Seeing the chips he had won back now lost again, as if his pride was hurt, He Guan suddenly sneered, "Brother, is it interesting to play every hand by discarding the lowest card and then looking at the cards to bet?"
Hearing this, I sneered silently without a word, thinking: Before I can gauge your depth, it's better to be alive than to be uninteresting!
Seeing that I wasn't responding, He Guan gritted his teeth in frustration and fell silent.
Afterward, no matter what kind of hand I was dealt, as long as the cards were smaller than He Guan's, I would decisively choose to fold and retreat, letting him take the ante.
Unable to provoke me, He Guan said no more and began to change his tactics and play style, shifting from aggressive to steady accumulation.
This is the specialty of a top-tier cheat.
Perhaps to outsiders, using a large bet of 10 million to steal a 1 million ante might seem like a way to accumulate wealth, but...
The dealer cannot deal He Guan better cards than me every hand, and with the home-field advantage, he almost always calls, regardless of whether the advantage is on his side or mine.
In several previous hands, He Guan had suffered losses due to calling, so relying on his seasoned experience, after accurately judging my intentions, he adjusted his strategy accordingly.
In the hour and more that had passed, He Guan had accumulated over 110 million in chips, slightly ahead of me.
After catching He Guan in a few hands, I maintained the gap between us at around ten million.
Please don't think that true high-stakes gambling is always thrilling and full of dazzling displays of cheating techniques.
True high-stakes games never test cheating skills, but rather gambling skills!
Gambling skills, as the name suggests, are a combination of card-playing techniques and cheating, both complementing each other and being indispensable.
Until their respective gambling skills are fully displayed, top-tier cheats will choose to lie low and endure.
As soon as an opportunity arises, it's usually a single hand that decides the winner and loser.
At other times, they wait for an opportunity and adjust accordingly.
Therefore, the first hour of our game was dull, and the spectators were bored.
Until the second hour began.
In one hand, after both He Guan and I received good visible cards, the contest of wins and losses at the table, and life and death off the table, officially began...
After dealing the hidden and visible cards, the dealer said to He Guan, "Mr. He's card is a Jack, you speak first."
Glancing at my visible Ten of Clubs, He Guan picked up a rectangular plastic chip worth one million and threw it onto the table.
"Just a token, one million!"
"I call."
Without any extra words, I directly threw a million chips into the center of the pot.
The visible cards in this hand were comparable, so I chose to call.
Immediately, the dealer began to deal the second card, dealing to He Guan first, then to me.
It was exactly the same as the rules for Stud in Wenzhou, from the third card onwards, the dealer dealt hidden cards to the guests, which the guests would reveal themselves after feeling the cards.
Under normal circumstances, this would be an excellent opportunity for a cheat to switch cards, but...
In a situation like tonight, He Guan might be able to operate, but as for me... I had to wait and see.
Regardless of the region, if caught cheating at cards, one would be directly ruled as having lost.
I cannot lose, because if I lose, I lose my life!
As expected, it was as I had guessed.
He Guan picked up the card and began to slowly feel it, bit by bit.
He felt the cards very slowly, just like an ordinary gambler.
This situation would absolutely not occur with a cheat; if it did, it would mean something unusual was afoot!
At this moment, my eyes did not blink, staring fixedly at He Guan.
Although cheats rarely cheat at the beginning of a game when the opponent's strength is not yet known, necessity dictates action.
As long as I could win a big hand, after betting the one million ante, I could stall for time and probably last until the end of the game.
Therefore, in every hand from now on, I cannot afford to be careless.
Because He Guan might start cheating from this very hand.
Suddenly, I saw He Guan's little finger and ring finger on his left hand hook inwards slightly.
Due to the distance, He Guan's fingers were facing away from me, so I couldn't see exactly what his fingers had done.
But I was sure He Guan had cheated, and this guy, like me, could use both hands.
From this single observation, I concluded that He Guan was the toughest opponent I had encountered since my debut!
As I thought this, He Guan had finished feeling his cards and revealed them.
A Ten of Hearts.
At this point, He Guan's two visible cards were: Jack of Diamonds and Ten of Hearts.
To be honest, seeing this Ten of Hearts made me somewhat suspicious.
Firstly, He Guan took too long to feel his cards.
Secondly, after such a long time feeling the cards, only to reveal a Ten of Hearts was simply unreasonable.
After carefully considering the matter, I deduced that He Guan had most likely switched his cards.
After feeling the third visible card, he had swapped it with his first hidden card and revealed it!
If this deduction was correct, then the common cheating technique in Stud for swapping hole cards that He Guan had used was "Cloud Moon"!
The so-called "Cloud Moon" is: How can there be a moon in the clouds? It's all an illusion seen by the eyes; the real moon is far away in the heavens!
After swapping the visible and hidden cards, the third card dealt by the dealer had already been hidden by He Guan.
Based on He Guan's first visible card, the Jack of Diamonds, it was likely that the hidden card was also a Jack.
In other words, He Guan now held a pair of Jacks.
If I were to call, I would have to ensure that the card dealt to me by the dealer could form a pair with either of the two cards I currently held.
Otherwise, the probability of losing would be very high.
With this thought, I began to feel my cards...
As soon as the corner of the card emerged, I saw it was a King, which was a disaster!
What I had originally intended was to fold decisively if the value of this card was below 9, but unexpectedly, it turned out to be a King, which could form a straight.
There was no other choice but to continue looking.
The bet was one million, and after He Guan called, the dealer continued to deal. kAnshu伍.ξàwΑp.kanshu伍.net
After the hidden cards were dealt, I revealed a King. My visible cards were Ten, King, King, and the hidden card was yet to be seen.
I don't usually like to look at my hidden cards in Stud; that's what Uncle Tuo taught me.
He said that as long as the visible cards were decent, it was best not to look if possible, as this could put psychological pressure on the opponent.
With a pair of Kings in hand, I didn't hesitate and directly bet ten million.
As long as He Guan's hidden card was a Jack, he, like me, had lost the opportunity to form a straight.
Looking at the pairs alone, I had the advantage over him!