Page 24 of Champion of Cards

Drake stayed out. So did I.

Now the two of them were locked in battle, throwing more chips into the pile until he was cleaned out.

The moment of truth came—and their cards were put on display.

She pulled off another good hand, miraculously.

He bowed his head in disappointment, releasing an angry sigh through flared nostrils.

The dealer pushed the chips to her. “Hugo is eliminated.”

Now it was just the three of us. We all stared at one another for a moment, trying to determine who was the easier target. She’d become the most powerful player in the game besides me, so I imagined it would come down to the two of us, unless Drake had a trick up his sleeve to eliminate her.

She seemed like the harder opponent, so I wanted to eliminate her and battle Drake directly. Strangely, there was this innate sense of protectiveness I felt toward her, but I had no idea where it came from. Was it because she was a woman? Was it because I wanted to fuck her? Her presence at the table distracted me.

Perhaps that was her move. Her beauty, her sexual energy, it messed up everyone’s game. I’d come here to win the Golden Card, and I wasn’t going to let a pair of beautiful tits fuck that up for me.

The dealer dealt out a new hand of cards, and we all looked at the same time.

Finally. I had some really good cards. Couldn’t have come at a better time, because the players had probably noticed that I won by a thread most of the time, that my cards were usually just on the cusp. They’d never seen me with a powerhouse set of cards like this, so that should throw them off.

We all pulled cards, and I exchanged my one bad card for another good one.

We sat in silence, all pretending to look at our cards when we were really thinking about how to proceed to the next stage. Every player at that table was ruthless and savage. No one wanted to make the first move.

The woman stared at Drake, like she wanted him out first. She tossed a couple chips into the center unenthusiastically, like she just wanted to get the game going. I couldn’t read her moves, and perhaps that was the point. Perhaps she had no plan…and that was her plan.

Drake met her bet.

I took my time before I added the chips to the table, not raising the bet, trying to fly under the radar since they seemed more consumed with each other than me. She wanted to eliminate him, but I wanted to eliminate her. Or maybe she wanted to make it seem like she wanted to eliminate him…but I was her true goal.

I love cardsss.

She raised her bet. Drake met it and tossed in even more.

I didn’t know who had a good hand or a bad hand. It seemed to be a pissing contest at that point. I could fold and let them take each other out, but that seemed like a waste of a great hand. Maybe I could continue to raise the pot and get one out…and still decimate the other.

I met Drake’s raise.

They both looked at me, as if they expected me to fold. Now they took me much more seriously…and I no longer flew under the radar.

Drake stared at me, desperately trying to figure out if I was only bluffing to stay in the game or if this was the real deal. He seemed to think I was bullshitting because he pushed the rest of his chips into the center of the table.

Kingsnake’s voice came into my head. I can see his hand…

Dessspite what you all think, I don’t cheat in cardsss. I kept my head in the game.

Fair enough.

I met his bet. So did the woman.

If Drake was wrong, he would be eliminated from the match. But if he was right, he would take most of her chips, as well as mine.

She put down her hand first. Triple pairs.

He put his down next, a smirk on his face. He had the Kingdom Come hand, the second-highest hand you could have. When he looked at me, that smugness was still on his face, because statically, it was incredibly unlikely that I could beat that.

I put down my cards—and wiped that smirk off his face.

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