After the dealer collected the floating chips, he reached for the deck and burned the last card before drawing the river. I knew what William was looking for so I decided to try and read Tyson. But it was like trying to climb a cliff without a safety line, suicidal. I would just have to follow my gut when it came to him. And since I was pretty confident that I already knew what William had, I really just wanted to know if the river helped him or not. So keeping my eyes fixed upon William I saw the slightest twitch of a grimace but only for a moment, and that was when I knew I had him. I mentally sighed with relief.
Looking down I saw that the river had been the three of clubs, if it had been the three of spades I would have lost to a straight flush, which meant he had the five and six of spades. So instead of a straight or a straight flush he had a flush and an inferior flush at that. But that still left me with the mystery that was Tyson, what did he have? His stony eyes kept me at bay like a castle’s moat. When I glanced back over to William he was busy counting over his chips, and as he went he glanced at the piles in front of the rest of us. “Well since I’m the low man at this table I think I need to do something to rectify that so… I’m all in.”
After the dealer confirmed the count of William’s pile I sat there wondering if I could possibly be wrong with my read. But I kept coming back to his reaction when he saw the river card. No, all he had was a flush, normally a good hand. It was just unfortunate for him I happened to have the best flush possible, I was certain that I would win the hand. When the dealer announced the confirmed count I was amazed, with two hundred and sixty-five thousand I would be over my starting half million. But that wasn’t my immediate concern, instead I was idly wondering if I should try to take something from Tyson’s stack. Examining the cards laying in front of us, a flush was the best available hand and I had the ace. So what was I to do?
I only thought about it for a moment more before starting to separate my chips. “Well Will, I think I’m going to follow your lead.” When I had finished separating the piles one covered William’s bet, while the other stack would force Tyson to pay another one hundred and eighty-eight thousand. “Well my reserved friend, its four hundred and fifty-three thousand to you.” It was a struggle to keep my voice from cracking as I asked, “Do you want to see what I have?”
Tyson simply stared at me, not with the lifeless stare from earlier but with a measuring look, as if he was debating with himself. With as long as he took to make up his mind, I figured he must be up to something, because there was no way he would fold if he had something. That or he was trying to place doubt in my mind for later on. One thing was certain he was a very skilled player and not for the first time I wished he had found a different starting table. Instead of simply pushing his cards towards the dealer like he normally did, Tyson once again broke through the scattered conversations. This time his words were directed solely at me, “Not this time Marcus.”
As I pulled back the smaller pile William’s face was eager as he flipped over the five and six of spades. It was nice to get confirmation that I was right; too bad he was going to join the audience here in a moment. Through a smug face he said, “Beat a flush there Marcus.”
“Too bad the river was the three of clubs. If only it had been the three of spades, you would have gotten a straight flush.”
“It’s nice to hold flush when you’re chasing down a hand like that.” William agreed with that silly smile still plastered upon his face.
“That would have been the best possible hand, had it been played.” I said as I was bobbing my head, I was trying to look like I was biding my time. Make William think he had won. Yeah it was a mean thing to do but he was just too pleased with himself right now.
“I know that Marcus.” He said as he folded his hands right in front of his chin, and as he looked down at my cards he poignantly asked, “What do you have?”
I decided to play it smoothly and so I turned over the seven of spades. And in that instant the smug look he had plastered on his face began to crack and peel away. Since the jack of spades was one of the community cards he knew the next highest spade would decide the winner if we both had a flush. And since he had the five and six of spades and the four and two of spades were community cards as well as long as I had another spade my flush would beat his.
I let the time stretch out for as long as I could, but eventually the dealer prompted me to show my last card. I lifted it and slowly began lifting it up. I could see William’s forehead burst out into a sweaty mess. I couldn’t help but think that had William acted more like the gentleman he was supposed to be, I would have put him out of his misery much sooner. Had he been a good sport I would have just let him see my flush and it would be over, but he had to act like a spoiled child. So he deserved to sweat a little, or in his case a lot.
When I had the ace in front of my face I turned it over so everyone could see and without a smile of vindication I simply said, “Better luck next time William.”
Before anyone could really process William’s coming departure two of Dempsey’s goons appeared out of thin air to either side of William. One of the reasons why Dempsey used such a thuggish method to remove all of the defeated players from play was because sometimes one of those players would try something. I had seen it once today, and it had been when Nicolai was bankrupted by Bella. As stupid as it was to try and assault Dempsey’s niece the man had made an attempt. And the pair had quickly stepped in to remove the flailing professional from the hall. Dempsey even apologized for the outburst before we got back to the game. The pair wordlessly helped William in his transition from active participant to sullen observer.