As I was thinking about this Kelly tossed her blind into the pot. She had presumably been annoyed by Tyson’s remark and decided to throw her chips right at his carefully crafted stack. She must have thought that would at least annoy him, since she was sporting a smirk on her face. Tyson completely ignored the little tantrum. It had been a very childish thing to do, but that was Kelly’s style. She was as bombastic as anyone I had ever met. You could either ignore her or give as good as she dished out. I had been returning her behavior in kind but Tyson’s approach seemed to work better, as much as I hated to admit it. The man was like a piece of stone, just sitting there waiting for his hand.
As the cards began their journey across the table, my attention was drawn towards the newest dealer. Our first dealer had left shortly before I eliminated William and then we once again received a new dealer just a couple hands ago. It seemed that Dempsey liked to keep his players strung out while his dealers remained fresh. After almost five hours I was really wishing for a break, the adrenaline I was making would only do so much for me before it would be wise for me to stop taking it.
The thought of asking about a break had been awfully tempting right up until the moment when some other poor fool asked the question. After I saw what had happened to him, I was thankful I had kept my mouth shut and very happy I had learned how to produce certain chemicals, like caffeine and adrenaline. That newbie had indeed been given a break, only it was a more permanent one. He had been escorted up into the stadium and his chips were promptly distributed around his table. Looking up into the stadium anyone could tell who it had been, since he was sitting all alone, hate filling his eyes.
The only benefit to the situation that I could think of was that with the majority of the players drawing towards a state of exhaustion or overstimulation, mistakes would be more easily made, either bad betting or obvious cheating. Combine that with fresh dealers and the game would soon be approaching its conclusion. Unfortunately, I was beginning to join the ranks of the over stimulated. With the use of my ready supply of stimulants, my attention span was decreasing to a state of near nonexistence. Which was why the dealer ended up having to prompt me that the bet was to me.
With my attention back where it belonged, I bent down so that I could closely examine my cards. And as I lifted up the corners I caught sight of the king of spades and the ace of hearts. A good place to start and it looked like no one had raised the blind so I collected my bet. To my surprise both Allison and Jonathan decided to see the flop, but both seemed to be slightly apprehensive that Tyson would raise the cost. Fortunately he decided to just pay the difference and left any sort of raise to Kelly. She simply checked and the round of betting closed.
With everyone at the table set for the flop, I gave a quick glance around the room and caught sight of a few displaced players heading our way. I silently cursed fate for not displacing them a good five minutes earlier. We were finally going to get some new blood, hopefully that would break up this five way stalemate we had going. With a closer look at the upcoming arrivals I noticed that one of them was Bella and she was watching me very intently. She looked genuinely excited and for a brief moment I wondered if it was because of me or just that she would have the chance to study her new opponents objectively.
I returned my attention to the game just in time to see the flop. And what a beautiful sight it was, with the ace of spades alongside the eight and six of hearts. Not only had I picked up another ace I had a flush draw as well, now I just needed to study everyone else. I quickly shifted my gaze to the players and saw Tyson reach towards his pile and begin making a side stack. When he had a small pile of chips he showed them to the dealer, who announced “The opening bet is one hundred thousand.”
“Well the flop doesn’t help me any.” Kelly announced as she promptly folded her hand, which shifted Tyson’s focus to me.
Tyson’s decision really didn’t take all that long; he must have gotten something good on the flop. Or for all I knew he was bluffing, who could tell with body control like his? Maybe Tyson had the flush draw as well. Not for the first time I found myself wishing Tyson had some kind of tell, but once again I dismissed this useless thought as it was doing me no good. I thought about Tyson’s style of play for a bit, had he tried to bully people out? He might have, that was the problem, I just didn’t know.
I must have been sitting there thinking longer than I realized because the next thing I knew I heard Allison say, “Those cards aren’t going to change while you sit there staring at them.
I almost choked with the knot that ran up my throat, but I kept things smooth as far as I could tell and when I knew my voice wouldn’t crack I replied with a tone that oozed ease. “I know that, besides that’s not what I’m trying to do. Though, that certainly would be a cool trick.” The last words seemed to come out of their own volition and I cursed the mental smile it provoked. If they knew that I actually could do something like that then I would be in some serious trouble. Would I ever learn to control my tongue? I started to idly pick up a small pile of chips at my left hand and drop them in place. I had been crafting that particular tell for a while now, I was hoping it would work. I kept repeating those motions as I continued where I had left off, “I’m not hoping for a change Alison. I was just trying to decide how much I wanted to put in.”
“And…” Jonathan prompted.
I kept my breathing calm and deliberate, I couldn’t afford to send signals, good or bad. I had a feeling that this would be another good hand, but I have been wrong before, fortunately not yet today. “I think I’m just going to match Tyson’s price to see the turn.” I supplied as I proffered the required payment to the pot. I was working overtime to hide the concern from my face, Tyson was making me doubt my gut. In an attempt to displace my worry I looked at Allison, “You’re up Ally.”