After getting Ayanokoji's permission, Meari sat opposite Ruribird Nadeshiko, her expression serious: "Ruribird, you can gamble with me, but if you lose, even if you're Kurume's friend, I won't let you default on your debt."
Ruribird Nadeshiko snorted coldly, quite displeased: "As long as you don't cheat, I won't lose. Don't underestimate me!"
She clearly cheated before, but now she's asking me not to cheat… Forget it, Meari didn't intend to cheat anyway.
"I set the rules for the gamble, right? I'll go get the playing cards."
Meari said, and went to the bar to get a few decks of playing cards. Just as she picked up the cards and was about to introduce the game rules, Ririka suddenly spoke: "Since you're gambling, can I participate?"
"Miss Anna, do you want to gamble too?" Meari was a bit surprised.
"Hmm, I'm still a bit interested in gambling."
Ririka nodded, deliberately glanced at Ruribird Nadeshiko, and smiled: "Besides, Meari is my friend. Seeing a friend being provoked, I can't just stand by."
Ruribird Nadeshiko had never met Ririka. She mistakenly thought Ririka was a staff member here and didn't refuse.
She crossed her arms and said confidently, "Sure, I welcome anyone who wants to challenge me. The more people participate in the gambling, the better, and I can win more!"
"Then can I participate too?" Kurume Laiwei raised her hand with a smile.
"If Kurume wants to participate, of course you can…" Ruribird Nadeshiko instantly became meek, speaking softly.
Kurume understood.
Ruribird Nadeshiko overestimated her abilities and underestimated the task. Her remaining one million would definitely stay here today; it was just a matter of who she lost it to.
Rather than losing to Meari, it would be better to lose to herself and let herself get a share.
Seeing that everyone wanted to gamble, Ayanokoji also joined in the fun: "Since you all want to gamble, then count me in too."
Ruribird Nadeshiko readily agreed; the more participants, the better.
Finally, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, Saotome Meari, Kurume Laiwei, Ruribird Nadeshiko, and Ririka Momobami all participated in this gambling game.
In this game, Meari was the Dealer. The game she wanted everyone to play was called [Doubt Poker], a game that could be played by two to multiple people.
The rules of this game are not complicated.
At the beginning of the deal, each person receives five cards. If they are not satisfied with their hand, they can request to exchange one of the cards.
After everyone has received their cards, players can bet, raise, fold, call, and perform a series of other actions based on their hand, starting from the Dealer.
After confirming the players to compete against, starting from the Dealer, each player declares their hand type in turn.
For example, if you have a pair of Js in your hand, you can truthfully state a pair of Js, or you can lie and say that you actually have three Js in your hand.
It doesn't matter if this declaration is false; as long as no one challenges it, the hand is valid. But if someone believes you are lying, they can challenge your hand.
When challenging, the challenging player must pay an amount equal to the current bet into the prize pool, meaning they must pay double the stake, and then they can demand that the opponent reveal their cards.
The suspected player must reveal their cards in turn. If, after being suspected, it is found that the declared hand type does not match the actual hand, no matter how good the cards in hand are, they will be considered the player with the smallest hand on the table.
Players who are not suspected will compare their hands according to the declared hand type.
Finally, the person with the largest hand wins and takes all the prize money from the pot.
The ranking of hands is the same as in games like Texas Hold'em and Baccarat, so no further explanation is needed.
The rules of this game are not complicated, and it doesn't require too much skill. The only key point is whether to challenge the opponent, and when to challenge them.
After Meari finished her explanation, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka remembered a similar poker game he had played—[Bluff].
Similar to the game rules Meari described, both involve concealing one's hand on the table when calling. If someone challenges, the cards must be revealed; if no one challenges, the hand is presented as declared.
However, the rule he played was that if a bluff failed, those cards had to be added to your hand. The gameplay was similar to Landlord, where whoever played all their cards first was the winner.
Now that Meari proposed the rules for [Doubt Poker], Ayanokoji felt a sense of nostalgia.
Should he find an opportunity to incorporate [Bluff Poker] as an entertainment game rule into the Landlord game?
Of course, these are matters for later; for now, he needed to focus on the current gambling game.
This was a psychological battle.
To prevent people from calculating based on the remaining number of cards, Meari broke open several decks of cards, changing decks each round.
They also didn't need a Dealer, supervising each other while dealing cards.
After receiving her cards, Ruribird Nadeshiko sneered and said confidently, "Looks like my luck is pretty good. Watch how I win against all of you!"
Meari, as the Dealer, perhaps out of consideration for Ruribird Nadeshiko, or perhaps not wanting to end the game in the first round, set the initial blind bet at only ten thousand Japanese Yen.
Everyone called. When it was Ririka's turn, she dropped her chips and said in a calm tone, "Raise by one hundred thousand."
"Are we playing this big right from the start? But it's just what I wanted!" Ruribird Nadeshiko was stunned for a moment, then confidently called.
"I fold."
"I fold too."
Kurume and Meari probably felt their hands weren't very good, so they both folded. Ayanokoji, however, continued to play.
"I call."
He had already gambled in games worth tens of millions of Japanese Yen. Now, one hundred thousand Japanese Yen felt like child's play to Ayanokoji. He even called without looking at his cards.
Two people folded, three called. Next, it was time for [Declaration].
"I have a pair of Kings." Ririka said.
"I have three 6s!" Ruribird quickly followed.
"A pair of 10s." Ayanokoji said.
"I question Ruribird." Ririka unhesitatingly threw down 110,000 in chips, beginning her challenge against Ruricho Nadeshiko.
Ruricho Nadeshiko protested with great dissatisfaction, "Hey, why are you questioning me right from the start!"
Ririka said indifferently, "You clearly know that the key to this game is [questioning], yet you pretended to have a very good hand, wanting to avoid others questioning you. But unfortunately, your performance was too much."
Under everyone's gaze, Ririka had no choice but to reveal her hand.
She had a pair of Jacks, which was indeed a strong hand, but unfortunately, it wasn't what she had declared.
Now her hand was instantly voided, leaving only Ayanokoji and Ririka.
"Are you going to question?" Ririka looked up at Ayanokoji, a hint of expectation in her eyes.
Ayanokoji shook his head, "I won't question."
"...What a pity." Ririka lowered her head with some disappointment and slowly revealed her hand.
Her hand was not a pair of Kings as she had claimed, but a pair of 4s.
Ruricho Nadeshiko's eyes widened in disbelief. "It's just a pair of 4s!? So, in this round, my hand was actually the biggest?"
"It would have been, but you didn't question me, so, I am the winner of this round."
As the winner of the first round, Ririka expressionlessly gathered the chips on the table to her side.
Excluding her own bet, she won over 200,000 in just one round.
But for some reason, even though she won the first round, she seemed a bit distracted.
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