All In: A Vegas Reverse Harem Romance

by Cassie Cole

“He’s my ride,” I said. “And he’s not bothering anyone.” We peeked into the living room, where Bryce happily waved back at us.

  “I’ve got a busy weekend,” Angela complained. She had deep, dark bags under her eyes. “I don’t need distractions.”

  “Good thing we’re leaving, then.”

  I gathered Bryce up in the living room and opened the front door. Before we were gone, Angela called out, “Did you really lose your job at the Volga?”

  I hesitated. “How’d you find out about that?”

  “The girls talk. Maybe it’s for the best,” she said, her voice tender for a moment. “That place has issues, to say the least.”

  Then her eyes went steel again.

  “Rent’s due next Thursday,” she said. There was a hint of a question in her voice.

  “I’ll be able to pay it. Worry about your own problems.”

  When we were outside, Bryce asked, “What’s up your roommate’s butt?”

  “Hell if I know.”

  “Are you going to have problems paying rent next week if we don’t make the job?”

  “I’ll be able to pay the rent,” I said. “But the electric bill, and my phone bill, and food expenses are another story.”

  He only nodded. Realistically, I should have been spending my time today looking for a new job. I couldn’t throw all my eggs in the heist basket—I had to have a backup plan. There were a lot of casinos on the strip I could apply to… But I still needed to sit down and do it.

  I’ll do it tonight, I decided.

  I hadn’t been to Bryce’s apartment since I spent the night. It was clean and tidy just as it had been then, with a pleasant smell, not overpowering. I instantly felt at home here. Especially when my eyes lingered on his couch, remembering the dirty things we had done on it…

  “Over here,” he said, leading me to his kitchen table. It had been cleared away except for an unopened deck of cards and a metal case filled with colorful poker chips in neat, orderly rows. “Have a seat.”

  I grabbed the chair and touched the poker chips. They were made of an expensive material, ceramic I think. They felt like the real thing at the casinos.

  Bryce went into the kitchen. “You making me breakfast?” I joked, but sure enough he twisted the knob to pre-heat the oven, then stuck his head in the fridge.

  “Vanilla icing, or lemon?” he said, holding a tube of cinnamon rolls in each hand.

  “Ohh, lemon!” I said. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until he said something.

  “Good, because I want lemon too,” he said as he popped the tube with a knife and placed them on a metal sheet.

  “Your sister didn’t teach you how to make them from scratch?”

  “Nope!” he said cheerfully. “But store made are just as good.”

  “I’m not sure that’s true.”

  He pointed the spatula at me. “They’re better than instant coffee.”

  “Touche.”

  He popped them in the oven and returned to the table. “Those will take a little while. Let start by going over what you already know about the game.”

  He sat across from me and opened the deck of cards. They were still in the plastic, which he crumpled up and put in his pocket before shuffling the deck.

  “Okay,” I said. “I know that each player is dealt two cards face-down. Five community cards are dealt face-up: three all at once, then a fourth card, then a fifth. Players have to make their best hand with a combination of their two cards and those on the table.”

  “That’s more or less right,” he said approvingly. “Do you know every type of poker hand? Go ahead and list them from weakest to strongest.”

  “Umm…” I said. “Like, getting two Aces dealt to you?”

  “No, I mean winning hands,” he said. “You need to have those memorized before we can start practicing. I’ll give you a hint: the lowest thing you can have is a high card. That means you have literally nothing except the highest card, like an Ace. The next lowest hand is a pair. Two Eights, or two Kings…”

  “I understand,” I said. “High card, then a pair. The next best hand is three of the same card.”

  “That’s called three of a kind,” he corrected. “And it’s the wrong answer. The next best hand is two pair. A pair of Fours and a pair of Eights, for example. After that is three is a kind.”

  “High card, pair, two pair, three of a kind,” I repeated. I tried thinking back on the few hands of video poker I’d ever played at a casino. “Oh! Next is a straight.”

  Bryce’s blue eyes brightened. “Bingo! Five cards in a row: Two, Three, Four, Five, Six. They can be any suit.”

  “After that is a flush,” I said, remembering how Bryce had lost at the tournament last week. He nodded. “Then… a full house?”

  He snapped his fingers. “I thought that one would trip you up. A full house is three of a kind and a pair. Three Kings and two Queens, for instance.”

  “Sounds like a fun party,” I said.

  He smiled but waited for me to go on. Man, he was all business when it came to poker.

  “Umm.” I knew a royal flush was the best thing you could have, but I thought I was missing something before that.

  “I’ll give you a hint,” he said. “We’ve already covered a pair, and three of a kind, so along those lines is…”

  I smacked my forehead. “Duh. Four of a kind.”

  “You got it. And that just leaves…”

  “A royal flush,” I finished.

  He tilted his head back and forth. “Well, a straight flush. A royal flush is just the best type of a straight flush: Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, all of the same suit. But you’re essentially right.”

  He finished shuffling the deck and put the cards flat on the table. “Time to go over betting.”

  The betting aspect of the game was a lot more confusing. Fortunately Bryce was a great teacher. After receiving their cards, players had to make an initial bet, or ante up, to continue playing. Then there were rounds of betting at each stage of the game after that.

  “The first three cards dealt face-up is called the flop,” Bryce said. “Once everyone sees the flop, they go around the table choosing whether or not to bet more money. That’s called raising. You have to match their raise, or fold.”

  Next was the turn card. Then came another round of betting just like before. Finally came the river, the fifth card on the table. A final round of bets followed, then everyone had to reveal what hand they had.

  “I think I’ve got it,” I said.

  “You’re a quick learner,” he said, leaving to pull the cinnamon rolls out of the oven. “Let’s take a break to eat, then we can play some practice hands.”

  “Or we could eat while we practice.”

  He grimaced. “Yeah, uhh, I’m kind of OCD about my playing cards. I don’t want them to get sticky.”

  “But you just opened the deck. They cost what, two bucks? Do you really care if a little bit of icing gets on them?”

  He was still wincing, so I dropped it. Everyone had their quirks, even gorgeous men like Bryce.

  The cinnamon rolls were delicious, the icing so warm is drizzled down the side and all over my chin. I was so hungry I ate four of them and didn’t even feel self-conscious about pigging out in front of him. Besides, I needed the energy.

  “There are a lot of layers to this game,” he said as we got back to it. “I’m going to start by focusing on the game itself, because that’s your foundation. But the more important game is using wagers to your advantage.”

  “It seems straightforward to me,” I said. “If you have a strong hand, you bet more. If you have a weak hand, you bet less or fold.”

  He laughed. “It’s a lot more complicated than that. You’ll see. But first, let’s get you used to the rhythm of the game.”

  “Whatever you say, professor! I’m ready to learn.”

  He divided up the poker chips for each of us: red, blue, green, purple, and white chips. Nice little stacks wi
th dollar amounts on them.

  “The starting ante in the tournament on Saturday will be $10, so toss in one of those blue chips.”

  I obeyed. “Yikes, $10 per hand?”

  “Uh huh. There’s more that goes into the ante system, like big and little antes, but for now we’ll keep it simple. All the chips go into what’s called the pot. The winner at the end of the hand gets the whole pot.”

  “Makes sense.”

  He dealt out two cards to each of us, face-up. I had a Queen of Hearts and a Four of Hearts. He had a Jack of Clubs and a Nine of Diamonds.

  “This is just for practice so I can help you along,” he said. “But normally you don’t want anyone knowing what cards you have, so you’ll want to peek at them discretely.”

  “This is good, right?” I tapped on my cards. “I have a high chance of getting a flush?”

  He made a face. “Ehh, not really. Just a 6.4% chance of hitting a flush by the river.”

  I stared back at him. “You totally made that number up.”

  “Nope. I told you, I’m good at this. Being able to calculate odds on the fly is what makes professionals so good. But that’s not a weak starting hand. You’ve got a face card, and sharing a suit helps.” He pointed at his Jack and Nine. “It’s stronger than what I have. Mine aren’t suited, and your high card is higher.”

  “Okay.”

  “Now we would have a round of betting. As an overly-simplistic rule of thumb, you don’t want to make any big moves until you at least see the flop, so let’s just keep things simple and check. That means you’re not betting anything. You signal it by tapping the table.” He demonstrated with his finger.

  “I check,” I said, tapping the table too.

  “Now it’s time for the flop…” He dealt out a Five of Hearts, Seven of Hearts, and a Two of Hearts.

  I barked a laugh. “Booya! And you said it wouldn’t happen!”

  “Hey, I didn’t say that. I said you had a 6.4% chance of getting a flush by the end of the hand.”

  “Poker is easy,” I said. “I’m ready for the tournament!”

  “I probably didn’t shuffle them well enough. But let’s play on anyways. You’ve obviously got a flush, while I don’t have squat.”

  “So I should raise?” I asked.

  “That would be a bad idea,” he said. “The goal isn’t to win every hand: it’s to win the most chips possible. Right now the pot is really small. You have a very strong hand, and the odds of anyone beating you is slim. So now your goal is to lure the other players to stay in the hand, betting more money.”

  “How do I do that?” I asked.

  “The first thing you need to do is play it cool. No jumping up and down and yelling booya when you get a good hand.”

  “Obviously I wouldn’t do that in the tournament,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I was just being dramatic.”

  “That’s good, but later on we’re going to work on your poker face. You probably have some tells you don’t realize. Now, back to this hand. If I nailed a flush on the river, I would slow play everyone. I wouldn’t wager anything now—I would just check and see if anyone else raises. Someone might have landed a pair and wants to force out people with weaker hands. But the bottom line is you don’t want anyone knowing you have a flush.”

  “Okay, I check,” I said, tapping the table.

  “Since I have a weak hand, I’ll check too,” he said. “Now we see the turn card…”

  He flipped over a Jack of Diamonds.

  “Now that we’ve seen four cards, you want to start getting people to sweeten the pot,” he said. “But not too much. You don’t want them to fold. I would raise $10 or $20.”

  I tossed two blue chips into the pot. “I raise $20.”

  “Now you’re sounding like a pro. That raise will force out the players with weak hands—they’ll probably fold, or they’ll call your raise if they think they might have something. I just landed a pair of Jacks, so I’ll call your raise because I’m feeling pretty good about myself.” He put in two of his own chips. “Not only that, but I’m going to raise your raise another $20. That’s because I want to see if you actually have something, or if you are just raising for the sake of raising.”

  “Ahh, so you’re gathering information with your bets.”

  “Exactly! Information is everything in this game,” Bryce explained.

  “And I’ll call that raise because I obviously want to stay in the hand,” I said, tossing two more chips in.

  “This is good. The pot has grown from $20 to $100, and it’s a pot you’re almost certain to win. Time for the river…”

  He flipped over a Jack of Spades.

  “Boo!” I said. “Now you’ve got three of a kind.”

  He smiled slyly at me. “This is actually really good for you. You’ve still got the best hand. Even if you couldn’t see my cards, you would know that the only hand that could beat yours is if someone had pocket Jacks. Then they would have four of a kind. But the odds of that are extremely low.”

  “Okay,” I said. “But then how is that Jack of Spades good for me?”

  “Because it means I think I’ve got a pretty good hand. I’m likely to keep betting, or to call if you raise. Essentially, this is the perfect time for you to milk more chips out of me.” He leaned across the table. “I’m gunna tell you the best piece of advice I ever learned. A player doesn’t lose a lot of money on a bad hand. They lose a lot of money on a good hand. When they think their cards are the best they bet more.”

  “I gotcha,” I said, frowning at my chips. “The pot’s $100. How much should I raise in this position?”

  Bryce chewed on his lip while he thought about it. The gesture was adorable. It made me want to go to town on his lips. In fact, it suddenly made focusing on our cards and chips a lot more difficult…

  “At least $100,” he said.

  “Why not more?” I said.

  “That’s the big question in a moment like this,” he admitted. “You want to bet enough to entice your opponent to to stay. But you don’t want to bet so much that he folds. You’re reeling them in, not scaring them off. Make sense?”

  “I think so…”

  “So you bet about $100,” he said, grabbing one of my chips and tossing it into the pot. “I feel pretty strong about my three Jacks. I’m a little concerned about your raise, because it’s possible—but unlikely—you got the flush, but I think you’re just trying to buy the pot. So I call.”

  He tossed his $100 chip in.

  “And now we show our cards?” I asked.

  “Well, sort of. Since you bet last, you have to show yours first. Then if I see your hand and realize I’m the loser, I don’t have to show my cards. I can just toss them away.”

  “That’s stupid!” I said. “It’s no fun to go through that and not find out what you were holding.”

  He waggled his finger at me. “That’s the game: information. You want to know what I had, and I don’t want you to. Remember that when you’re in the tournament. It’s all about information.”

  “And the chips I just won.” I grabbed the pot with both hands and dragged them toward me.

  “This seems like a lot to think about all at once,” he said. “But that’s why I’ll be whispering in your ear. I’ll be able to tell you when I think someone is bluffing, or when they’re holding a strong hand. Then you can make decisions with that info.”

  “I think I can manage,” I said, though I was still skeptical and overwhelmed.

  We went through a few more hands like this, betting and talking through the mindset of a poker player. And then, just when I was getting the hang of it, he dealt the next cards the way they were supposed to be: face-down.

  It was tougher this way. A lot tougher. Sure, that was obvious, but I didn’t realize just how much harder it would be. Trying to evaluate my own hand while guessing what Bryce might have was a lot to process in the span of a few seconds.

  “You have a King to match that one, don’t yo
u?” I asked.

  He only smiled back at me sweetly.

  “Yep. Your face gives it away.”

  “Does it now?”

  “It does.” I threw two $10 chips into the pot. “I raise you.”

  He grabbed four in response and tossed them into the pot. “I raise you an additional $20.”

  Shit. I’d made a mistake by pushing him. I only had a pair of Fours.

  “I fold,” I said.

  “Aww, why?” he asked.

  “Because you raised on top of my raise,” I said. “Meaning either you have a pair of Kings, or maybe you’re aiming for a straight?”

  He flipped over his cards. “All I have is a Two and a Seven.”

  “Oh come on,” I groaned. “How was I supposed to know that?”

  “You weren’t. That’s the point. I didn’t think you had anything strong, yet you were raising. So I decided to throw my own weight around. Catch you off balance.”

  I simultaneously loved and hated the way he smiled at me. It was so incredibly sexy the way he seemed to know exactly what I was thinking… But totally frustrating that he was using it to win at this game.

  Before he knew what I was doing, I leaned across the table and kissed him with tongue. Four long seconds of French kissing, sucking on the tip of his tongue as I pulled back.

  The shocked look on his face was priceless.

  “What was that for?” he asked.

  “Just trying to catch you off balance,” I said. “Give myself a competitive advantage.”

  “You know you won’t be able to do that during the tournament, right?”

  “Oh?” I asked innocently. “Is there a rule against kissing your opponents?”

  “Well, not that I’m aware of…”

  “Then I guess we’ll have to see how quickly I learn the game. Because if I can’t, I’ll have to rely on other tactics.”

  “Fair enough,” he said, though I could see the faintest glimmer of jealousy in his eyes.

  30

  Sage

  It was a long day.

  Playing poker was fun. I could see how people became addicted to it. The rush of winning a big hand was intoxicating, even by ourselves with play money. I could only imagine the adrenaline rush of winning thousands of dollars in front of an audience.