Page 23 of Champion of Cards

We both waited for the other to raise the stakes further.

I didn’t want to risk any more chips. If I lost more than that, I’d be out for good.

He put his cards down—and it was a shitty hand.

I put mine down—and it was also a shitty hand.

Everyone looked at our hands, realizing we’d both been bluffing that entire time.

But my War Hammer won me the match.

The dealer pushed the chips toward me.

The player’s eyes smoldered in rage. He’d lost by a single card. It was a tough defeat to digest.

The chips were added to my pile, and now I officially had more chips than anyone else in the game. That meant they would all be strategically trying to take them away from me since I had the greatest chance of winning. Drake glared at me. The beautiful woman flirted across the table with her eyes. My gaze immediately dropped south.

Cards now. Titsss later.

The dealer shuffled the cards and distributed them for another round. “Damien has been eliminated.”

Now it was just the four of us.

Cigar smoke continued to float to the ceiling, and the waitress refilled our glasses. We all continued to drink booze, trying to prove to the other players that no amount of alcohol could poison our thinking. I had ale on occasion, but I’d never had the luxury of drinking it as much as I wanted. But my increased size seemed to reduce the potency of the alcohol.

We played more rounds, and the woman and Drake became locked together in a silent exchange. The rest of us had folded, but their bets grew in size. Drake was the one who raised the stakes, trying to get her to put all of her chips into the pot.

I knew she’d walked right into a trap. I wished I could warn her.

Once all of her chips were on the table, they both laid down their cards.

She smirked when she saw his cards, because her hand was unbelievable. The Black Dragon, the War Hammer, and four aces.

Drake did his best to cover his annoyance as he showed his hand. It was a good combo of cards, but not nearly good enough.

The dealer pushed the chips into her pile.

Drake still had a lot of chips, but now the woman had more than he did.

And that meant she’d become my primary target.

I felt a little guilty about it…

More hands were played, and I focused on the woman, waiting for the perfect opportunity to take all her chips. Now that she’d shown how good of a player she was, the other guy had the same idea. His eyes kept shifting to her instead of me and Drake.

We continued to play, and now she was the one who raised the stakes. A little smile moved across her lips, a flicker, and then it was gone. Perhaps it was a tell that slipped…or perhaps it was a fake tell.

But I thought it was real.

I met her bet just so the rest of the players assumed I had a good hand or assumed she was bluffing.

They fell for it, throwing their chips into the pile too.

My hand was shit, so I had no intention of moving forward, but I needed to get the others to the finish line. If she won, she would have more power, but at least another player would be eliminated.

She raised the bet.

The guy met it with his own and then raised it.

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