A Friendly House Game (IV)

The next hand started.

James was on the button, with Victor and Luke on his left as the small and big blind respectively.

True to his word, James had left his cards face-down on the table and was casually leaning back in his seat.

"Hey James, are you really planning to play this hand without looking at your cards?" Rishabh, who was first to act, asked.

"Yes sir. It's the least I owe you guys after zoning out for the last few orbits." James replied casually.

"Alright then. I'm going to raise you to $30." Rishabh smirked, before casually tossing in six red chips.

Trevor looked down at his hand and grimaced. After a few seconds, he tossed his cards in the muck and leaned forward with an expectant look.

"I really wanted to come in, but not with that hand. Anyway, I can't wait to see this train wreck." Trevor laughed.

Phil called the bet smoothly and smiled at James.

"Your move James." Phil said.

James looked over at his right.

Based on the profiles that James had gathered, it was extremely likely that Phil and Rishabh had middle strength hands at best. If Phil had a weak hand, he would have folded to Rishabh's pre-flop aggression, and if Phil had a strong hand, he would have raised to protect it against going to the flop with multiple players.

Rishabh, however, could have raised with almost any hand. It was likely based on his table talk that he had a hand that could hit flops hard. If he had had a strong hand, he probably would not have drawn attention to James' actions, and if he had a weak hand, he could also probably have found a fold given how likely James was to call a single bet.

James looked over at his left.

If he raised here, Victor would probably call looking for action. He would expect Luke to fold to a bet and a raise unless he had very strong starting cards. Rishabh and Phil might then fold to give Victor some face.

"Raise to a hundred." James said, separating a stack of his red chips and sending them towards the middle of the table.

"You sure you didn't peek James?" Victor asked lightheartedly.

James' heart skipped a beat. Victor's choice of words came very close to what he had been doing for the past few orbits.

"Of course, you were looking at me the whole time weren't you." James teased after he had gotten his heart rate under control.

"How did you know that? Were you studying me?" Victor asked in shock.

"Nope. Just a lucky guess." James laughed.

"Alright then. I kind of want to beat you again, so I'll raise you to $250." Victor announced, sending half a stack of red chips and two black chips into the middle.

"Fold." Luke pushed his cards away from him.

"OK Victor, I'll let you have this one. I fold." Rishabh said, giving a pained look at Victor.

Phil looked at Victor thoughtfully for a couple of seconds, before following suit and tossing his cards into the muck.

"So James, want to come along?" Victor poked verbally.

"For you, always." James said, tossing a black and two green chips into the middle.

"Should I have you open one of your cards, so at least you know what type of hand you have?" Victor asked.

"Only if you really want to." James said.

"I'll wait until the pot gets bigger." Victor responded.

The dealer burnt the top card of the deck before tapping the table and dealing the flop.

Eight, Seven, Four. Two spades and a club.

"Check." Victor said lightly.

"I think you missed the flop Victor, I'll bet $400 here." James said smoothly, tossing four black chips in.

"Just for you, I'll call. I'll even check the turn blind." Victor said.

"I'll check back blind too then. Make things interesting." James said.

James knew that Victor's call meant he was likely to have hit some portion of the flop, possibly with a straight draw, or even a flush draw. Even if James wanted to bet the turn, it was unlikely that Victor would fold. The only chance he had of winning was hoping that Victor missed the rest of the cards and then folded to his bet on the river.

The turn came a Jack of spades.

This was one of the worst possible card for James to see. If Victor had a nine and a ten and was calling to try and hit the straight, he would have gotten there. Similarly, if Victor had two spades, he now had a complete flush.

"Players went check-check before the deal. Action is binding. Dealing the river." The dealer announced.

The final card came onto the table.

It was a Jack of hearts.

"I'll bet something small James, so you can call and see what your cards are." Victor said, before tossing in a single black chip into the pot.

James thought quickly to himself. If Victor had completely missed the board, then he wouldn't have bet. The small bet meant it was likely that Victor had a middle strength hand, something like a straight that was afraid of a flush or a full house, or even a weak flush afraid of a bigger flush. On the other hand, if James had any two random cards, Victor would want to extract at least some value instead of letting him turn his hand over for free.

The best move for James here would be to raise and put Victor to the test. If Victor was weak, it was not impossible for him to fold a small flush here.

"I still think you missed Victor. I'll raise you to a thousand." James announced, splitting a stack of black chips into two and sending half towards the middle.

"That's bold James. Are you absolutely sure you haven't seen your cards yet?" Victor asked suspiciously.

"Absolutely. I will have to admit, however, that I have a very good feeling about this hand." James teased.

Victor turned over his cards. As James had expected, he had the deuce and trey of clubs for the smallest possible flush.

"Still have a good feeling about this hand?" Victor asked, digging for any information he could get.

"Yes sir I do." James confirmed.

"You know what? I was going to save that option until we ended up in a big hand, but I'd really hate to be bluffed off a winning hand by someone who hadn't even seen his cards yet. I'll take that option for you to reveal one of your cards now." Victor announced.

"Sure Victor. One thing though, no more raising after? Either call or fold?" James asked.

"That's fair. I'll take the left card please." Victor acknowledged with a nod, before pointing at James' hand.

"Let's see what we've got. I'm curious too." James said.

James reached out and turned over the left card with a flourish.

It was the four of clubs.

"Damn. That was the one card I did not want to see. You just made this really hard." Victor fretted.

"Sorry Victor, you picked the card. If it were a blank card it would be easy to call. This makes it interesting though, doesn't it?" James apologized politely.

Victor went deep into thought. He really didn't want to be bluffed off a hand by someone after he had used his "one-time", but he couldn't shake the feeling that James was lucky.

Should he call, or should he fold? If he called, there were twelve cards in the deck that would beat his hand - two fours, two jacks, and eight of the remaining clubs. The remaining thirty-odd cards would result in a win. The odds were with him.

"Alright James. Action gets action. I'll call. Let's see it." Victor said with fake confidence.

"Here Victor, I'll let you turn it over." James said, as he slid his other card over to the left.

"You ass." Victor laughed, taken aback. "You really know how to make things interesting don't you."

Victor reached for the card and turned it over.

It was a black queen.

Luckily for him, it was the queen of spades instead of the queen of clubs.

"Ah, so close." James said sadly, as he leaned back in his chair.

"That nearly gave me a heart attack you prick!" Victor scolded James mockingly as he scooped the chips in and started to stack them neatly.

Around and across the table, the other players sat back in their seats and laughed. It had been an amusing exchange, and for a minute, they almost believed that James would beat the odds.

"Next time Victor, next time. At least I got the sword hanging over my head to go away, and it didn't cost me that much." James said sagely.

"True." Victor allowed.

In the grand scheme of things, the loss of the hand didn't hurt James much at all. In fact, by getting Victor to use his option early, James could now play seriously and confidently moving forward. Furthermore, by playing blind and giving action to Victor, it was more likely that Victor would return the favor in the future.

This was the true epitome of fertilizing the fields to increase the harvest later.

"I guess I owe you one James." Victor said after a bit of thought. Victor was starting to feel a little bad about how he had hesitated despite James giving him a lot of face and action.

"I'll take it. Like I said yesterday, just come hang out and bring a couple of friends next time." James said graciously.

To his right, Phil nodded his approval. James was progressing quickly.