Mardock Scramble полностью

From then on, the other players had to start off by throwing in the sum of the two bets—thirty dollars—in order to call and thereby stay in the hand. Or they could raise the stakes further, in thirty-dollar increments, or fold and drop out of the hand completely, losing any stake they had placed up to that point.

Balot’s two cards that she had been dealt—in the hole—were the ten of clubs, 10, and the seven of spades, 7. At this point in the game, twelve cards had been dealt to the players out of a total of fifty-two in the deck. She was third along from the dealer’s button.

It was a nothing hand, the sort of hand you should fold on immediately. Even Balot knew this. Hold’em was one of the games that Balot had beaten into her last night in the Humpty.

But Oeufcoque signaled differently.

–You should call.

Balot felt the instructions float up on her left hand. She picked up a thirty-dollar chip.

–Thirty dollars—I’d like to call.

She placed the chip on the table.

The old gentleman called too, and the potbelly quickly folded.

Last to go was the suit who held the dealer’s button. He called, then raised by another thirty.

The cowboy and the Doctor called.

Balot followed Oeufcoque’s instructions and called.

The old gentleman called.

There were no more raises. There was now $280 in the pot on the table.

The first round of betting was over, and the dealer discarded the first card in the card shoe. The burn card, an anti-cheating measure. A standard step taken to eliminate the possibility of any player gaining an unfair advantage by marking the cards.

Then the dealer placed three cards facedown in the center of the table. Community cards, called the flop. It was now time for the second round of betting.

The dealer turned each of the flop cards over.

K, 8, and 2.

At this point, Balot had no pairs and no chance of a flush.

A straight was still possible, using the ten, eight, and seven, but Balot didn’t know what the odds were of that happening.

The second round of betting started with the blinds: the cowboy put in thirty dollars, which the Doctor called, as did Balot on Oeufcoque’s instructions.

At this point the old gentleman folded, placing his cards facedown on the table.

The suit, on the other hand, called, and then raised by another thirty. No one folded, and by the time they were back at the suit, the pot had swollen from its original $280 to $520. Balot suddenly thought of what she would have had to do in her previous line of work in order to make that much money. The thought made her sick.

She knew that she would struggle to walk away from the hand now. She didn’t want to know what Oeufcoque had planned.

It seemed that Oeufcoque was ruminating deeply. As to the identity of the mechanic. She realized that he might not even be bothered by the actual outcome of this hand.

The third round commenced.

The dealer discarded the burn card again, then revealed the fourth community card.

The turn card, it was called, the penultimate community card. It was J. Balot jumped unconsciously.

She now had the jack, ten, eight, and seven; if the next card was a nine she’d have a straight.

She sensed that Oeufcoque was working out the next card using something beyond human perception.

If not, and he was just forcing her to call regardless, he was a rank amateur.

Or was he just trying to get her to act as if she was?

The cowboy started off with a thirty-dollar bet, which the Doctor called.

–Raise by sixty dollars.

The words floated up on her hand—she could feel them clearly, but still she had to check a number of times to convince herself that this was right.

–I’ll call the thirty dollars and raise an additional sixty, please.

She placed the chips down. Balot now had a total of $210 riding on this hand.

She saw visions of all her winnings from the slot machines disappearing in an instant, and she felt a pang of fear.

The suit called her sixty and raised another sixty. The cowboy called, and the Doctor did the same. It was Balot’s turn again.

–Raise by sixty.

This was the instruction she was given. It was do or die. She had no idea why she had to go in so strong in the very first hand. Balot called the sixty raised by the suit. Then she raised herself, bringing her total contribution to the pot to $330.

The suit showed not a moment’s hesitation. Indeed, he went on to re-raise himself.

The cowboy called—and, incredibly, raised again.

At this point the Doctor checked. A special move permitted from the third round of betting onward in which the player chooses to stay in the game without betting any more money at this stage. Balot became acutely aware that it was up to her now, and when the instruction came from Oeufcoque to call she actually felt relieved. She’d been worried he was going to make her raise again. She paid the $120 to match the suit and the cowboy, making her total outlay to this point $450.