The one-on-one showdown I was having with the voluptuous middle-aged woman was just like the most common scenes in gambling movies.
We were sitting face-to-face, with piles of chips in front of each of us.
The heads-up Texas Hold'em game had begun.
The current hand had reached its most crucial moment.
Before the fifth hole card was dealt, the middle-aged woman had a pair of 9s and a visible King.
Without looking at the hole cards, it was already a strong hand.
As for my side... even stronger!
A flush of hearts, 7-8-9.
If the middle-aged woman's hole card was a single 9, then this hand would start her with three of a kind, topping out at a full house.
If my final hand was a simple flush, I would only have three of a kind and couldn't beat a full house.
In other words, I had to go for a straight flush in this hand!
At this point, it wasn't just the dealer who was turning a blind eye to cheating; even the plainclothes security guards patrolling nearby were not moving around as frequently as before.
It was clear that the tournament staff were using their attitude to explicitly tell all the contestants.
You can go all out and fight each other to your heart's content. As long as you don't call out cheating, we'll pretend we didn't see it and won't interfere with you.
Under such circumstances, the contestants still remaining at the various gambling tables were all giving it their all, preparing to go head-to-head with their opponents in the final moments!
Setting aside the middle-aged woman, at least that was my plan.
Although I had been continuously scoring points based on the card patterns before the fat man was eliminated, most of those games were won by the middle-aged woman.
Therefore, after taking the fat man's chips, the point difference between the middle-aged woman and me was less than fifty thousand points.
Perhaps in a game of Stud Poker, this fifty-thousand-point difference would seem quite large, but in Texas Hold'em, where you could go all-in at any moment, it was merely a matter of one hand.
So, at this moment, we were both extremely cautious.
We wouldn't play unless we had absolutely perfect cards.
And so, in this very round...
The middle-aged woman and I, with great tacit understanding, had revealed our intentions and decided to settle the score in one hand.
As the dealer signaled me to bet, and I followed suit by placing thirty thousand chips, the middle-aged woman frowned and suddenly raised the bet to one million.
Immediately after placing her bet, the middle-aged woman looked at me meaningfully and said, "Young man, there isn't much time left anyway."
"Our visible cards are good in this hand. Whether we tie or go all-in, the point difference will surely be widened to around twenty thousand again. How about we just bet on this last hand?"
After a brief mental calculation, I picked up my chips without hesitation and began to match the bet.
What the middle-aged woman said was very true; time was running out.
No matter what, someone had to be eliminated before the official end of the competition.
Instead of being forced to fight with all our might in the final moments while trying to aim for first place, it was better to pick a good hand and go all out.
Whether we win or get eliminated would all depend on this hand!
The moment the chips were thrown onto the table, the dealer began dealing us the fifth hole card.
After receiving the fifth hole card, I didn't look at it first. Instead, I focused all my attention on the middle-aged woman.
She was carefully trying to get her cards.
If there was any unusual movement from her, I would call her out without hesitation!
Because to win, one must spare no effort!
But unfortunately, she didn't make any unnecessary or suspicious moves.
And immediately after getting her cards, the middle-aged woman revealed her hole card.
Another... single King!
After the hole card was revealed, the middle-aged woman's four visible cards became two pairs, which was the full house I least wanted to see.
"Hehehe... I never expected this!"
"My desperate last gamble has actually brought luck back to my side!"
As she said this, a triumphant and brilliant smile appeared on the middle-aged woman's face.
At this moment, I also took the opportunity to reveal the hole card in front of me – a Heart 5.
The moment she saw my revealed card, the middle-aged woman's laughter became even more brilliant and louder.
She chuckled with a smile and said, "Young man, a broken 5!"
"Unless your hole card is a Heart 6, you definitely have no chance of beating me!"
"But a Heart 6, is it really that easy to get?"
"So, I bet one million!"
After saying that, she threw one million chips onto the table and then looked at me calmly.
Seeing this, I didn't say a word and directly scooped up the ten thousand-value chips in front of me, throwing ten of them onto the table.
My clean and decisive action immediately caused the smile on the middle-aged woman's face to disappear.
But then, she said coldly, "I don't believe you have a Heart 6. Reveal your cards! I want to see your hole card!!!"
As soon as she finished speaking, she revealed the hole card in front of her... a single 9.
It was indeed a full house with three of a kind and a pair.
Seeing this, I immediately followed the middle-aged woman and reached out to reveal the hole card in front of me.
A Heart 6! A heart straight from 5-6-7-8-9!
The moment she saw the Heart 6, the middle-aged woman froze on the spot, her eyes filled with an extreme, unconcealable disbelief.
After coming to her senses, the middle-aged woman looked at me with a stunned gaze and asked, "When did you start manipulating the cards?"
"Manipulating the cards" meant cheating.
The middle-aged woman's first words were about cheating, implying she was convinced I had won the hand through trickery.
Little did she know, I hadn't cheated at all in this round.
Oh, no, to be precise, I had cheated, but I hadn't switched cards, rather... I had marked them!
When the heads-up gambling game began and the dealer was dealing new cards, I had emulated the fat man, secretly marking the cards one by one.
And I had marked the entire deck!
This was a plan I had conceived in advance after observing that the plainclothes security guards outside the venue had begun to slow down their patrols, and I had ultimately executed it.
In addition, I also noticed that during the final heads-up moments, the dealer had started incorporating some techniques into the shuffling, with the aim of producing a pattern of big cards.
The advantage of doing this was that it could indirectly help the contestants speed up the pace of the game.
After all, it was the final stage, and the tournament organizers were subtly loosening their regulations. The dealer was certainly aware of this.
At this point, it was a competition of who dared to make small moves.
If the dealer had resumed their initial shuffling techniques... ha!
Forget about straight flushes and full houses; being able to get a flush or three of a kind with a pair would be a blessing from Buddha himself!
Uncle Tuo had told me that when participating in a competition, one should utilize everything that can be utilized!
Only by gathering all the favorable conditions – timing, location, and people – could one hope to achieve all the supreme honors and greater rewards!
The final showdown, I... am here!