Page 88 of Holiday Home 3
“We don’t get to see who had what after the round ends?” Anna asked as everyone’s cards were sucked back into the deck.
“Not unless the person wants to show what they had,” Avril said. “Just like how it’s done in Vegas. Hard to know if you really lost or you were bluffed.”
Liam reached for his winnings, most of which were his, though he’d already taken a hefty chunk out of Tess’s stack. As he gathered and sorted them, Avril shuffled. Once the button shifted to Anna, he dropped his small blind bet. Tess did the same for the big blind, and the next round began.
His ended rather quickly, as he had no interest in spending more time with his off-suited queen and three than he had to. He folded immediately, then became a spectator, though that didn’t stop him from scanning for subtle tells among the three remaining players, all of whom lasted until after the flop. Humorously, it almost seemed like they were emboldened to try their hand at winning now that he’d removed himself from contention.
Victoria took the round with a pair of queens, ousting Tess’s two nines. It would be a common enough sight on the turns where he folded. Victoria was his chief competition tonight, and she would be his final hurdle at the end of their first round of play.
About forty-five minutes after he’d taken the first hand of the game, he looked to take the whole game. Steadily, he’d accrued more and more chips, and he made the first kill of the night when Tess tried to fight back from the brink with a pair of jacks. Unfortunately for her, he’d seen a pair of threes end up before him, and the flop had added one more. From there, he’d let Tess dictate the betting until the very end, only for him to suddenly raise big. Caught between a bullet to the back or a knife to the front, she’d grimaced at the situation he’d placed her in. Either she limped away from a hand she’d thought would be her chance to recoup her losses, which would leave her with barely enough to account for her upcoming blinds, or she dumped the rest of her chips into the pot and hoped whatever she had was enough to overcome the trap he’d laid for her.
“All-in,” she’d said, pushing her meager amount of chips into the pot.
Their dealer had nodded at them both. “Flip ‘em.”
“Two queens,” Tess had sighed, already appearing aware of her doomed fate.
“Three threes,” he’d said right after, avoiding drawing out things.
“First one out is Tess Williams,” Avril had said as he collected his winnings. “One point for you for this round.”
“I feel violated,” Tess said, grumpily scooping up her drink. “I know I’m not a card shark or anything, but I’d hoped to avoid being the very first person to go out. I suppose I’ll have to seek my redemption next round.”
The next round wasn’t far off. Victoria ended up eliminating Anna not long after he’d removed Tess from contention, and the woman on his left provided the woman on his right a commiserating smile. With them both ousted from the round, they decided to refill their drinks. As Tess showed off the skills she’d acquired during those two years of bartending, he looked toward Victoria.
So far, he’d yet to figure out any of her tells. Tess tended to immediately glance at her chips whenever she liked a flop, which gave away the fact that she was considering raising the pot. On the other hand, Anna regularly showed uncertainty when it was her turn to interact with the pot. She was a bit quicker when she had a good hand, but she delayed a little too long when she wasn’t certain if she liked her chances. He could almost see the computations whirring behind her eyes during those times.
Conversely, Victoria flowed through the motions of the game so smoothly that it was almost entrancing. She never handled her drink or chips absentmindedly, which was a common enough mistake to make. Nor did she ever deviate from calm, collected neutrality when betting. He’d never once seena glimmer of satisfaction or frustration in her eyes when she’d peered down at her starting hand, either.
Noticing his attention, Victoria met his gaze. A stare-down with her was like goading the outlaw Wild Bill into a duel at high noon. There really wasn’t much to be gained and plenty to lose.
Everyone had tells, even her. He just hadn’t discovered what they were yet. He had tells too, of course, though he didn’t know what they were. His uncle had ironed out his bad habit of tapping the table when he had a good hand and was impatient for the betting to get back to him long ago. A few years ago, he’d noticed that he’d been trying too hard to intimidate his opponents with long stares, which had seen them folding early and often, causing him to lose chances to rope them in for more significant gains when he had good hands.
“If you’re thinking it’ll be simple to knock me out, you’re bound for disappointment,” the gorgeous woman said.
“Trust me, I don’t,” he said, smiling and shaking his head. “When it comes to you, I don’t think anything is simple or easy.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Avril snorted, lifting her glass.
“Hear, hear,” Tess agreed from the bar counter.
Victoria sent both women her signature not-a-glare glare. Avril chortled and began shuffling the deck for the next round of play.
“Blinds are doubled now, by the way,” she said. “Don’t want to keep half the table chewing on ice for the next thirty minutes and all.”
Liam nodded and tossed in two red chips. Victoria followed suit with a black pair. Avril went through the motions of doling out their cards as Tess and Anna, their drinks refilled, rejoined them at the table. The first round’s victor would be decided before ten minutes had passed.
By the time Victoria had knocked out Anna, he’d owned about seventy percent of the chips. Even with the increased sizeof the blinds, he had a lot of flexibility with how he wanted to approach this final leg of the game. Victoria, on the other hand, did not have such a luxury to lean on.
She won more hands than he did, though he folded a little more liberally than he had when there were multiple opponents to contend with. However, he didn’t give up on his “aggressive poker” dogma, especially when he had the big blind or a workable hand. Slowly but surely, he whittled away at her thirty percent. At around the time that he’d cut her winnings in half, Victoria sighed.
“It sucks to feel this powerless, doesn’t it?” Tess commented, smiling at her fellow professor.
“It’s a feeling I’m unused to, at the very least,” Victoria replied.
“I’m certainly enjoying seeing you lose,” Avril said. “But I would like it if you fight back and stop Liam from winning.”
“You know, you’re supposed to be unbiased,” he said, which caused the redhead to grin unapologetically.