After the first round of betting, the twelve n who had started the round with them had been cut down to a asly six, the other six of them far too scared to put anything on the line.
They knew just how much a serious ga with Charlie could ruin them, and so they backed off at the start.
"My lord, how does this ga work?" Ases Ash as he watched the server shuffle the cards.
"It’s simple..." Eliron said as he began to explain.
Unlike regular poker that made use of numbered cards, King’s Gambit made use of animals instead, each one differing in value.
Starting from the most valuable down to the least valuable cards were: Royal Stag, Beer, Deer, Racoon and Sparrow being the least.
Apart from this, instead of symbols like hearts, spades and others, in King’s Gambit, we had three colours.
Platinum Gold, Silver and the lowliest, Red. All arranged in descending order of value.
Ash nodded as he took in all the information, although he was completely new to the ga, he was already getting a hang of it.
"What if one card is platinum gold beer, but the other is a silver stag? Which card would be more valuable?"
Eliron grabbed the glass of wine he had been given and took a sip.
"Colours act as a multiplier, starting from three for Platinum, down to one for red. A stag is worth twenty points and a beer is worth fifteen, aning a platinum beer will be 45 points, while a silver stag will be 40 points..."
"I see... so how is the ga played?"
Eliorn relaxed deeper in his chair, it felt like he was teaching his brother how to gamble for the first ti...
He then pointed at the cards in the centre of the round table.
The cards there were known as community cards, three of them in total. One would be added after every round until it beca six...
Once the ga starts, each player is given three personal cards, and after each round, they would pick another card and sacrifice one.
aning, they only had three cards in hand at every hour.
So what is the goal of the ga? It was simple...
Every player was aiming to create the strongest possible combination. It was like collecting cards in an order, the most impressive one wins.
There are three official combinations in King’s Gambit:
Gold Rush (have five platinum gold cards of any type animal)
Five of a kind (Have five cards of the sa animal)
Full house (two pair, of three cards of the sa animal)
Ash’s facial expression shifted slightly as he thought it through. "But my lord, what if there are no matches?"
"Then in that case, the player with the highest ranking card wins. If they both have the sa highest ranking card, then the second highest ranking card in their collection will be checked."
"Finally... ’Call’ ans you match the bet, ’Fold’ ans you quit, and ’Raise’ ans you are increasing the betting amount."
"Are you clear on everything now?"
"Yes my lord!" Ash replied enthusiastically, but his face betrayed that there was sothing else on his mind.
Eliron sighed. "What is it?"
Ash was surprised that he caught on, but answered nonetheless. "I was just wondering, how you know the ga so well—"
Eliron had the most brazen, stoic face on as he gave a flat out lie.
"Pfft, I read it in a book, is there a problem with that?" Eliorn asked.
"Of course not my lord..."
’But we don’t have any books on poker...’ Ash wanted to add, but decided against it.
It was not the first ti the elven lord had showcased strange wisdom he was not ant to have.
As long as it was to the glory of Artaris, Ash could care less of its origins.
"If you’re done with all that talk..." Charlie smirked.
Eliron’s card ca flying to him and he grabbed it, flicking it to the side to see what he had gotten.
"Shall we continue?" Charlie finished, grabbing his card from the table as well.
"Excuse my manners, I had to educate my companion on the arts." Eliron answered smoothly.
’Platinum Gold bear... not bad.’ It seed the SSSR luck skill he had activated was already doing wonders.
Eliron tossed one of his cards back to the pile and relaxed, watching as the ga proceeded.
Charlie stared at the card in his hands, making a show of trying to decide before tossing one to the pile.
"And what would a fledgling like you know about this art?"
Since the starting player changes every round, this ti it was a robust man who started the round.
"I bet another twenty chips...." he said, brewing with confidence as he pushed the chips forward.
— Call
— Call
— Fold
— Fold
Charlie puffed up so smoke. "Call..."
But when it got to Eliron’s turn—
"Raise."
’This kid!’
Charlie thought as he watched Eliron once again raise the betting amount. His eyes were cold, emotionless, and completely unreadable.
’Alright, if you want to play that way, let’s play!’ He scread internally, his passion boiling to the point of overflowing.
’Show how far you can go!’
The next rounds were even fiercer. Although the weather was cold, the heat in the tavern had searing.
The round table was soon crowded by onlookers as they watched life changing amounts of money being gambled away at the blink of an eye.
— Are these people mad?
— The money here can buy my entire village and all the people living there!
— Can I please have one gold coin?
Cards were flying up and down, the sound of falling chips rattling in their ears like a symphony.
Glass cups clicked on the hard wood table as refills were made, sweat dripped down foreheads as bets were raised, and faces fell as so warriors in the betting ga folded, surrendering their money for the sake of preserving what little dignity they had left.
But in the midst of the battle, two n were burning like an inextinguishable fla.
Eliron stared at the cards in his hand, a small frown on his face as he tossed one out.
’I need to get a gold rush... and not just any gold rush, but one with a royal stag.’
His reasoning was simple, SSSR Luck was a skill that he could use, only because soone else had once used it, if not it wouldn’t exist.
This ant that he was not the only one capable of using the skill, Eliron had a suspicion that Charlie had sothing similar in the very least.
After all, it was unnatural to have won so many gambling gas without having so sort of edge over the other players.
If he wanted to win, then he had to go all out!
Flick!
The final card of the community cards were released, and then each player received their cards.
This was the final round...
Tension enveloped the table like a thick, oppressive cloud, weighing heavily on every one’s minds.
Even those who were not a part of the ga felt nervous, because they knew that this would be the final bout... right now, tens of thousands of coins were about to change hands!
There were only three n left on the table.
Charlie, Eliron and another man who had managed pushed this far...
All three of them were sweating buckets, but sohow, Charlie and Eliron still had cocky looks on their faces as they stared at each other, gauging their reactions.
Just one slip up, a little twitch of the eyes, a little show of fear—
And they would be swallowed whole.
Phew—!
Eliron let out a breath.
Everyone’s final personal card was still face down. No one had dared to look, because that it might as well be their fate.
"It looks like you have more balls than everyone else in this room. To think a kid would go this far with ..." Charlie spoke.
"But, who do you reckon will win this ga? Gold rush? Don’t be ridiculous, that only happens once every ten years, you can’t possibly beat with that."
Eliron smirked, sweat clouding his vision.
’So he already knew what I was going for?’
"You sound sacred, Charlie. Are you afraid I’ll taint your pretty little record?"
"You’ll need ten of yourselves to scratch kid, give up now, and maybe I’ll consider forgiving you of your debt."
"You don’t have enough money to pay do you? This might turn very nasty quickly..."
"I’m still in this ga you—" the last player wanted to speak, just before Eliron cut in, completely ignoring him.
"Hahahaha! Ugly? The only thing that will be ugly after this is your record. You gambled against death and won? But lost to a kid playing for the very first ti."
"The bards will sing of my legend till your kids have kids. The story of the boy who beat the gambling king on his first try."
Charlie responded with a casual smile, but Eliron could see a subtle twitch in his eyebrow.
’His cards aren’t complete!’
If Charlie’s card were already ready, then he would have had a hundred percent confidence.
There was only one problem... Eliron was missing a card as well.
The final card... this was the card set to determine their fate.
’Here goes nothing...’
Eliron flipped the card over, and at the sa ti—
Charlie pushed fifty gold chips forward.
"Fold..." the second gambler shook his head in a dejected manner, tears rolling down his eyes as he held his face with both hands, weeping like a child.
By folding, had just lost more than he was worth. But at least, it was better than losing another five thousand silver in debt.
Eliron’s gaze darkened as he saw his final card.
— It looks like Charlie has gotten the card he needs...
— Things don’t look so good for that kid.
— I’m telling you, they’ll take his organs as paynt, I’ve seen it happen before!
’You’ve fought well my lord...’ Ash thought as he watched Eliron.
Although it was his first ti, he had carried himself with just as much composure as the veterans.
No matter the outco, he would stand by his lord.
Eliron sighed, his shoulders slumping.
Then a devilish smirk appeared on his face as he shoved a bunch of chips forward.
"RAISEEEE—!"
"..."
The onlookers were frozen with both shock and anticipation, even Charlie who had been confident a few seconds ago seed slightly worried.
"Since no one has chosen to fold, you may now reveal your cards..."
Eliron raised the three cards in his hand, and slamd them on the table.
Three Stags, two bears and one racoon...
Each of them platinum gold!
"It is Gold Rush!" One of the onlookers scread, unable to believe his eyes.
Gold rush was so rare, that it was said that most people would never see it in their lives.
"Soone finally beat Charlie!!"
But the chatter ceased the mont Charlie exposed his cards, a dark look in his eyes....
..
..
A/N
Longer Chapter because I didn’t want to stretch this into two Chapters, it’s cheaper for you guys this way.
In the next Chapter, we will be seeing the blinking rchant!
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