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“Alright, to remind you of the ground rules,” Rusty begins, shooting a glance at each man seated around the table with him. “We are playing for real money. Chips are worth one dollar, five dollars, and ten dollars each. Same as Vegas.”
“Hold on,” interjects Basher, pointing a finger at him. “I thought you said we were using play money.”
“We’re all millionaires, Bash, you can handle it.” Rusty hands a deck of cards to Frank, who begins to shuffle.
Basher makes a face, but puts the finger down.
Rusty takes a lollipop from his jacket pocket and delicately unwraps it. “And remember, we want a good, clean game. Only Linus gets to cheat.”
“Okay, how is that fair?” Turk narrows his eyes and frowns.
Virgil scoffs from the seat next to him. “You’re too stupid to cheat at cards anyways.”
“Am not!”
“Are too!
Rusty pops the lollipop in his mouth. Hm. Strawberry flavored. He thought it was cherry. “Boys, boys. Now’s not the time for that. This is a learning experience for our friend Linus.”
“I feel weird about it, too,” Linus offers sheepishly from across the table. “If that makes a difference.”
“It does, actually.” Virgil responds with an air of indignance. “You’re forgiven.”
Turk turns to look at his brother with an unchanging expression of disgust. “You didn’t even complain about it. You just said something mean to me.”
“Maybe you should follow my lead and forgive, then, idiot.”
“You’re the idiot, idiot.”
“And I forgive you for saying that.”
Turk sticks out his tongue.
Rusty puts a hand on the table. “Now, a typical Vegas poker table has eight seats, and with Saul in Florida and Yeng on tour, there are nine of us. So, Frank has volunteered to serve as our dealer.”
“They won’t let me do it in Jersey or Nevada anymore, so I figured I’d take the chance, you know?” says Frank, as he begins to deal cards to the other eight spots at the table. “And I will be taking a cut.”
“I thought we were all millionaires,” Linus mutters under his breath.
Frank shoots a glance at him, still dealing. “What was that?”
He looks at the table. “Nothing.”
“Are we ready to start?” Rusty asks the group. “Danny? Anything to add?”
Danny looks up from his spot directly across the table from Rusty. “I’d appreciate it if this time, you didn’t share my tells with the table.”
Rusty grins. “I’ll still know them.”
“Well, there’s nothing I can do about that.”
The grin widens and he picks up his hand.
The four and ace of hearts. Not much to go on, yet.
Livingston is the small blind; Basher is the big blind. First to bet is Linus, and he calls. So does Danny; Rusty notes that. He wonders if his hand is really that good, or if he’s trying to play a trick.
Next is Reuben, who raises the bet from three dollars to five. “Someone needs to do something,” he says, placing down a red chip.
Virgil looks around the table for a moment, then sighs and folds.
Turk snorts. “Who’s too stupid now?”
“I don’t need to explain myself to you.”
“Okay, little baby.” Turk puts up his own red chip.
Virgil rolls his eyes and crosses his arms.
Rusty’s up. He steals a glance at Danny, who looks back at him with a hidden smile—the kind that means we both know what’s going on here. Oh, he’s definitely trying to pull something, Rusty thinks. He raises to ten and bets to himself, in a sub-game he plays on his own, that Danny’s got a pair of kings.
Play goes around the table once more, and everyone still playing brings their bets up to ten.
Frank deals the flop—jack of hearts, five of diamonds, king of clubs.
Livingston bets a dollar. Basher shrugs and raises to two. Linus raises to twenty.
Rusty’s heart swells with pride at Linus’s much-improved poker face, then falls just slightly when he remembers the point of this little game. Neither he nor Danny has a chance, do they? The kid’s got cards up his sleeve.
Danny raises to forty. Another point in favor of the two kings theory.
Reuben calls. Turk calls, and Virgil snickers.
Rusty should fold, but what the hell. He pushes a stack of four blue chips toward the center. Danny raises an eyebrow at him.
Livingston and Basher both fold. Frank deals the turn. Seven of hearts.
Rusty is one away from a hearts flush, but as he’s told his students many times, you should never count on something like that. Especially with only one card left to turn over.
Linus bets twenty. Danny raises to thirty. Reuben folds. Turk calls. Rusty calls. Linus raises to forty. Danny raises to fifty. Everyone else calls. Frank deals the river.
Nine of hearts. Goddamn. There’s the flush.
Linus bets fifty. Danny calls. Turk calls, and Rusty notices Linus fiddle with his sleeve in the corner of his eye. It’s subtle enough that he won’t bring it up right now.
Rusty raises to eighty. Linus raises to one hundred. Danny calls. Turk calls. Rusty decides he’ll let it end there, and stacks two more blue chips onto his tower.
“Let’s see your cards,” says Frank.
“Three of a kind,” Linus says as he shows off two kings. Rusty can’t help but snort, because if his theory is correct, then Danny also has—
“Well, you beat my three of a kind.” Danny puts down two jacks. So close, thinks Rusty. At least his flush beats both.
Turk puts down his cards with a satisfied smile. “I believe that’s called a straight flush.”
Livingston chokes. Linus’s eyes go wide. Sitting on the table are the eight and ten of hearts.
Rusty laughs. “Never mind about my flush, then.”
“So you would’ve beaten me too, huh,” Linus says to Rusty, running a hand through his hair.
He shrugs apologetically. “A three of a kind won’t get you everything.”
Next to Rusty, Turk grins wide and pulls the chips from the center to his seat. “This is why you don’t fold on your first turn,” he says to his brother.
“Well, I wouldn’t have beaten your hand, so it was actually the right call. Idiot.”
“You’re just jealous of all my winnings.”
Virgil scoffs. “Sure I am.”
“Good job everyone.” Rusty takes the strawberry lollipop he’s been nursing out of his mouth and throws the stick into the trash can in the corner. “But did anyone else notice… anything suspicious?”
Danny chuckles and puts a hand up.
Rusty glances to the rest of the table, who look varying degrees of confused.
Linus winces. “Oh, is this about—“
Danny puts a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll talk about it later.”
“Let’s play again, huh?” says Basher. “I think I’ll have better cards this time.”
Turk shrugs, a smile still apparent on his face. “I don’t know. I think I’m good.”
Reuben clicks his tongue. “We in the casino business don’t appreciate people like you.”
Frank begins to shuffle a new deck of cards.
“Remember, these will have different backs,” Rusty says to Linus.
Linus rolls his eyes. “I know.”
Admittedly, Rusty doesn’t know much about what Linus is doing right now; that’s between him and his old man.
Basher and Linus play their blinds, and Frank deals out two cards to everyone once again.
Rusty picks up his and almost snorts. Two aces.
Danny bets first, pushing a stack of five blue chips to the center. “Fifty,” he says, looking right at Rusty.
This motherfucker.
Reuben calls. Virgil calls. Turk calls.
“Let me guess,” Rusty says to Danny, as he raises to sixty. “You have the other two?”
Danny’s lip curls upward, just slightly. “Now I know you’re bluffing.”
Rusty shrugs, smirking.
The game goes on, and Linus wins this time. He managed to manufacture a full house, somehow. Or maybe he just got lucky.
He takes his chips with the tiniest hint of the pride Rusty knows he must be feeling, and they start another game.
The night goes on like this, and people start to leave.
Livingston’s the first to go. “I-I’m not really cut out for poker,” he says with a self-deprecating smile. “I gotta sleep.”
After the next game, Turk stands up. “If you want a ride home, you better come with me,” he says to Virgil.
“Maybe I don’t.”
“Okay, bye, stupid.”
Virgil groans and follows his brother out the door.
“I think I’ll head out, too,” says Reuben. On his way out, he turns to Linus. “You’re doing great. Your dad’s gonna be proud.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
“Poker’s not fun with this few,” says Basher. “I’ll see you boys around.”
“I assume you three have some things to discuss,” says Frank to Rusty, Danny, and Linus. “I’ll leave you to it. And cash the house’s chips.”
“Bye, Frank,” says Danny, and Rusty waves.
A moment of silence passes between the three men left sitting at the once full table.
Linus swallows. “Okay, what did I do wrong?”
Rusty puts a hand up. “Hey, hey, let’s not think about it that way. You did great.”
Danny nods in agreement.
“It’s just—“
Danny raises a brow. “Well, and—“
“That too.”
Linus looks at them blankly. “I don’t have that. The telepathy thing.”
“You’ll understand when you’re older,” Rusty says, and Danny rolls his eyes.
“What Rusty was saying is we caught your trick the first time.”
Linus winces. “Oh.”
“You got better as the night went on,” Rusty continues. “But you gotta be careful, or someone’s gonna notice. And you don’t really get do-overs with that sort of thing.”
“Maybe one, if you’re lucky,” Danny agrees.
Linus nods.
“And what Danny was saying is that your poker face is too good.”
Linus tilts his head. “What?”
“You look too professional, and you’re gonna be playing with amateurs and tourists. They’ll be more suspicious of you if you never give anything away.”
“Right.” He looks up, like he’s recalling a memory. “Be funny but don’t make them laugh. Make them like you, then forget you.”
Rusty grins, turning to Danny. “Did you hear that? I taught him that.”
Danny grins back fondly.
“Okay, I should go. Thank you both for your help.”
Rusty nods. “No problem. We’ll tell your folks how well you did.”
“Yeah. Thanks.” Linus stands up and makes his way for the door. “And if you have any jobs you’re planning, let me know.”
Danny shoots him a thumbs up as he walks out the door.
A moment of silence.
“I thought he would never leave,” says Danny with a wry smile.
Rusty rolls his eyes as he walks to the other side of the table to sit next to Danny. “He’s a good kid. He’s grown a lot.”
Danny nods in agreement.
“And you know—you could get better at poker.”
“Hm?”
Rusty rests his chin on his palm. “You said there was nothing you could do about me knowing your tells. You could get better at poker.”
Danny pauses in consideration. “Or I could stop playing with you.”
“Aw, where’s the fun in that?”
“I think you overestimate your ability to read me.”
“We both know that’s not true, Danny.”
“What am I thinking about right now?”
“Besides the obvious? That email-phone we saw some high rollers using yesterday. You’re wondering how to incorporate them into a scam.”
Danny purses his lips. “Alright, you’re good.”
“Now do me.”
“That stripper from the—“
“No.” A pause, and he looks up in thought. “Well, now that you mention her…”
“Oh.” Danny snaps his fingers. “You’re thinking about Benedict.”
“There we go.”
He sighs. “It was a bad idea to gather this many of us in one place again.”
Rusty nods. “And that’s why we called off the job.”
“Why did we think it was a good idea in the first place?”
Rusty snorts. “Loneliness, I think.”
“Ah. That.”
“One would think there’s a way for friends to spend time with each other that doesn’t involve the threat of jail time.”
“If you find it, let me know.”
“One day we’ll all move into a retirement home together.”
“That’s optimistic.”
Rusty flashes a smile.
Danny’s hand finds Rusty’s under the table. Rusty squeezes it back. “So what now?”
Rusty shrugs. “You know anything about the hotel business?”
”Not at all.”
“Fair enough.”
“You know anything about opening a retirement account?”
Rusty snorts.
“Fair enough.”
Rusty begins to stand up, not letting go of Danny’s hand. “Let’s sleep on it. I’m sure we’ll come up with a solution in the morning.”
Danny stands up alongside him. “To which problem?”
“Yeah.”
Danny nods, smiling to himself. “Alright, then. Lead the way.”