It was now Nina's turn, but she wasn't in the best state of mind for making a decision. On paper, she was still in a relatively decent situation and that was a fact she recognized. However, the possibility of the whole thing being rigged loomed over her.
She tried to calm down, but while it wasn't too hard to appear outwardly calm, it was much harder to settle down the frenzy she was feeling in her mind. After a while, she thought that if there really was cheating involved, then she couldn't fold here if she wanted to confirm such things, so the cards would all be forced to be revealed.
And if she was going to stay, then she wanted to look confident, thus making a bet now could possibly put her in a better position than checking. However, following the logic that she might be cheating, meant that if she was indeed cheating, it would only certainly be a loss for her. After all, there was no reason for Emily not to take a bet she knew she would win.
The only thing restricting her from going all-in was the fact that it would look blatantly obvious that there was some cheating. Betting further only meant that things would get worse.
Ultimately, it was a gamble on whether or not foul play was going on. In other words, it was a coin flip for all she knew.
But that fact was lost on her.
In the end, despite the desire to make a rational decision, she made an emotional one instead, pushing in an extra 5 chips for her bet.
"There's no way you'll be willing to go with this."
For a moment, Emily wasn't sure what to do. The blind confidence that Nina showed almost made her doubt her own conclusions. It seemed that there must've been something wrong with her line of thinking. Yet, she couldn't find anything wrong with it in the end. Considering that it worked out before, she saw no need to fold.
However, she didn't raise the bet further, just to be safe.
And with that, the 10 of hearts was revealed.
In another world, where there was a 7 or a Queen that replaced a card, Nina would've had a straight. However, it was a bit hard for that world to exist given that Brian was quite literally rigging the deck.
When it became her turn once more, she remained silent for a little while. The look on her face almost made it seem as though she was lost. Eventually, Nina spoke up.
"Can I... add more chips to my hand right now?
Brian slowly turned to her, and with the same smile he always had he nodded.
"Of course. The only time you can't is after you've done an all-in. That would break the suspense after all."
Nina nodded before using a full set of threes to add 12 chips to her hand. From there, she directly put down an 8 chip bet, drastically increasing the stakes.
After a bit of hesitation, Emily matched it as well.
Soon after, both of their cards were flipped over, revealing the results. While both had a pair, the one with the King was considered better than an 8, giving Emily the win.
Nina looked back and forth between the cards, almost as though believing her eyes were deceiving her. That if she just looked one more time, the actual reality wouldn't be presented before her.
But unfortunately, that wasn't actually how real life worked. At least for people who weren't schizophrenic or with similar conditions, which included Nina.
Other than aggrieved breathing, she went silent while laying her head down and dug into her scalp with her fingers.
All of the chips went over to Emily, and as it would turn out it put her on the dot at 50 chips. A prompt appeared in front of her, indicating that she now had the ability to leave.
"Huh. Well, I guess there's nothing stopping me from going now."
Samantha responded in a low tone.
"It would be nice of you to go now, so we could actually play a fair game."
Brian let out a rather innocent-sounding chuckle, though his words took on a different meaning.
"Are you implying that either she or someone else involved is cheating to improve her odds? If so, you can directly make the accusation if you'd like. Should there actually be cheating, the person responsible will be punished!"
Samantha's eyelid twitched. In the end, being right next to the person who tried to fuck around, she didn't want to find out like him.
"...N-No I did not intend to imply anything."
After responding like a kid who got in trouble with the teacher, she clasped her hands together and looked down at the table. Taking this moment of silence, Brian looked over at Emily.
"There is no need to be in a rush to leave. After all, you can take the time to just experience the poker table. If you are afraid of losing something, you can always just fold and watch as things occur. I'd find it saddening if you left so quickly."
Samantha blinked a few times before slowly nodding.
"A-Alright. I'll stay for a little bit longer then. Just to watch."
There was a notable amount of nervousness that radiated from the others. In particular, Maverick was most apprehensive hearing that and it showed even while covering his face.
However, for the next round, she did end up folding right away as Brian suggested. It wasn't the worst hand, being a 5 of clubs and Queen of diamonds. Still, she didn't want to participate while her state of mind was a little light from suddenly finding herself with so many winnings.
Maverick folded instantly, while Samantha, Nina, and Victor all followed suit.
Although the atmosphere was somewhat depressing, Leo, Ava, and Max all put in their bets.
Ava had left rather early on, only there because she was forced into it with the big blind. As for Max, he lost his confidence quite quickly as well, despite the fact he actually had the winning hand with three-of-a-kind.
In the end, Leo was the winner once more. Leaving the ones who had already won with even more.
For the first time in a while, Maverick had decided to actually put down two chips willingly, while both Leo and Emily had folded right at the start. And with his first bet in a while, he had actually won some chips, leaving him in a much better spot than where he was before.
In all of those games, Jack had substantially more interest in them, mostly because he wasn't actually able to see the five cards that would come from the house, though the player's cards were still as clear as day.
It was then that Emily realized that she hadn't exited the game before the big blind came to her, forcing her to put down 2 chips. Now suddenly invested, she wasn't as willing to let go that easily.
At the same time, it was also when all of the next cards were revealed to Jack, while two of the cards that were supposed to be in the flop were swapped out in favor of more hearts.
As it would turn out, Emily had two cards that were both hearts. All of them together would've given her a flush.
Maverick and Nina were both quick to fold, while the others all stayed, looking to get lucky.
Though before the first round of betting ended, Jack attempted to show Emily the first three cards of the flop. It wasn't all that clear whether or not it succeeded, but he figured it had worked because Emily gave him a rather glance with a hint of surprise.
The first three cards were a 7 of hearts, Ace of hearts, and Queen of hearts. Paired with her 2 of hearts and Jack of hearts, it naturally gave her quite a large advantage. While she was pondering over her situation, it became her turn.
After a brief moment, she simply decided to check. Although she may already know that her hand was really good, she didn't want to raise any suspicions. Especially considering that she had yet to actually lose when she didn't fold.
The flop was revealed, showing three different hearts cards as expected.
Most people checked, while the first one to put down a bet was actually Max. He only had 5 spare chips and directly used all 5 of them, doing and all-in just like that. There was a slightly crazed look to his face, enhanced by the bloodshot eyes from crying.
He quickly looked around right afterwards, almost like he was looking for some kind of confirmation. His finger was rapidly tapping against the table while his gaze was rather blatant, almost like a dog growling when someone tried to take away its toy.
The previous rounds appeared to cumlate here and take their toll.
He had gotten desperate.