High stakes

The game that they were playing didn't change much from going from four players to two, just that now both players had two suits and had to get a cumulative count of fifteen cards from either.

In other words, if one player had to get both clubs and hearts, they could get ten clubs and five hearts and vice versa, as long as the amount added up to fifteen at the end.

Noah had insisted that none of the original elves be the judge on fair hands, which they had had to agree with otherwise he wouldn't play, something felt off about the whole thing, he just couldn't put his finger on it.

Despite his feelings of reservation he still felt relatively confident in his chances of victory, he had done it before after all, why wouldn't he be able to replicate his success this time?

Any of his skepticism was blinded by the monetary reward awaiting his victory which he had convinced himself to be practically ensured because he had made it work once before, committing a grave sin to all gamblers across all dimensions.

Julie was also entrusted with shuffling both the normal deck and the suit deck, doing so with a grace very few possessed in all the casinos that Noah had visited in his lifetime, her movements looking like visible movements of the air around the deck.

Noah had to commend her on that, not even he had reached that level of deck shuffling mastery, and he had personally trained in all the tricks in the book revolving around deck shuffles.

He was mesmerised by the speed at which the cards fell on top of each other, one at a time at a speed that the human eye could just barely process to a partial degree.

She then set the 2 decks down on the table, they were then both cut by the elf on Noah's right, this set in the true weight of what was at stake in Noah's heart.

His heart was starting to beat quicker just looking at the large pile of chips which were stacked just to the side of the table, his breathrate also increased with it, becoming shorter and shallower as if panic had set in.

He wasn't like he had been many years ago, back then he could have bet his entire life without batting and eye but now, now he could barely bare to comprehend just what was at stake.

`I'm really getting soft in old age, and I haven't even reached my 40s` this realisation caused him to laugh internally to try and keep his mind occupied once more.

His face let very little of this be noticed by the outside world, with very minute contractions in his face showing his nervousness, but it seemed that this had been picked up on as his opponent was smirking and had sat himself in a very sloppy posture.

"Won't your back hurt like that?" once again he was trying to take his mind off of the extravagant sum that he had just bet.

"Don't worry, unlike you I have the characteristics of a young human, thus my back won't hurt no matter what position it is put in"

This explanation really irked Noah who had developed a nerve for people calling out his age, he wasn't yet ready to accept that he was so old yet.

Julie started to hand out the cards, alternating between Noah and the elf until both had equal decks of 20 cards each.

Noah had a quick look at his hand, noting only the amount of each suit that was present.

He had 6 spades, 7 hearts, 2 clubs and 5 diamonds.

The last step was for both of them to pick up the suits that they would be collecting, Noah went first, not because of any rules or agreements, merely because he was quicker to the punch.

He managed to pull the hearts, a great start for him which meant he was in a great position from the start, but put the risk of the cards being reset as a high possibility.

The elf pulled the diamonds, his face seemed to have a constant grimace on it, a significant change to how he was right before the game started, almost like he hated Noah's luck in pulling the hearts.

Noah proceeded to pull the clubs, his heart starting to settle down, the threat of the hands being reset off the table now and leaving the elf with the spades.

That meant that the game had actually turned out to be completely equal even though both were incredibly close to winning right at the start.

Before play started they both had an instinctual stare off, Noah being the clear winner with his stare putting the elf in an incredibly flustered state, his head turning away faster than a race car making a turn.

This lightened Noah's mood somewhat, the speed of the head turn seeming unnatural and for whatever reason, funny, to the point where Noah had to hold in his laughter through great pain.

"So, how do you want to determine who goes first", an incredibly important question as in this one v one going first was a major advantage that could decide whether you won or lost, as such there was no way one could claim that they were going first without objection from the other.

"We'll do a chip toss, money side, or casino side?"

Noah thought for a little bit, even though he knew it was up to chance he still wanted to think his answer through, "Money side".

It had taken him less than a minute, but more than ten seconds to come up with his answer, causing his opponents to become suspicious, but not to the point of taking action.

*Tk*, everyone watched the flipping chip with baited breath, their heads locking onto the flipping piece of metal like a bird watching its prey from afar, the speed of the chip's fall seeming to be as slow as to stop time itself.

Noah could hear his heart pump, the pressure exerted on his blood being feelable in his ears, causing his hearing ability to lower drastically.

*Tk,tk,tk*

The chip landed with a force great enough to make it jump from side to side several times until it came to a stop, casino side up.

This sight caused Noah's brain to go into self-preservation mode, the math being invariably against him in this outcome, or so it seemed to him.

"Then I'll go first" the elf repeated the information back to Noah as if he was stupid enough to not know what the outcome of the toss meant.

Noah was about to respond before the elf leaned over and took a spade off him, `oh no,no no no no no no no`

Noah was already beginning to have a panic attack inside of his head, if his opponent kept this up there would be no way for him to win, and since his losing streak had started whenever Noah started to lose he always had some sort of attack in his head telling him to stop.

He had yet to find a way to block that voice from messing with him, causing his movements to be filled not with the confidence that he used to be known for, but with a fear although he tried to hide it.

After all, he had a strategy that worked, he was still hovering around certain cards looking for the subtle difference in ear posture that told him he was hovering around the right area.

He couldn't see it, no, not that he couldn't see it, the movement just wasn't there in the first place, the strategy that he had been banking on wasn't working, he was so sure that it would that he hadn't thought of a strategy for if it didn't.

Picking a card at random he panicked, it was a spade, he was a full card down without any sort of plan to help turn the tide of the game in his favour.

The elf remained as calm as he had ever been, the only thing out of place was his smirking face that was yelling for itself to be punched, he calmly plucked a card out of Noah's hand and without looking put it into his own.

`Wait a minute, how did he know that card was of the correct suit if he never looked` the elf was doing something, but Noah had no idea what.

He looked all around him, noticing that there was an elf directly behind him, "could you please move away from view of my cards?" he asked as politely as he could in his currently panicked state.

"I see no need to, I am merely watching the game"

"Well I would prefer if you watched his game" he was dropping the politeness, and secretly getting ready to slog the man if he didn't move, he just had a feeling something was wrong about the man.

"What a sad turn of events, calling out a bystander because you can't play the game, what has this casino become?" his opponent just had to open his big mouth, but he had a point.

Noah stared the elf down for a second before regaining his composure, "yeah you're right, I shouldn't suspect random people, that would be ridiculous"

"Wouldn't it just" the elf seemingly agreeing wholeheartedly to Noah's response.

It didn't matter in the end, Noah still had to figure out a way to turn this game around and find out how the elf was cheating.

`I'll definitely win this game and knock this damn elf down a peg or two` Noah begann replacing his fear with a determination to win he had never felt before.