A Friendly House Game (V)

The rest of the house game proceeded smoothly from James' point of view.

Armed with the knowledge that his system had given him on the other players, and with his new loose table image, James started to pick up pot after pot.

Against Rishabh and Victor, James played a very cautious style, understanding that it would be too difficult to get them to fold against him too often. James kept the pots under control, and for every medium sized pot he lost against them, he would win two.

Against Phil, James kept the pre-flop game simple, calling with slightly more speculative hands and playing aggressively post flop taking advantage of Phil's propensity to fold to aggression whenever he missed.

Against Luke and Trevor, James opened up his range, raising even medium strength hands and suited one and two gappers. Against their overly tight range, James picked up blinds and created dead money situations in pots that led to highly profitable plays. Whenever they started to play back, James would just tighten up, confident in his judgment that they had probably picked up a strong starting hand.

James even took advantage of the relative comfort that he found himself in to practice some table talk.

---

In one of the early hands against Luke, James had opened with Queens, raising to $30, leading Victor to fold.

After seeing Luke reach for chips to make it $100, everyone else had folded.

"I'm so confident about the strength of your hand Luke, that I'm going to make an incredible lay down and show you." James had said, before flipping his hand face up and tossing it into the muck.

"I can't even get you to call huh?" Luke had said sheepishly, as he turned over Kings.

"Nope." James responded calmly. "How about that fold? Pretty good right?"

"Yeah dude, it's amazing to see how far you've come in a couple of weeks." Luke praised.

"You have to give me a chance to draw man. If you keep kicking me out of pots like that, you'll only win small ones." James teased.

Of course, James had an ulterior motive. After showing Luke that read and fold, Luke had wrongly adjusted to play more of his hands against James passively. That had allowed James to set the price for many of his drawing hands, and helped him crack Luke's Aces twice in the following few orbits.

Against weaker opponents, psychology can be a lethal weapon. That was why James stuck to a default play style using ranges and game-theory optimality, only adjusting to an exploitative style whenever he detected holes in his opponent's play. By balancing his ranges, James made it very difficult for someone like Rishabh to get a read.

---

Several hours later, the game had finally come to an end. After his dominant showing, James had ended up winning close to ten thousand dollars. Even though the game played bigger than usual for a five-ten game, being able to win a thousand big blinds in a short time was a sign of his strength and ability.

Coupled with his good grace whenever he lost a pot, and his earlier showing of giving action to the guest players, James had built a strong reputation with the new players.

Luke, Victor, Rishabh, and Trevor had all silently and quietly acknowledged that he was the shark at the table, and Phil had even given him a couple of approving looks and nods.

"Hey James, do you ever get involved in side bets at the poker table at all?" Victor asked casually, once the winnings and losses were settled.

"Not usually, but for you, I'd make an exception." James responded politely.

"I'll teach you a couple the next time we play. It might be the only chance I have to taking money off you." Victor laughed self-deprecatingly.

"Aw, don't say that Victor. You played incredibly well today." James was careful to praise Victor, keeping in mind the old adage of not tapping the tank.

"Maybe, but not good enough." Victor said, before continuing, "So, I owe you another meet. Why don't we set up something for the coming week? I'll take you to one of my other haunts."

"That sounds amazing Victor, thank you, I'd love to come hang out." James said enthusiastically.

"Any idea what types of friends you want me to bring?" Victor asked, mindful of his obligation.

"Anyone that gambles would be great. If you have people who belong to the rougher side of society, I think it would be good for me to learn how to interact with them too. After all, not everyone is as cultured or gentlemanly as you are." James suggested blandly.

Phil looked over and gave James a thumbs up. He approved of James' suggestions. First, it was always helpful to find more potential players for these games as they served as a small income stream into the gambling team. Second, by meeting with the seedier underside of society, James might discover alternative income streams that the Organization could tap into and cooperate with. Finally, he thought that James' insight into being able to play against and deal with people from all walks of society could only increase his experience dealing with difficult table situations - a skill that he would be likely to need at his first test.

James, however, didn't quite think that far. He was only looking for more players that he could connect and network with, and was hoping that he would eventually be able to find a resource that could handle any "wet work" that he would need.

As the old adage went, you can't make omelettes without breaking a few eggs. James was looking ahead to the time when he would start to make moves on the Organization, and would need to quietly eliminate a few roadblocks.

"Yeah, for sure. I'll text you early next week once I set something up." Victor said.

---

After Victor and the others had left, it was Phil and James left alone at the villa once more.

Once James had ascertained that they were isolated, he reached into his pocket and passed Phil back the flags that he had borrowed.

"Here you go Phil," James said, "That brings my debt down to fifty right?"

"Ah, not quite James." Phil said, his mind thinking quickly. If James continued on his current trend of strong performances, it was not inconceivable that he would pay off the debt. Once the debt was gone, Phil would lose one of his most important holds against James.

"It's like this. Most staking agreements work with a profit share. That means that as long as you're playing with my money, or any money that you borrow from a staker, half of the winnings go back to the staker." Phil explained.

"So, that means my debt is down to fifty-five? Can I keep the five thousand then? In case I need some spending money?" James asked casually. He had known that Phil would find a reason to extend his servitude.

Of course, Phil didn't know that this was exactly what James wanted. The more Phil felt that he was in control, the easier it would be for James to pull the rug out from under his feet when the time came. Besides, James believed that Phil would stop offering opportunities such as today's game if Phil believed James was a threat. It was best to act innocent for now, and be a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Once the time was ripe, James thought, Phil would be target number one. If he could find a way to eliminate Phil quietly, he might be able to succeed Phil as the leader of the professional gambling team. Then, with those credentials, he should be able to slowly build his reputation in the Organization and climb up it's ranks while slowly dismantling it from the inside.

"Not quite James. We've got a make up going on here. Since you're down sixty to me, I get to keep your winnings until we've made up that full amount." Phil took advantage of the opening that James had left.

By taking advantage of James' situation and using a fifty-fifty staking agreement, Phil had effectively doubled the depth of the hole James was in. He had to make sure that James would be reliant on his money instead of taking five thousand here and finding a way to multiply that.

"Hold up mate. I'm going to need some expenses money above and beyond the stipend you give me today. Which, by the way, I'm grateful for - it's keeping me fed. If I'm going to go out with Victor next week, I need to be able to pay my own way and gamble with him right?" James refuted.

"Y'know, that's a good point. You're starting to serve part of the role that Rishabh is doing. Here's what I'll do, I'll give you a black card you can use to expense entertainment, and I'll loan you the five thousand back and an additional five thousand so you have a bit of a stake. Victor's probably the largest fish in his circle of friends anyway, so you won't need much more than that. Of course, since it's borrowed money, the staking agreement applies." Phil said thoughtfully.

James laughed inwardly to himself. Now that he had understood Phil, it was all too easy to manipulate him.

"That's fair mate. How about this - out of our friendship, let's make it a float of twenty, just in case I stumble upon a big fish. I'd hate to run out of ammo halfway." James said.

"Alright." Phil agreed, knowing that it would be hard to decline this request once the friendship card had been played.

Phil passed James back four of the ten flags, and took out a black card from his wallet.

"Thanks Phil." James said.

James looked at the black card. It was different from the other credit cards that he had vaguely seen. There was no name or card number on it.

"Just so I don't run afoul of this - What's the policy on this?" James asked, waving the card.

"Use it for entertainment. Your own personal expenses should not be put on it. Trevor and some of the guys on his team will audit it on a monthly basis." Phil summarized.

"Any limit on entertainment?" James clarified.

"It's a black card dude. It has no limit. As long as it's entertainment with a prospective, go wild." Phil said.

"Got it."