Before Gu Lingfeng could respond, Wang Mingxuan, standing behind him, spoke first, "No way! A single round to decide the winner is too prone to chance, which greatly favors you!"
"Either best of three, or best of five!"
"Only by playing like that can individual skill be maximized!"
I had to admit, Wang Mingxuan's ability in calculation was truly superior. He knew that a single-round gamble had many elements of chance involved.
If we were still in the VIP room, I might not have had the chance to retort.
But now, being in the casino hall with so many curious gamblers watching, I naturally had to make use of them.
So, I decisively shook my head and refused, "I came to your establishment to win money, not to play cards!"
"If you want to find fault with my winning, a single round can also reveal it!"
"If your establishment is truly as rumored, only allowing guests to lose money and leave, but not to win money and leave..."
"You might as well find any excuse to take back all the chips I've won. There's no need to put on such a pretense here!"
As I said this, my voice was quite loud, aiming to attract more gamblers to watch.
"You, you..."
Upon hearing this, Wang Mingxuan's eyes widened in anger, his lips pursed and his nose flared.
As for Gu Lingfeng, although also angry, he eventually replied in an extremely grim tone, "Fine! It's one round to decide the winner! But..."
"The rules for this single round must be set by me!"
After a brief consideration, I nodded in agreement, "Okay! No problem."
I knew that the so-called rules were Gu Lingfeng's counter-proposal to my suggestion, a variation of the single-round decider.
If I didn't agree, he likely wouldn't agree to my proposal.
Seeing me agree, Gu Lingfeng wasted no more words and stated in a deep voice, "Alright, I'll briefly explain the rules of Stud."
"In a regular game of Stud, each card requires betting and raising, which is clearly not applicable to us."
"How about this! We'll use a new deck of cards. We'll each shuffle half the deck, and then recombine them."
"After recombining the deck, we will take turns drawing five cards each, and compare their strength according to the Stud ranking."
"As for who goes first and who goes last in each round, we'll use the method of drawing cards to determine who draws first."
"It will still be according to the order of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. Ace of Spades is the highest, and Ace of Diamonds is the lowest, with other ranks following suit!"
Honestly, from the moment Gu Lingfeng said he wanted to set the rules for a single-round decider, I had a premonition that this guy would try his best to create obstacles.
As expected!
The rule he proposed seemed quite fair to gamblers who didn't understand it.
One person shuffles half the deck, they are combined, and then cards are drawn to determine the order of play for each round.
But in reality, there was a significant problem: drawing cards to determine the order.
To get the first move, one would definitely have to draw a high card like the Ace of Spades in the first round.
If the Ace of Spades in the first round was gone, then hands like the Royal Flush would essentially be out of the question.
One could only settle for a Straight Flush or a Four of a Kind, but...
If one truly followed this line of thought, by the time all ten cards for the five rounds of turn order were drawn, the remaining 42 cards in the deck would likely only hide hands below a Full House.
Of course, this was still theoretical.
Because the most crucial part was that after each round of turn order was determined, one had to draw for the Stud hand.
Under these circumstances, it was impossible and dare not to bet on the card path in advance.
In other words, the decisive factor in this kind of Stud game was entirely concentrated on the order of drawing cards.
The person who drew the first move would definitely not get the Royal Flush.
To ensure the first move, one had to get the Ace of Spades.
On the contrary, the person drawing the cards later could consider the top-ranking Straight Flush in other suits.
Under these rules, the key to winning or losing the game was not about oneself, but about the opponent.
The reason Gu Lingfeng could come up with a counter-strategy so quickly was clearly because Da Fei had leaked information about me in advance.
He had some understanding of me.
But I knew nothing about him.
If I couldn't figure out Gu Lingfeng's psychology, I would likely capsize in the gutter.
However, the arrow was already nocked and on the string, so even if I understood the trap, I had to jump into it.
...
Seeing me agree, Gu Lingfeng, without another word, directly took out a brand new deck of bee playing cards from a drawer under the gambling table.
After unsealing the deck and removing the Jokers, he divided half the cards to me.
The first thing we did upon receiving the cards was to start shuffling without any words exchanged between us.
For a card sharp who had mastered the perfect shuffling technique, memorizing the order of half a deck of cards was as easy as pie.
The difficulty in shuffling half a deck lay not in the cards in one's own hand, but in the opponent's!
Because after combining the decks, the key to victory... lay in how much of the card order in the opponent's hand could be memorized.
Therefore, while shuffling, I kept looking up at Gu Lingfeng.
Just as I was doing, he was also looking up at me.
There was a slight difference between a card sharp's shuffle and that of an ordinary person.
That is, when shuffling, a card sharp would unconsciously lift the corners of the cards.
The purpose of doing this was naturally to better remember and grasp the card order.
The scenes in movies where they shuffle a deck once and then remember all the card orders after a glance are all fake!
About a minute later.
As soon as I finished shuffling, I placed the half-deck of cards in my hand on the gambling table. Just as I was about to see Gu Lingfeng's situation...
He also placed his cards on the gambling table in front of him.
To show fairness and impartiality, Gu Lingfeng instructed Wang Mingxuan, who didn't know any card tricks, to combine the half-decks of cards in front of us and shuffle them several more times.
This step was also extremely critical.
Because ordinary people who don't know the techniques shuffle cards without any rules, just randomly.
After Wang Mingxuan's shuffling, some of the card orders I had managed to remember became blurred again.
After Wang Mingxuan shuffled several times and cut the deck four or five times, my memory of the card order... became chaotic and messy, with no discernible pattern.
And then, the most crucial first round, the test of drawing cards to determine the order of play, arrived.