Clouds of cigarette smoke stain the ceiling of a room of creme lighting and swirling deep red carpets. In the center of the room was a semi-circle poker table, with a thin layer of dust caked on it. Four individuals, the players, walk through the dark wood doors. The dealer, cloaked and masked, waits for them at the table facing the door. On the mask was a strange depiction, swirling lines in an almost uniform fashion; comparable to a Celtic knot. The players held little conversation amongst themselves, a cold air between them.
Clouds of cigarette smoke stain the ceiling of a room of creme lighting and swirling deep red carpets. In the center of the room was a semi-circle poker table, with a thin layer of dust caked on it. Four individuals, the players, walk through the dark wood doors. The dealer, cloaked and masked, waits for them at the table facing the door. On the mask was a strange depiction, swirling lines in an almost uniform fashion; comparable to a Celtic knot. The players held little conversation amongst themselves, a cold air between them.
One of the players was Erl Diny, the prince of Central Europe. His country is in debt to the Western Hemisphere Civilization and the kingdom is low in funds. Erl believes that taking part in this high stakes game could help pay off the debt faster. Even if it is only around one million, any amount can still help with the massive debt.
The second player was Iris Arango, a spy working directly under the Western Hemisphere Civilization Government. After rumors of an economic crash in Central Europe, she was tasked with entering the game after the prediction a Central European representative would be entering the game.
The third player was Gardener Rigatti, a representative of the Italian Government. After Central Europe occupied northern Italy and went into debt, the Italian government disliked the kingdom of Central Europe. Like the Western Hemisphere Civilization Government, the Italian government also made the prediction that someone from the royal family would enter the game to help with the debt. Gardener is tasked with ensuring Erl doesn’t win.
The fourth player was DeDe Imperator, a viscount of the Eastern Europe Kingdom. DeDe simply wants to help his growing empire buy out an area of land from the neighboring Asian supercountry. His main reasoning for entering the game was his assumption many rich people would be entering.
The political feud that lies between the four fuels their silent anticipation, as they took their seats around the poker table, the masked dealer greets them. “I welcome you to the grand peak of gambling in the world of casinos. As you know, our game here is of a very underground scene. So please, don’t tattle.” Erl replies with anxiety “Yea, yea. Can we just start the game?” DeDe answers. “With a game this ‘underground’, I would think we should at least go around the table with introductions, Some formality to this.” The dealer turns to DeDe. “No need for introductions. We are here for our reasons, there is no need to rope your personal lives into it.” Iris takes out a cigarette and lights it. “If you’re gonna smoke, don’t do it right next to me.” Gardener warns. Iris blows a puff of smoke into Gardener’s face. Her rebellious act angered him, but he pocketed his anger . “Alright, alright, let us start.” The dealer pulled out a deck of playing cards, shuffled it, and passed out five cards to each player. The dealer shuffled it once more, and placed it beside them. “Our first game is named Vordhosbn. For those familiar with Freud Vordhosbn, you may already know or have played this game. For those who don’t, I’ll explain the rules.” DeDe’s face grew a grin, as he was a devotee of Vordhosbn. It was one of his most practiced games in his teenage years, when it was still a fairly new card game. Though, one thing didn’t make sense to him. Vordhosbn didn’t involve gambling at its core. The dealer began to explain. “Every player starts off with five cards. The main goal of the game is to have as many Queens, Kings, and Aces after twenty rounds. After four turns, or when a single player has no more cards in their hand, everyone is brought back to five cards in their hand. This completes one round. The player with the most of either those three wins. Players can return two cards to the deck and replace them with two new cards. You can only do this once a round. Players can force another player to give them cards by placing down a card from their hand. If the requested player does not have a higher card than the one played, they must give them an amount of cards equal to the suit played. Clubs are equal to one card, hearts are two cards, diamonds are three, and spades are equal to 4 cards. If the requested player does have a higher card, the original player has to give them cards. The two can continue playing cards until one can’t play a higher card. All cards used are shuffled back into the deck. A joker card ends these duels automatically with no card trading, but a Joker cannot initiate one. If a player cannot give a sufficient amount of cards to a player, the player keeps their cards and the round ends. Aces high, standard 52 card deck. Any questions?” Iris leaned in, but was interrupted by DeDe. “What’s so confusing about this game that you would need to ask a question!? It’s so simple!” he exclaims. Iris ignores, “Where does gambling come into all this?”
“Ah yes, the gambling!” The dealer says. “Vordhosbn doesn’t usually involve deals of money, but this is a special case. Each player is worth one million dollars.” A sense of nervousness and confusion stings through the players. “Each of you can throw in any amount of money you want at any time. The winner gains all the money, including their own value.” The players glanced at each other. Erl tapped his foot anxiously. “Is everyone all set? Then, the game shall begin.”
All eyes turned to Erl, as he examined his cards. Jack of spades, Five of hearts, Seven of clubs, Jack of hearts, and a Queen of spades. “I-I want to return these cards.” Erl slides two cards to the dealer, who picks them up and shuffles them back into the deck. Erl receives his promised cards. He takes a quick look at the others and sets his cards down. Iris leered at Erl, trying to figure him out. She puts down a Seven of diamonds. Erl, caught off guard, grabs his cards and examines them once more. After a second or two of hesitation, he places a Jack of spades on Iris’ card. The uneasiness was thrown into her, as she gave three cards to Erl, with a sting of defeat.
During the fifth round, Gardener challenged DeDe with a Jack of diamonds, but he retaliates with a King of spades. “Haha! Didn’t expect that, did’ja? Haha!”. Gardener places down a Joker and slides the cards to the dealer, which infuriated DeDe. “Oh, what the hell! We never used Jokers in the original game!”. The dealer turned to him. “Well, think of this as a house rule. This is a casino after all.” DeDe huffed and slouched in his chair with a heavy brow.
Near the end of the fourteenth round, DeDe throws in five hundred thousand dollars. “What are you doing? There’s no point in gambling your own money.” Iris says to DeDe. “I’ve been playing this game forever. I know that victory will be mine. Trust me, this is no risk.”
After rounds of returning and dueling with cards, the twentieth round was reached. “Alright, last turn goes to you.” The dealer gestures to DeDe. “How will you end the game, sir?”. DeDe looked at his opponents and threw down an Ace of spades to Erl. “C’mon, there’s no way you can best that!” Erl gave him a puzzled look, as he withdrew a Joker from his hand and slid the cards to the dealer. “Goddammit! There’s only two jokers in a deck! How did it come up so much!?” DeDe yells. “All cards are shuffled back into the deck, guy.” Gardener says, annoyed. The dealer raises their arms. “Everyone, reveal your hands. We must decide the winner.” The players put down their cards face up on the table for the evaluation. Erl had two Kings and one Queen. Iris winning with one Ace and two Kings. Gardener, two Queens. Then there was DeDe, with nothing. “Well, it seems our winner is the lady, and the loser…” The dealer slowly turns to DeDe. “Sir, I’m sorry to inform you.” DeDe’s anger bursts. “This whole game was B.S.bullshit! I’ve played this game my whole life and have never lost! This whole game! This whole game was rigged!”
“Well sir, I’m sorry you feel that way. I hope wherever you go next is more fair.”
“What are you trying to s-” DeDe suddenly stops his interrogation, and falls onto the table. A multitude of different kinds of knives stuck out of his back, a sheen of blood confirming the authenticity of it all. The other players jumped out of their seats. “Whoa! Whoa, oh my goodness… That’s… Dealer, what the hell is going on here?” Erl spoke up. “Who turned this man into a bloody pincushion!?”
“Ok, ok, everyone. Calm down, just sit back down and this will all be situated.” A circular section of the ceiling above the dealer swings open, and a serpentine creature with beady eyes emerges from the entrance. It possessed smooth red skin, the scales were almost unnoticeable. The dealer rushed over to DeDe’s body and plucked out the knives. “What the hell are you doing? Preparing this snake thing some lunch?” Iris exclaims. The dealer looks up to her. “Well, yes. Yes, I am.” The serpentine creature turns towards the players, and sneers. It partially reveals its long fangs, unnerving them. The dealer snapped its fingers, alerting the creature. It slithered more out of the ceiling to reach the body, and swallowed it whole. The lump of DeDe’s body was visible in the creature, as it slithered back into its home in the ceiling. “Alright, that’s all done with. Come on, let us move onto the next game.” Still bewildered, the players took their seats. “Oh, I almost forgot to mention! The winner, you have won four million dollars, plus the ‘expert’s’ five hundred thousand! One point five million dollars!”
Erl and Gardener looked to Iris for her reaction, but she sat in silence. “You all must be excited for the next game, I shan’t hold you in suspense any longer!” The dealer began to shuffle the cards, and placed down a Seven of clubs and spades on top of each other, a pile of all suits of Four, and a Seven of hearts and diamonds on top of each other, horizontally. “This game is called Seven-Forty-Seven. The goal of the game is to reach seven hundred forty-seven points. To do this, you need to place down cards from your hand in a three digit format. The other players can subtract from your number by doing the same. For example…” The dealer places down a Three of hearts, Five of clubs, and an Ace of clubs. “The cards I just placed down equal up to three hundred fifty-one points. Now, any one of you can place down a number of cards to subtract from my number. Say one of you places down six hundred twenty-three points, now I’m at negative two hundred seventy-two points. Once you hit at least seven hundred forty-seven points, you will receive a Jack or a Queen, both are equal. If you hit seven hundred forty-seven points exactly, you will receive a King, worth more than a Jack or Queen. When you get. When either happens, your points go back to zero. Everyone starts off with eight cards. Once someone gets a king or 3 Jacks or Queens, the game ends. Aces low. In terms of money, it is the same as last time. The only exception is our winner from the previous game is worth the winnings from last time instead of one million dollars. Any questions?” Everyone was silent. The dealer passed out eight cards to everyone, the game officially started. As the game went on, everyone got more and more annoyed as their numbers went up slowly but were sharply shot down. After what seemed like hours of a never-ending game, something interesting happened. Erl, who is only at two hundred ninety-five points, gets to eight hundred eighty-five points. Gardener slams down one hundred thirty-eight. Iris swiftly turns to him. “What are you doing?! You just got him to exactly seven hundred forty-seven! The game is over, he won!” Gardener frantically grabs his cards. “Oh, caro dio in paradiso, I meant to play it the other way! Eight hundred whatever, dealer!”
“I’m afraid it’s too late, we have our winner. Who might our loser be?” Gardener looked at his cards. Two jacks. He looked over to Iris, who had a deep look of aghasment. She had one Queen. “Il mio Dio…” Iris looked over to the dealer, and took her last breath. She fell backward onto the floor, a wound similar to one caused by a gunshot was fixed on the areas of her heart and lungs. The same routine of the serpentine creature’s feeding was executed, as Erl and Gardener rubbed their eyes, dread and anguish surfing through their veins. “Alright gentlemen, the last game. How do we feel?” With a sigh of agony, Erl answers. “Let’s just… let’s just play this last game…” Gardener turned to him. “How could you say that? We just witnessed two gruesome deaths! How much do you really care about your terrible kingdom?!” Erl turned to him, something clicked in his head. “Oh, so you are from the Italian government.”
“By the word of God, I will make sure get eaten by that thing in the ceiling! We’ll get our land back, the land you ruined with your dirty, failing factories!”
“Oh my, we sure do have a rivalry brewing! Let’s start the game, shall we? This one is not foreign. In fact, it’s quite simple! Go Fish!” The dealer shuffled the deck and handed out seven cards to Erl and Gardener. “You may… begin!”.
As with any Go Fish game, nothing spectacular happened throughout. After about fifteen minutes, the game was finished. “Alright, now who is the winner?” The dealer checked their cards. There was a problem, however: they seemed to be tied. “A tie? That’s peculiar…”
“Wait, so does that mean… no one dies?” Gardener asks, with a bit of hope in his voice.
“That… is correct. Well, let us move onto the next game.”
Erl spoke up. “Wait, I, um, accidentally…” He revealed a pair that was hidden under another one, meaning he had one more pair than Gardener. Erl had won, and Gardener had lost. Gardener’s heart sank, and he began to tremble. “You… You did that on purpose… didn’t you?”
The ceiling creature crept out of its home. Gardener lunged towards Erl in a fit of unleashed rage, but was stopped by the creature in time. It delivered a fatal bite, before consuming Gardener whole. “Well, sir, I am happy to inform you on your victory! You have won seven point five million dollars!” The dealer shook Erl’s hand, and gestured to the other side of the room. The wall had opened up, revealing an elevator. The dealer handed him the winnings in check form. “Your brain must hurt after you outsmarted all those losers! Go home and take a nap or something. I congratulate you once more!” Erl entered the elevator, and tried to process everything he witnessed. His hand holding the check stung a bit, as if it was punctured by millions of microscopic needles, he didn’t think too much of it though.
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