Joe Locke glanced at him and said, âWhat, is there a rule that says you canât just follow if you bet a lot?â
âWell⦠thereâs no such rule.â
âThen quit your yapping. Youâve already thrown your hand away. Why are you even getting involved?â
Joe Locke rolled his eyes and urged Greg Jensen, âHurry up, itâs your turn. Are you going to call or fold?â
âI⦠Iâll raise you.â
âIf you want to raise me, you need to make a bet. How can you raise without betting?â
Joe Locke looked at the bare table in front of Greg Jensen and burst into a big grin. He knew what cards Greg Jensen had.
Three Kings!
And he himself had three Aces!
Having played cards for so many years, naturally, he had some tricks up his sleeve, and the hand he had just dealt was intentional.
As the saying goes, itâs not really winning when a big fish eats a small fish; true victory is when a big fish eats another big fish.
Only when both players have closely matched hands can one win big money. If the opponentâs hand is too weak, they would just run away, and you wouldnât win much at all.
Joe Locke was waiting for this opportunity to win everything from Greg Jensen in one fell swoop and avenge the wedding banquet.
Plus, he could see that Greg Jensen was already betting wildly in frustration. At this point, no matter how much he bet, Greg Jensen would definitely call.
Sure enough, after hesitating for a moment, Greg Jensen took out his phone and transferred one million to Quinton Creed. After getting one million in chips, he threw in five hundred thousand right away.
âFive hundred thousand! Iâm not opening.â
âYouâre not opening with five hundred thousand?â
Joe Locke sneered, âAlright, youâve got guts.â
He picked up his cards, pretending to look at them for the first time, deliberately making a surprised face, then took out five hundred thousand and said,
âIâll call your five hundred thousand!â
Upon hearing this, Greg Jensen immediately struggled, hesitated for a long time, threw in another five hundred thousand, and said, âIâll open it!â
After finishing, he slammed down his cards and exclaimed, âThree Kings! Iâve won, haha.â
As Greg Jensen was about to reach for the money, Joe Locke quickly stopped him, scoffed and said, âYou havenât seen my cards yet. I have three Aces!â
With that, he too revealed his own cards.
Seeing this, Greg Jensen was dumbfounded and muttered, âHow⦠how is that possible? How could you get three Aces?â
âWhatâs so impossible about that? If you can have three Kings, why canât I have three Aces?â
Joe Locke sneered, gathering all the chips from the table to himself.
The other three players were stunned by the scene.
âDamn, talk about a narrow escape!â
âYeah, if only Greg Jensenâs hand was a little weaker, he wouldnât have lost so much.â
Looking at the pity on the three peopleâs faces, Joe Locke said nonchalantly, âThatâs how it goes in cards. There are winners and losers.
Come on, letâs start the next round.â
After finishing, he looked at the dazed Greg Jensen and asked, âHey kid, are you still in or not? If itâs too much for you, you might as well stop and take a break to change your luck.â
Greg Jensen raised his head, took a deep breath, and said, âForget it, Iâm out.â
After saying that, he sat down to the side.
Joe Locke sneered dismissively, then continued shuffling the cards.
Seeing this, Quinton Creed chimed in, âMaybe⦠we should stop here. Itâs getting late. Letâs play another day.â
âWhatâs the meaning of this? Just when Iâm getting into it, you all quit?â Joe Locke said, somewhat displeased.
âItâs mainly because itâs too lateâ¦â
âNo way, if we donât play until midnight today, no one is allowed to leave.â
Greg Jensen glanced down at the time and realized it was just after seven in the eveningâthere were still five hours to midnight.
He smiled faintly and continued to remain silent.
In fact, Greg was well aware that Joe Locke had just cheated; and with his keen vision, he had long since seen that the other partyâs bottom card was three Aces.
The reason he continued to bet was to intentionally lose money to lure Joe Locke in.
In his view, a loss of one or two million didnât serve the purpose of âcollecting interest.â Only by letting Joe Locke win big could he be encouraged to keep gambling, or even become so engrossed as to bet recklessly.
Human psychology is just like thatâif you donât win at the start and lose some money, you might stop playing.
But when someone has won a lot of money and suddenly loses it all, theyâll desperately want to break even, going so far as to lose even more without regret.
This was a lesson Max Milton had learned over many years!
True enough, Joe Locke had just won over a hundred thousand and was in an excited state; now if anyone said they werenât playing, he would get irritated with them.
Seeing this, Quinton Creed and the other two put on a reluctant act and continued to play along with him.
âWeâve played with this deck for so long, letâs change it.â
At Gregâs signal, Max Milton took the initiative to suggest a deck change.
In any sizable game, decks are changed after a few rounds to prevent tampering.
Joe Locke had just rigged the entire deck, so upon hearing the suggestion to change it, he was somewhat unwilling, but seeing how much heâd already won, he agreed.
After changing decks, none of the four players could recognize the cards anymore, which seemed fair on the surface, but Greg, sitting aside, saw everything clearly.
With a few simple gestures, Max, Quinton, and Cole Barnett all understood what the bottom card was.
However, no big cards came out in the next three rounds, so the wins and losses were quite average.
Joe Locke was itching to pull the same trick again, but this time it was Quintonâs turn to be the dealer, so he had to wait for the next round.
However, at that moment, he suddenly discovered that the three Aces he had rigged were dealt to his own hand.
Startled, he feared he had seen wrong, and deliberately spread the cards on the table, taking a closer look.
Once he confirmed he really had three Aces, he couldnât help but feel overjoyed.
Cole, sitting beside him, couldnât help but remind him, âOnce you touch your cards, you canât bet blind anymore.â
At these words, Joe Locke got angry and retorted, âShut your f***ing mouth, I havenât even looked at my cards, what do you mean I canât bet blind?â
âHey, why are you swearing at people? This is a basic rule of the card game, donât you even know that?â
âLook, Cole, thatâs enough. Weâre just friends playing a card game, no need to take it so seriously. Besides, Mr. Locke indeed hasnât looked at his cards.â
Joe Locke gave Max a thumbs-up, smiling, âNow thereâs a man who understands!â
After speaking, he looked at the cards on the table, tossed out five thousand dollars, and said, âIâll bet five thousand blind.â
He was just thinking about making a big bet when, to his surprise, an opportunity came so soon.
Itâs as if someone brought a pillow when he wanted to sleep!
Joe Locke chuckled to himself, but saw that both Quinton and Max looked at their cards and chose to call, which made him smile even wider.
Cole seemed still annoyed about the earlier incident. Looking at Joe Locke, he said defiantly, âI bet five thousand blind too!â
Joe Locke laughed and said, âAh, thatâs more like it. If you donât go blind and neither do I, and with no one else calling, Iâll bet another five thousand to see whoâs bluffing and whoâs not!â
Quinton and Max hesitated for a moment, then continued to call, while Cole didnât think twice and went blind with another five thousand.
The four players went back and forth, calling several rounds, until it was just down to Joe Locke and Cole, neither willing to give in, continuing to bet blind.
Joe Locke knew he had three Aces, so he wasnât anxious at all; no matter how much Cole bet, he would always call directly.
When it came down to it, Cole grew angry, looked up at him, and challenged, âAre you brave enough to go big?â