All the questions in my mind were answered the moment the scoring referee called a halt to the betting and the dealer declared a push.
As the four of us revealed our hands one by one, especially when the tattooed woman, in the last position, laid out her three hole cards, I was stunned.
She had a pair of Aces!
With three players betting on their visible cards, it was unbelievable that the tattooed woman would be dealt a pair of Aces and stick with it until the end.
Who would believe that?
And the winner of this round was Shui Cenyin.
If the two women weren't working together, why would the tattooed woman give points to Shui Cenyin for free?
Not only did I notice it, but even the man with thick eyebrows and the middle-aged man, who had been very low-key, were staring at Shui Cenyin and the tattooed woman with suspicious eyes.
It was clearly a trick, "two ghosts knocking on the door," but it was useless to say anything.
Because the two women had never interacted before.
You couldn't assume such a thing, for which there was no evidence, just because of a coincidental round!
All I could say was that Shui Cenyin was good at hiding her intentions and had very good luck.
Getting to know someone through random computer matchmaking was a waste of good luck if you didn't play some tricks!
From now on, as long as Shui Cenyin continued to play at this pace, she would undoubtedly be the top player at the table when the last hour of the competition ended!
Therefore, I had to find a way to act quickly.
...
After the brief interlude of "two ghosts knocking on the door," the competition proceeded normally.
Everything seemed fine.
But all of us contestants knew that Shui Cenyin, by having the advantage of being seated with someone she knew, had been silently and rapidly accumulating points.
After another half hour, the gap between me, in second place, and Shui Cenyin had widened considerably.
If I couldn't find a way to turn the tide in the last half hour, I would inevitably be eliminated.
Strictly speaking, my luck wasn't that bad; what was lacking was the luck for cheating.
After all, unlike Texas Hold'em or Stud Poker, there were no visible cards to refer to in Golden Flower.
Before the cards were revealed, everyone's cards were hidden.
There was no problem with changing the game by cheating, but the problem was to avoid matching hands and to estimate the possibility of the opponent's hand type being wrong.
After all, I couldn't cheat and switch cards every hand to make my hand an Ace flush or the highest straight flush, could I?
You have to know, the dealer isn't stupid!
Even if he couldn't catch me cheating, if it happened too often, and he became alert and called for a discreet supervisor...
My space for free cheating would be further compressed.
Therefore, without cheating, I had basically been losing points intermittently.
However, I didn't care about that.
Ever since I discovered the secret between Shui Cenyin and the tattooed woman, I had figured it out.
There was only one way to break the deadlock and reverse the situation.
It was to mark the cards, also known as "making marks."
In Golden Flower, when it's difficult to shuffle and deal the cards yourself, trying to take on two people is too unrealistic.
As I mentioned earlier, before the cards are revealed, everyone's cards are hidden.
Besides the risk of matching hands, cheating and switching cards also carried the possibility of misjudgment, with too little room for error.
So, I placed all my hopes of victory in the card games of the last half hour.
To avoid being targeted by Shui Cenyin, I had been playing by luck for this half hour, with the aim of further lowering the vigilance of Shui Cenyin and the others.
And while waiting, I also secretly observed every move of Shui Cenyin and the tattooed woman.
But unfortunately, neither of them chose to cheat rashly. Instead, they played it safe, waiting for good cards and then using the "two ghosts knocking on the door" tactic.
Clearly, their division of labor and goals were very clear.
The tattooed woman was the wingman to escort Shui Cenyin, helping the latter to directly advance to the main competition.
Having confirmed that I couldn't use the same method as I did with the fashion youth to precisely target Shui Cenyin and the tattooed woman, I could only wait in secret for the final decisive moment to arrive.
Finally, as another round ended, the dealer collected all the old cards and threw them into the shredder, and then took out a brand new deck of Bee playing cards...
I knew it was time for my performance!
It would start with cutting the cards.
There is an art to marking Bee playing cards.
The reason Bee playing cards are popular in casinos worldwide is due to the design of the patterns on the back, which effectively reduce the probability of cheating.
But there is always a countermeasure for every measure.
Only those who have specifically studied cheating know how to subtly manipulate the back of Bee playing cards.
This is also something Uncle Tuo taught me.
He said that when I am qualified to participate in high-stakes gambling competitions in the future, I will find that in such competitions, it is truly a luxury to be able to touch the cards normally!
Take the World Series of Poker, for example. During the competition, lighters and cigarette cases are strictly prohibited at the gambling table.
As for beverage bottles and cups, they are even out of the question.
During the competition, whatever you want to do, you must first report it to the referee.
Only after the referee allows it can you do what you want to do.
Moreover, if there is any interruption to the competition, the referee will immediately close the betting.
All clever tricks and schemes are useless!
If you dare to mess around, the referee will directly disqualify you.
Therefore, in competitions of such a high caliber, top cheaters often start by marking the cards.
The secret move I use is called "Spark Ignites the Prairie."
The so-called "Spark Ignites the Prairie" means that a single spark can start a prairie fire.
Since it's "Spark Ignites the Prairie," there's no need to make complicated marks on the back of each playing card; a tiny dot is enough.
It's a bit like marking Mahjong tiles, but not exactly.
This is because the position of the "Spark Ignites the Prairie" mark is completely random.
All the dots are marked according to the size of the card itself.
There's a mnemonic for it, but I can't tell you.
Of course, you don't necessarily have to mark all 52 cards with the "Spark Ignites the Prairie" mark; you only need to mark the key high cards and those that can form special hands.
It took me about fifteen minutes to mark half of the playing cards with marks that only I could understand.
Oh, I forgot to mention, the tool is the ring on my hand.
Next is the final decisive moment!
...
Through the marks on the back of the cards, I saw that the dealer had dealt me two high cards in this round.
And among the twelve cards of the four people outside, there were a total of 7 high cards.
One of these cards was exactly the same size as the card in my hand, but of a different suit.
After I had this information in advance, I could proceed with my actions boldly and without hesitation.