A Friendly House Game (II)

"Liar's Dice?" James asked.

"Yeah. It's real simple. Here, let me ask the manager for some dice." Victor said before turning to the manager.

As the manager radioed for dice to be brought into the room, Victor continued explaining the rules to James.

"Every player gets a cup and five dice. You place the cup upside down over the dice, and give it a bunch of shakes for randomness. Then, each player takes turns to call out the number of a certain type of dice they believe the entire group has. If, at any point, you believe that a player is wrong, you can call his bluff. Everyone will lift their cups and count. The loser usually drinks." Victor explained.

That sounded pretty straightforward, James thought to himself.

"That sounds pretty fun." James said enthusiastically, aware of his need to entertain the guest.

"Yeah! Oh, usually, ones are wild, and two to sixes are in order of strength. So for example, if it's just the two of us playing, I can call four twos, and you have to go four threes to sixes, or five twos. Also, if at any point someone calls for ones, then the ones are no longer wild. There are a bunch of other house rules too - if all of your five dice have different numbers, you can roll again, and if all of your five dice have the same number, including ones, they count for double." Victor continued, pleased at James' response.

"Okay, I think I understand. How do you decide who goes first?" James asked.

"The loser of the last round gets to go first. Also, usually the minimum starting number depends on the number of players. If you have two players, then the first bid must be at least two ones, three of any number without wilds, and four of any number with wilds." Victor explained.

"Hold on, you can call a number without wilds?" James clarified.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. At any point, you can call a number without wilds, so for example, if I bid four fours, you can bid four fours straight. That means that the ones no longer count. If I want to make ones count again, I have to double the first number, so at least eight fours." Victor explained.

As Victor completed his explanation, a server came into the room with several sets of dice and placed them in front of him.

"Sounds good. I'm sure I'll figure it out along the way. Let's try it out! What are we playing for?" James asked.

"Let's go a couple of rounds without stakes, and then we can talk about it. I don't want you to think I'm taking advantage of you." Victor suggested.

"Sure. Let's play for drinks first then. Half a glass each time?" James offered, again cognizant of his system's previous advice to offer action.

"That's very generous of you James. I accept." Victor said happily. It wasn't often that someone would be willing to put up a wager on a completely new game. Victor felt that James' offer showed that James trusted him and treated him as one of the gang instead of an outsider.

---

James looked down at his dice.

"Four twos." James started.

"Five twos." Victor shot back quickly.

"Six twos." James said again.

"Open!" Victor said happily, as he lifted up his cup to reveal zero twos.

"Nice one. You got me good that time." James said, as he lifted up his cup to reveal four twos and a six.

James picked up his glass and took a hefty swallow, before giving his dice cup a vigorous shake.

"Ready to go again?" James asked.

"Of course. It's your turn to call." Victor said.

"Three fours straight." James started.

"Six sixes with wilds." Victor came back.

"That's a bold call." James commented as Victor looked pleased with himself.

That call was suspicious, James thought to himself. He wondered if he could use peek on something other than poker hole cards.

[ Sure we can. Since you unlocked the full potential of System, System is more than happy to help you peek at his dice. ]

[ Peeking... Victor has three sixes, one two, and one one. ]

James looked down at his dice again. He had two fours, a six, five, and a one. This meant that if he called Victor's bluff, he would lose, but if he increased the numbers, Victor could open his cup and he would lose again.

"You're a good bluffer Victor, I don't believe you. Open!" James declared, electing to pick the lesser of the two evils and give Victor the benefit of some more action.

"I have four of them." Victor announced.

"Drat, I have two. I guess I lose again. You're pretty good at this game." James said graciously, as he emptied his glass.

"You made the right call man. I think you're getting the hang of it pretty quickly." Victor responded generously.

"Yeah, this is fun! These practice rounds really helped me get the hang of the game. What would you like to play for now?" James asked.

"Let's play for something fun. If I win, you have to show me one card during our poker game tomorrow." Victor suggested.

"One card after every hand?" James clarified.

"No no, that would be too much. One card at the time of my asking, but I can only ask once." Victor responded.

"Even if we're in the middle of a hand? For example, if I'm all-in and you're thinking about whether or not to call? Do I get to pick the card, or do you?" James clarified again.

"Yeah! That's the whole point. It'll add an interesting dynamic to the game. You can shuffle your cards face down, and I'll pick either the left or the right. Does that sound fair?" Victor said.

"Sure. That will work." James said.

"What do you want if you win? From the games I've played in the past, I don't get the sense that Phil and the rest of the guys need to see my cards to beat me." Victor laughed.

James thought to himself quickly. Although he was short on money, he was sure asking for cash would sour the budding relationship very quickly. Instead, what he needed to do was to build a relationship with Victor and fertilize the fields so he could harvest more later. Furthermore, now that he had used his drop of blood to unlock the system, the money could wait a little longer. It might even be beneficial to him to continue being in debt to Phil if that would help him infiltrate the organization. On the other hand, if he gave Victor a free roll and asked for nothing in return, Victor would probably think James was looking down on him.

James needed to find something that would be flattering and advantageous.

"You know what Victor, I think you're a pretty cool guy. I kind of like hanging out with you and I think you'd be great fun to play poker with. So, if I win, you give me your phone number and come hang out with me the next time I invite you." James suggested carefully.

"Really? That's very nice of you James. I think you're giving me a little bit too much of an edge here though. So how's this, if I lose, I'll bring a couple of other guys with me as well." Victor offered. He was very clearly pleased at James' suggestion.

"Deal!" James said quickly. That was more than he had hoped for.

"Alright let's roll. Best of three." Victor put action to words, grabbing and shaking his cup.

---

"Four sixes." James said.

"Five fours." Victor countered.

"Five sixes." James fought back.

"Six fours." Victor continued pushing.

"Six sixes." James said strongly.

"Call. I have two." Victor said, as he lifted his cup to show two ones, two fours, and a five.

"Looks like lady luck is on my side this time, I have four of them. One to zero." James said, as he showed Victor his four sixes and a three.

"Your turn to start right?" James asked.

"Yep. Let's go with four fives." Victor said.

"Five fives." James raised.

"Call. I don't have any." Victor responded quickly, lifting up his cup to show a mix of twos, threes, fours, and sixes.

"Oh, that's a good strategy. Nice one. One-all." James said as he showed his two fives.

"Hey James, how about we play blind for the last one? It'll even the field a bit. I still feel a little bad since it's your first time playing." Victor suggested.

"You sure? You don't have to. I'm having fun." James said.

"Yeah I'm sure. You're clearly a good guy. Let's leave it up to fate." Victor said.

"I'll start small then, how about four twos." James said.

"Four threes." Victor came back.

"Four fours." James said again.

"Four fives then." Victor laughed.

"Four sixes." James laughed along with Victor.

"You know what? I feel lucky. Four ones." Victor offered.

"Five ones then." James came back.

"I feel lucky, but not quite that lucky. I'll call." Victor said, as he raised his cup to reveal two ones, two threes, and a five.

"Looks like I need three ones then." James said, as he lifted his cup.