Chapter 34 - 33.1

(Be warned: the author will be using poker terms and the meaning of the terms will be shown in the very bottom. Thank you for reading and enjoy!)

Xiu Jia put down her cup of tea and asked, "What do you want to know?"

"I wanted to know the truth."

The second princess with her sweet smile flicked her hand and a deck of cards appeared from it. She took out two cards from the deck, a queen of spades and a joker.

Using her qi energy, she manipulated the plates of food to gave her an empty place for the deck of cards. She put the two cards infront of the young man.

"You may sit first and enjoy the food."

Then she continued.

"These two represents the truth. You only had to pick one to know which is which."

"Alright," with no delay, the young man wanted to choose already to get it over with as he had no time of playing with the second princess.

"Na-ah."

Xiu Jia immediately withdrew the two cards and put it back to the deck while shuffling it, skillfully.

"What are you doing?"

"The queen of spade represents the Royal Family and the joker represents the Circus."

Zero scrunched his face in confusion, what truth did it had to do with his identity?

But when he heard the word 'Circus', he was baffled as he heard this from the mouth of Xiu Ying and her personal maid.

Xiu Jia continued to rearrange and arrange the deck of cards through shuffling it. Her hands was very proficient on shuffling as it would blur from her smooth tricks.

"You're good at this," Zero unconsciously praised her.

"It's because of my good teacher!" Xiu Jia smiled as she looked at the young man. Zero felt that her smile was at that moment, genuine. A smile that was rare for the second princess.

Instantly, it disappeared from her face as she masked it with her sweet smile.

The second princess put down the deck of cards and uttered, "Let's play with probability."

"Originally we had 52 cards in a deck of cards but I included the jokers so we had 54 cards in total."

Xiu Jia passed her hand over the cards as it followed the movement of her hand, the cards easily spread out, making each one of it visible from the picker. All of the cards had the same pattern in its back, on the black background, a golden phoenix insignia with some kind of red rose twirling on the foot of the phoenix was designed on it.

'A very familiar symbol.'

Zero thought but he didn't pondered on it as the second princess caught his attention, once again.

"Isn't my cards lovely? I ordered it on Sereign continent from my fellow sister there."

"By the way, this is how we play. How many chances could you pick a queen of spades in a random manner? And how many chances could you pick a joker in a random manner when the queen is already taken out?"

Time passed by slowly and with a brightened face, the young man answered.

"In picking a queen of spade in a random manner, we must first identify how many queens are there in a deck of cards. There are four queens with different symbols, the spades, the hearts, the clubs and the diamonds. We are only looking for the queen of spades and there is only one of it so out of the 54 cards we had a one chance of picking out a queen of spades."

Xiu Jia just drank her tea as she gestured for Zero to continue.

"As for the joker, I had two chances of randomly picking a joker out of 53 cards as the queen of spades was already taken out."

"I'm impressed that you figured this out. Well, it's just a simple probability game. The true game will start now."

As if on cue, the pavilion that they were located at, suddenly trembled as the runic symbols were set on it, activated. It was a simulation trigger.

Both of them were immediately transported in a casino-like place. Zero with the second princess were seated infront of each side of a square table. The only present here were the two of them and a deck of cards infront.

"Where's the dealer?"

"You know this game very well, I'm surprised of you having an amnesia."

"Oh well. Before we start, this is our bet. If you win I'll let you pick between those two cards I presented, earlier, and I'll tell you a truth about your chosen card and if I win…" the second princess trailed off as she looked at the young man up and down, inspecting him.

"Not bad, just exactly my taste. So give me yourself."

"What do you mean?" The young man creased his forehead from this blunt show of malice by this princess.

"You'll be my man."

"As if I'll let you."

"Let's see about that."

The deck of cards suddenly shuffled by itself and the second princess opened up, "Because we're the only ones here, there's no big blind or small blind or any common poker terms. We will be playing by the rules of this simulation."

A color wheel appeared by their right side and it started to spin around.

"The color wheel had five colors, the blue for 10 value of chips, green for 20 value, red for 50 value, black for 100 value and white for 500 value of chips. Our starting bet or ante for each round would depend on the color that the wheel arrow would point."

"You know already the poker hand rankings right? The royal flush is the highest followed by the straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, pair and lastly, the high card."

Zero subconsciously nodded as he unexpectedly knew each of the terms that Xiu Jia had stated.

"Well, let's start."

Stacks of betting chips appeared each for them, there were five stacks with varied colors, white chips with blue stripes, black chips with white stripes, red chips with white stripes, green chips with white stripes and lastly, blue chips with white stripes.

And each of the stacks contained four pieces of the same kind of betting chips.

The deck of cards started to shuffle and passed them their own two cards

"Do not open yet your cards until the color wheel finished choosing our bet."

The color wheel stopped at the white color spectrum that made Xiu Jia smirked. She picked up a white chip with blue stripes and put it in the middle which was called pot in poker terms.

Zero put his bet, too.

"Now, let's see our cards."

The young man opened his cards and it was a seven of clubs and a three of hearts

Xiu Jia looked at Zero and smiled sweetly. The invisible dealer put down three cards or the flop showing a six of hearts, five of clubs and two of hearts.

"Call," the second princess said and put a white chip with blue stripes on the pot.

Zero acted otherwise, he took a white chip with blue stripes and a red chip with white stripes, having a total value of 550.

"You raised it, good."

The second princess added a red chip with white stripes.

The invisible dealer put down another card, it was a eight of diamonds.

Xiu Jia called once again, while Zero added another a value of 50. The pot was in the total of 3200.

The river card was revealed and it was four of hearts.

"Final bet?" Xiu Jia asked as she put a 700 value of chips. Even though Zero knew that he had a straight in his hand yet the young man didn't continue to bet and just folded.

The second princess widened her smile and asked, "Eh, you'll lose what you had betted."

'I'll lose more if I continued.'

Zero thought as he put his cards down. It immediately disappeared to the invisible dealer and Xiu Jia pouted, "Hmp. Now the pot will be unclaimed."

Because Xiu Jia didn't folded, her card was revealed infront and the young man sighed inwardly in relief as he chosen the right choice of not continuing the bet.

The second princess got a flush for her hand, she had five and seven in same suit of hearts.

Knowing that she almost win the round, "Zero, you're so lame. You didn't get easy on me, now I had only 420 value of chips!"

The young man ignored the second princess whinning as he prepared himself for the next round.

"Hmp. Oh, well. We had a pot of 3900 value of chips for the next round and who will be the one taking it home?" Xiu Jia playfully spoke as the color wheel spun again.

It stopped at the green color. A starting bet of 20.

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Poker Terms' Dictions:

Ante - A small bet all players are required to make before a hand is dealt. An ante is similar to a blind, but everyone has to contribute it before a hand commences. Antes give the pot a value right off the bat.

Blind - The generic term for either the big blind or the small blind. If you are one of the blinds, you are sitting either immediately to the left of the dealer buŧŧon (small blind position) or one position farther left (big blind).

Call - To contribute the minimum amount of money to the pot necessary to continue playing a hand.

Community Cards - Cards that are dealt face up in the center of the table, available for all players to use in making a hand.

Dealer - The player who shuffles the deck and deals the cards.

Flop - The first three community cards dealt out after the first round of betting is complete.

Fold - To give up by placing your cards face down on the table, losing whatever you have bet so far. You only fold when you think your hand is too weak to compete against the other players.

Hand - Five cards, made of a player's pocket cards and the community cards.

Kicker - If you have the same hand as another player at showdown, the one with the highest kicker wins the pot. If the board is 7-7-5-5-2, and you have ace-king and your opponent has king-queen, you win because your ace beats his king. Your ace is the "kicker." The highest card completing a five-card hand is the only determination between winning and losing in this example.

Raise - To wager more than the minimum required to call, forcing other players to put in more money as well.

River - The final of the five community cards.

Power Hand Ranking:

1. Royal flush - The best hand possible, a royal flush consists of A, K, Q, J and 10, all of the same suit.

2. Straight flush - Also very rare, a straight flush consists of any straight that is all the same suit.

3. Four of a kind - Four of a kind, or 'quads', consists of four cards of equal value along with another card known as a side card.

4. Full house - A full house consists of three cards of one value and two cards of another.

5. Flush - A flush is a hand which has all cards of the same suit.

6. Straight - A straight has 5 cards of consecutive value that are not all the same suit.

7. Three of a kind - Also known as 'trips', three of a kind is 3 cards of the same value and 2 side cards of different values.

8. Two pair - Two pair consists of two cards of equal value, another two cards of equal value, and one extra card.

9. Pair - One pair consists of two cards of the same value, and three extra cards.

10. High card - Five cards that do not interact with each other to make any of the above hands.