James lifted his cup slowly and teasingly.
One...
Six...
Six...
One...
Four.
"Ah unlucky. I was dead even if I had called you at four." James said lightly, "Alright, fair's fair. I'll show you one card tomorrow at the time of your choosing."
"You're a good sport and fun to hang out with James. Here, take my number. I'll come out and bring my friends anyway." Victor said.
Sometime during the commotion, Rishabh had come back downstairs and was observing the exchange. Upon seeing Victor's response, Rishabh surreptitiously shot James two thumbs up. He was appreciative of James' efforts to entertain Victor, and getting Victor to bring more of his rich friends was a pleasant bonus.
"Thanks for the game Victor, look forward to playing with you tomorrow for sure. Also, looks like Rishabh is back, and our girls are getting lonely. They have been shooting us come hither looks for a while." James said as he made room for Rishabh to re-enter the conversation.
James took his leave and went back to sit next to Lulu, with Phil giving him a pat on the back as he passed.
[ System is curious. Why did you not peek during the final round? ]
I wanted to play a fair game. Besides, if I cheat all the time, then what's the point of gambling? I'll use it when I need to, but for something like this, I prefer to rely on myself and experience it pure. James thought inwardly to his system.
[ That is a good answer James. You have the right spirit for the God of Gamblers. System approves. ]
James waited expectantly upon hearing that. After a couple of moments, he prompted his system inwardly. No reward?
[ We've progressed past the point of achievements and perks James. But, since you asked so nicely, I'll just point out that dice is also a form of gambling, and approaching it with the right attitude will let you master dice just as you are mastering poker. ]
Looks like you're back to being a miser. James thought.
[ We're one now. If System is a miser, you are a miser too. ]
Never mind then, James shrugged to himself.
The rest of the night passed simply, with Victor inviting James over to play three-handed Liar's Dice for drinks.
---
The next day rolled around quickly.
James pulled up and parked in front of the villa entrance and headed in to the rec room through the right door and left hallway.
"Hey James, glad you're still alive after last night's drinking." Rishabh greeted James from the couch, nursing a bottle of ice-cold water.
"Good job last night mate. You might be a natural at relationships." Phil praised.
"Hey guys. Thanks Phil. Where's the others?" James asked.
"They'll be here soon. Victor isn't going to show up for a little bit yet. I asked you and Rishabh to come over early so we can discuss a few things." Phil answered.
"Go for it. I'm all ears." James said, as he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and sat on the couch across Phil.
"Alright. As you are probably aware, the purpose of today's friendly game is to help you practice for your actual game at the end of the month. Now, although we have a guest, I want you to play to the best of your ability. Rishabh or I will make it up to Victor later if he gets taken for too much." Phil instructed.
"Sure Phil. I was planning to taking this session seriously. It will be very good practice." James affirmed.
"Hey Phil, does that mean I get to treat James like he's a hostile player and try to take him for all his money?" Rishabh interrupted with a short laugh.
"Yes my man. James, I'll extend you as much credit as you need. Anything you lose gets added back to your debt, and if you win, I'll take half the winnings for the staking agreement, and the other half against the debt." Phil said.
Phil clearly wanted to keep the debt over James' head as long as possible. That was one of the key strings he could pull in the relationship to maintain control over James.
"Alright Phil, that sounds fair." James nodded his head as he replied.
Little did Phil know that James now had his own reasons for wanting to stick around. The supposed puppet string that Phil thought he had control over could be used in both directions.
"Great attitude. We're going to be playing for smaller stakes this time, five and ten." Phil said.
Five and ten referred to the size of the small and big blinds respectively. With a ten dollar big blind, this game was about one-fifth the size that he had played before, but five times the original one-two game.
Although the size of the game scaled linearly to the size of the blinds, the variance and variability would adjust multiplicatively. For example, if you played a one-two game with $20,000 in your pocket, you would come out pretty much where you would expect over time. Playing that same game at five-ten would increase your chances of going boom or bust. With a twenty-five and fifty game, having only $20,000 was close to equivalent to pure gambling, as James had already experienced.
"Thanks Phil. Are you going to loan me the usual amount?" James asked casually.
"Yeah, why not. It'll keep you from coming to me too often. Might make Victor suspicious too if I keep passing you chips." Phil laughed, referencing the last home game that James had played disastrously.
As he finished his sentence, Phil tossed eight flags over to James.
"Here's forty. That should give you more than enough ammo for today." Phil said casually.
James caught the flags and put them in his pocket. He was intending to buy in for one flag at a time, and this should be enough for him to weather through the up- and down-swings.
---
A couple of hours later, the rest of the crew, the dealer, and Victor showed up at the villa, and the game begin.
After drawing for seats, James was once more seated on Phil's left with Victor on his left. Going clock-wise around the table, it was Phil, James, Victor, Luke, Rishabh, and then finally Trevor.
Without much ado, the game started.
The first few hands passed pretty quickly, with the players electing to settle in, chit chat, and grab drinks before starting fireworks.
However, unknown to the other five players, James had activated his trump card.
Let's peek at all of these hole cards early, James instructed his system.
[ From yesterday's experience, System thought you wanted to play a fair game? ]
I do, James thought internally, but these guys have the benefit of having had played each other numerous times before. Other than Phil, this is the first time I'm playing any of them. I'll stay away from the hacks once I get involved in a serious hand so I can train my own skills, but for now, I'd like to build a profile on each player so that I can understand their ranges better. Besides, I've been cheated once, I'd like to make sure I don't get cheated again.
[ That is a reasonable compromise to make. As you gain in experience, System believes you will be able to quickly assess the other players without System's help. ]
I know, James told his system again, but if I have to do this the long and hard way, we're going to be hungry for a long time.
[ Good point. Peek activated. ]
James sat back and folded every one of the first few hands. As he did so, he was looking around the table to see how each of his opponents played. Of course, with the benefit of being able to see their hidden cards, James could more accurately tell whether the first few hands were illustrative of their overall play style, or just the result of the cards drawn.
Based on his insight, he noticed that Phil, Victor, and Rishabh were likely to the action players in the game. In the first few hands, these three players had taken the opportunity to raise liberally pre-flop, often with middling to poor hands.
For example, Phil had raised with eight-seven suited, Ace-five unsuited, and even deuce-trey suited while out of position. However, Phil didn't get completely out of line - with the exception of the eight-seven, he would play responsibly on the flop, and fold the other hands to any signs of pre-flop aggression.
Rishabh, on the other hand, liked to play aggressively post-flop, often camouflaging the strength of his hands pre-flop by electing to call a single raise, and only re-raising on the one occasion that had all of the other players call. On the flop, he would then reevaluate the strength of his hand based on what he thought the other players had, and had already once made a good bet to make Phil fold a better hand.
Victor was the pure definition of an action player. He was willing to raise when folded to him, and call almost all raises pre-flop. James even had the luck to seen him open with the worst hand in poker, an unsuited two and seven. On the flop, his play started to be a little weaker, often calling when he had the chance to improve to a nut-drawing hand even if the pot odds were poor.
Luke and Trevor, on the other hand, seemed to play more conservatively, folding middle strength hands to an early open, and folding weak hands without trying to steal a pot. They played a more standard style of poker, commonly known as ABC poker, sticking to the basics.
After a few orbits were done, James turned off his active skill. Even after the first few hands, he had elected to stay away from the pots and had played extremely tight, folding Ace-Jack to a single raise.
This had not gone unnoticed by the rest of the table.
"James man, are you planning to play a hand today, or are you just here for the coffee and free food? How am I going to use my advantage if you never play a hand?" Victor asked teasingly, making a reference to the common stereotype of the Old Man Coffee that could be found in low-stakes games.
Phil and Rishabh shot him a couple of meaningful looks - even though this was meant to be a serious game, he should at least give their guest some face.
"Just sobering up from the drinks last night Victor," James responded casually, "If you guys don't get too out of line, I'll come along next hand for sure. I won't even look at my cards if I don't have to."
"That's the spirit!" Victor responded enthusiastically, "We're here to gamble!"