Getting down to business.
Seeing me arrive, Shi Jianguo, after a brief introduction to the people there, impatiently ordered Sister Ran to bring out the cards and start the game.
Except for the stunningly beautiful young woman who sat beside Shi Jianguo as a spectator, everyone else joined the table to participate!
Including me, there were exactly six people.
The perfect number of players for a game of "Zha Jin Hua" (a popular Chinese poker game).
The stakes were ten to fifty, with wins and losses starting at ten thousand yuan.
Ten thousand yuan in 2008 was roughly equivalent to about 120,000 yuan today. This was enough to show how desperate Shi Jianguo was to recoup his losses!
Of course, when I say wins and losses started at ten thousand yuan, I mean under normal circumstances.
Based on the last time, I suspected Shi Jianguo might resort to unconventional tactics this time!
The stakes were raised, but the rules remained the same.
Before coming, Leng Meng and I had discussed not to be too aggressive this time, but to play it like boiling a frog in warm water, letting Shi Jianguo fall into the abyss step by step.
But what I didn't expect was that Sister Ran would bring out marked cards!
The moment I saw the marked cards, I immediately realized that among the card players Shi Jianguo had invited today, there was someone from the "Qianmen" (a term for professional gamblers or tricksters)!
Damn it! He wasn't planning on letting me live!
It was at this moment that I completely changed my strategy.
Since there was a fellow practitioner here, today's game wouldn't be just about cheating.
I would cheat the players!
And I would also crush my fellow practitioners!
Like the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each displaying their divine powers!
Let's see who's smarter, me or that professional gambler, as we ride a donkey to watch a play and continue the show!
...
As the card game began, I, just like last time, focused on probing.
As the saying goes: "Caution steers a ship for ten thousand years!"
With a fellow player present, I certainly had to be careful.
I had initially thought that the professional gambler who recognized the marked cards would at least wait until the game became tense before jumping out to try and turn the tide.
But what I didn't expect was that as soon as we started... this guy actually revealed himself!
"Since we're all meeting for the first time and playing for high stakes, I'll lay down the ground rules first!"
"After the cards are dealt, before deciding to look at them, please place your hands to the side, away from the cards!"
"If you touch the cards, you can't keep them hidden anymore; you must look at them!"
"It's like playing chess; once you make a move, you can't take it back!"
"If you touch the cards, you can't keep them hidden. You must look at them and then decide whether to bet."
The person speaking was a burly and robust man with a fierce look on his face, but he was wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He was a muscular man.
The moment I heard this, I, who had just lit a Red Nanjing cigarette and taken less than a puff, almost choked to death on the second half of the draw!
The next second, I was dumbfounded.
What level was this fellow practitioner at?
Could it be that he hadn't even fully recognized the marked cards and was already trying to make a living?
After stabilizing my breathing, I took advantage of the smoke to carefully examine the muscular man...
Heh. So that's how it is!
Contact lenses with treated marked cards!
It turns out the muscular man wasn't a true professional gambler, but someone playing with high-tech gadgets!
Contact lenses, 250 yuan from the long-distance bus station, marked cards 25 yuan a deck, buy a deck and get half off.
Although Shi Jianguo was well-prepared, he didn't know that the reinforcements he had hired had been swindled by a vendor selling fake goods at the long-distance bus station!
Those treated marked cards were actually fake Binwang playing cards. Besides the treated ink applied to the back, the cards themselves had already been tampered with!
These were fake Binwang playing cards from printing to factory output!
(PS: True story. A gambler from my hometown, after reading yjy's account, got a crooked idea. Starting with monopolizing fake playing cards in a town, he gradually fell into the abyss.)
At this moment, the tension in my heart, which had been taut upon seeing the marked cards, gradually relaxed.
The muscular man didn't know the true face of Mount Lu!
His fake cards actually saved me trouble!
For him to be able to clearly see the treated marks on the back with contact lenses was much more difficult than for me to directly see the special marks on the back of the cards.
The first issue was lighting.
As soon as the light dimmed, he was finished.
Secondly, the three cards had to be spread out.
If any of them overlapped, he was finished again!
Finally, there were the treated marks.
If I remembered correctly, Uncle Tuo once said that with treated marked cards, diamonds and clubs were easily confused.
Therefore, even though the muscular man could recognize the cards, if any of the above three problems occurred during a hand, he would make a mistake.
As expected, after only a few hands, he started making mistakes.
Ever since he had spoken up and set the rule of not touching the cards after they were dealt, the winners of these hands tried their best to deal the cards one overlapping the other.
After all, people who play cards often habitually group their cards together. Only a fool would spread out their three cards far apart!
And the muscular man could only barely see some of the cards when the winner was dealing.
Later, he couldn't see them anymore.
As for when it came to me, it was even simpler. I directly used my cigarette case to block most of the muscular man's view of the cards.
In fact, Shi Jianguo had quite good luck at the start of the game today. If he had chosen to play normally, the outcome would definitely have been better than it was now.
But he blindly chose to trust the muscular man.
Therefore, every time the muscular man gave him different signals, he would follow the other person's rhythm without thinking.
For example...
Touching his nose meant to continue betting.
Scratching his head meant not to bet.
Offering a cigarette meant a golden flower (a specific hand in Zha Jin Hua).
After only five hands, I had thoroughly figured out the muscular man's subtle movements!
However, the win rate was extremely disappointing.
In five hands... he only won two!
Of the three hands he lost, the muscular man only accurately transmitted the signal not to bet once.
The other two times, he transmitted incorrect signals.
In other words, with the enhancement of high-tech gadgets, Shi Jianguo could barely maintain a 50/50 win-loss ratio!
Clumsy! Extremely clumsy performance!
So, before long, Shi Jianguo's mindset became unstable, and he directly started making insinuations and cursing...
I had initially thought that his tricks would end there, and it would be my turn to dominate.
But what I didn't expect was that right after Shi Jianguo finished cursing, the winner of the previous hand, a middle-aged man sitting diagonally opposite me who seemed to have no presence, started using his sleight of hand – fake shuffling!
It was only at this moment that I realized that the damned Shi Jianguo was actually playing a stratagem with me!
"Feinting one path while attacking another!"
Although I hadn't left any flaws yesterday, and if I had, I probably wouldn't have been able to leave, Shi Jianguo, having lost too much, couldn't help but overthink.
He wasn't sure if I was cheating or just genuinely lucky, so today he pulled off this "feinting one path while attacking another" tactic!