I used my left hand to deal the cards, aiming to lower everyone's guard as much as possible.
In the world of gambling and trickery, very few people play cards with their left hand.
Even if someone is naturally left-handed, they will adjust to using their right hand through constant practice.
This is not for any other reason than the cunning nature of a trickster.
Playing cards with the left hand is too attention-grabbing.
Therefore, my move of dealing with my left hand cleverly deceived everyone present.
No one paid attention to my left hand, their focus entirely on the gambling table, waiting to see what the hole card I threw down was.
...
The moment they saw the Jack of Spades land on the table, the fat man immediately jumped up from his seat.
"Your hole card shouldn't be a J, it should be..."
As the words tumbled out, at the most crucial point, the fat man stopped himself just in time.
Then, he looked at me with a face full of hatred and dissatisfaction.
I, on the other hand, shrugged indifferently, a knowing smile playing on my lips.
Honestly, I really wished the fat man would have uttered the words "Ten of Clubs."
Because as soon as he said it, I would have immediately transferred that Ten of Clubs and then accused him of marking the cards and cheating.
After all, compared to my card switching, the marks the fat man made on the playing cards were something he couldn't hide.
Once the dealer investigated, I knew without a doubt what the fat man's fate would be.
It's no exaggeration to say that if the fat man had blurted out "Ten of Clubs," the consequences would have been far more severe than him biting his tongue.
As the fat man showed his loss of composure, the contestants at the nearby gambling tables all cast curious glances our way.
These people seemed eager to see what had happened at our table.
Even the scoring referee and the dealer looked at the fat man with bewilderment, not understanding why he was acting so out of sorts.
As for the fat man himself, after hastily stopping his words, he stood there stunned, his small eyes fixed on me, looking like he had something to say but couldn't.
Clearly, the self-proclaimed clever fat man hadn't expected that I had already planned to cheat from the start of this round.
And more importantly, I had managed to cheat right under everyone's noses without any pressure.
In an instant, the outcome of this round, which was a sure thing, had completely reversed.
After an unknown amount of time...
After angrily and regretfully slamming the gambling table, the fat man suddenly looked at me coldly and said, "Kid, you win!"
"I misjudged you!"
With that, the fat man reluctantly sat back down.
Although he was unwilling, he had no choice but to concede.
If he had pointed it out, it would have been no different from self-incrimination.
After the fat man sat down, the middle-aged seductive woman immediately looked at him with a forced smile and taunted, "Oh! Didn't someone just say earlier that they liked giving money away?"
"Why does your behavior now seem so contradictory!"
This is why women are so good at instigating arguments.
Listen to this gossipy tongue, it made the fat man's entire body of fat tremble with anger.
Stuttering for a long time, the fat man gritted his teeth and roared, "You washed-up old slut, you'd better not fall into my hands!"
"Heh heh~" After a disdainful cold laugh, the middle-aged seductive woman raised her eyebrows and unhurriedly said, "Look at all that fat on you! What's it like to be in your hands? Screw!"
*Pfft!*
Upon hearing the nickname "Screw," the referee responsible for scoring couldn't help but burst out laughing.
This was a big deal!
Immediately after, including the dealer, the men at our table couldn't hold back and grinned.
Seeing this, the fat man's sweaty, fat face contorted, his teeth grinding, and his eyes fiercely fixed on the middle-aged seductive woman.
Ignoring the fat man's fierce gaze, the middle-aged seductive woman casually picked up a pack of 520 ladies' cigarettes from the table and lit one, taking a leisurely puff.
After this small interlude, the dealer directly announced that I had won the current round.
One hand! It only took one hand. By raising the bet before the fifth hidden card was dealt, and then going all-in during the game...
The first two cards were both 50,000, and with four players in two rounds, that's 400,000. Following up with 200,000 in the third round makes it 800,000. Then, in the final all-in showdown, the chips we, the fat man and I, put in totaled around 1.4 million.
Not including the antes, this round directly earned me a full 2.6 million in chips!
Converted to points, that's a whopping 260,000 points.
Not only did this immediately make up for the 100,000-point gap between me and the fat man, but it also put me ahead of him by 160,000 points, securing the top spot in the small table.
It just goes to show, in a game of Texas Hold'em, you don't necessarily need to go all-in to win a full pot of chips in one hand.
This significant advantage directly helped me reverse my points standing and also set the tone for my subsequent matches.
Once I gained the advantage, the key was to stay steady and not get reckless!
This was something I learned from Shui Cenyin during the preliminary rounds.
For a long time afterward, I began to openly play passively.
Besides the normal antes, I would either withdraw before the first face-up card was dealt, or I would fold halfway when others started betting.
That's how steady (or sneaky) I was!
About an hour passed.
The uncle and the square-faced man, having not won much earlier, saw their chips dwindle quickly.
Therefore, they were eliminated almost one after another.
In less than an hour, on the six-person gambling table, only I, the fat man, and the middle-aged seductive woman remained.
At this point, whether they cheated or not made no difference to me.
With an absolute chip advantage, as long as the winning odds weren't overwhelmingly high, I would almost always fold after looking at my cards.
This approach of only playing strong hands allowed me to consistently chip away at both of them while preventing them from gaining points by attacking each other, thus avoiding a situation where one of them suddenly surpassed me in points.
This was a deliberate tactic to drag out the game, and neither of them could do anything about it.
About half an hour later.
Because of the misstep in that crucial hand earlier, the fat man's mentality became somewhat unbalanced, and he was subsequently tricked by the middle-aged seductive woman a few times.
The fat man, who had been playing steadily all along, collapsed at the last moment and was eliminated before the middle-aged seductive woman, having lost all his chips.
After the fat man's elimination, the competition for first place in the group came down to the middle-aged seductive woman and me...