young man's sleeve.
"Dealer, check the cards!"
The moment the middle-aged glamorous woman finished speaking, the young man's eyes closed, and then he slumped onto the table motionlessly, seemingly preparing to give up resistance.
Ignoring the young man's reaction, upon hearing the middle-aged glamorous woman's words, the dealer immediately flipped over the deck of cards he was holding on the table and checked them one by one.
Less than half a minute.
The missing jack of hearts in the deck perfectly matched the card that fell from the young man's sleeve.
Caught red-handed!
Glaring coldly at the young man, the dealer said in a somber tone, "Are you leaving voluntarily, or shall I have someone escort you out?"
When saying the word "escort," the dealer deliberately emphasized the tone.
Unlike the dealers in the preliminary rounds, the dealers in the main competition were measured in their actions, maintaining the dignity of the competition while also preserving some face for the caught cheater.
Hearing this, the young man, who had been closing his eyes, suddenly opened them and replied, "I'll leave myself!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he quickly stood up and slunk away.
According to the rules of the main competition, once a player was caught cheating, their chips at the gambling table were directly cleared to zero, and their corresponding points were also forfeited.
Therefore, the seven hundred thousand chips on the young man's table, corresponding to seventy thousand points, were all wiped out.
As for the remaining points under his name, the dealer had the discretion to distribute them to the contestants who participated in catching the cheater.
Through the scoring referee beside them, upon learning that the young man had less than one hundred and forty thousand points remaining, the dealer immediately decided to credit half of the points to the middle-aged glamorous woman.
As for the other half, it was to be divided equally between me and the fat man.
After this round, both inside and outside the game, it seemed that the fat man was the biggest winner.
But in reality, the middle-aged glamorous woman was!
Because the seventy thousand points transferred to her name could later be directly exchanged for seven hundred thousand chips to be used at the table.
In the previous round, although the fat man won about five hundred thousand chips in total, it translated to less than fifty thousand points.
Adding the thirty-five thousand I shared with him, his total earnings were eighty-five thousand.
Originally, the fat man could have taken a commanding lead with an advantage of eighty-five thousand points.
But since the middle-aged glamorous woman was also one of the few winners before, after all was said and done, their points were essentially tied.
As for me, I became third at the small table.
I had originally planned to play it safe, but now I had to find a way to catch up ahead of schedule...