Yo, Saz says hi~ l3

This is...really weird. Oh well, screw consistency x3

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Extremely Basic Information: Blackjack

1. Each card is valued as the number written, but face cards (jack, queen, king) are worth 10 points and the Ace can be 1 or 11 (the person can choose).
2. The aim is to get the highest score you can without going over 21. Going over 21 makes you 'bust' and automatically lose. A 21 is called a blackjack.
3. Each person starts with two cards, and get more if they ask. In here they're playing a face-up game, which means that everyone's cards are face-up (so everyone can see each other's cards). The dealer has one face-up and facedown.
4. A 'soft' total is an Ace worth 11 + other cards, aka it can change because the value of the Ace can change. A 'hard' total is when nothing can change, e.g. Ace + 3 + 9, if the Ace was worth 11 than the person would automatically bust and lose the round.
5. When everyone gets the amount of cards they want, the dealer flips over their facedown and proceeds to deal cards for themselves until they reach 17 or higher.
6. The person with the highest score wins.

If any of that's wrong, I apologise. That's all that's you need for the chapter, I hope my explaining skills are okay.

Matt, deal the cards...


07. Card Dealer (Blackjack)
[AU, new universe]

by Sazerac (The Awesomely Awesome PeopleTM)

~ooo~

It was a typical night. Matt gathered the cards on the table from the last game, and the people around the table murmured amongst themselves before placing their bets. He had already earned approximately six hundred dollars for the casino in his current shift, and his replacement was set to arrive in twenty minutes.

Matt was having a great day.

A sudden clinking sounded out to his right, and he looked up to see the blonde sliding a large stack of chips into the rectangle denoting his bet. Matt's hands faltered; it was one hundred dollars – for each chip. Either the guy was extremely stupid, or he knew he was going to win.

Finally, four bets were placed before he started the round. One belonged to a sleazy man in a suit, one from a pretty-boy with a blonde handing off his arm, another from a white-haired kid with a stare that could cut through steel and the last being from the leather-wearing blonde.

Aware that the game could make or break his shift, Matt dealt the cards – two for each player to begin with, and one face-up and facedown for himself.

5 – Jack, went to the sleazy man.

3 – 3, went to the couple.

Ace – 9, went to the white-haired kid.

8 – 4, went to the blonde.

There was a small pause and he noticed a crowd starting to form. Of course; the blonde's bet was unusual, especially at a table playing Blackjack. He eyed his face-up 7, the red diamonds taunting him with the knowledge that he could undo all the winnings he had gained.

Each of them gestured for another card and Matt complied. The cards he dealt didn't relieve him of the feeling, not even when the King of Clubs caused the sleazy man to shoot over 21 and lose his bet.

He skimmed over the cards again. The couple also received a face card, bringing their total to 16, and the white-haired kid's 5 meant that his soft 19 became a hard 15. On the other hand, the blonde's new 2 kept him safe at a count of 14.

Each of them gestured for a card.

9 to the couple, sending them bust.

5 to the kid, bringing him to 20.

And unbelievably, a 7 of Hearts to the blonde, his total now 21.

Blackjack. The crowd held their breath, waiting for Matt's own result.

Matt flipped his facedown, revealing a 9. Adding that to his existing 7 meant that the dealer's total was 16. As it was below 17, he prepared himself to draw again. He needed exactly 5 to match the blonde's blackjack and prevent himself from losing; any more and he would bust, any less and he would have to pay up 3-to-2.

The tension heightened.

He dealt the card.

As he started spinning the card over, black spades assaulted his vision and the arrangement looked as if it was exactly what he needed: a 5. Briefly, he celebrated his victory but it was quickly shot down as the face came into the light.

3.

It wasn't a 5. It was a 3.

The crowd cheered, and Matt's spirits crashed as he counted the chips for the blonde's return. For some reason they all liked the idea of winning against the House, but Matt's pay was potentially at stake.

As the throng dissipated, the four original players were still at the table. Their earlier game didn't seem to faze them – in fact, he could almost say that they were even more determined now that they realized the possibilities of earning as much as the blonde did.

Speaking of which...

"Sir, your ID please," Matt ordered, holding out his hand.

The blonde glared at him through his fringe. "You don't need it. Don't you guys have a privacy policy in this shitty place?"

Suspicious. Very, very suspicious.

Mhm.

"It's within my powers to request the ID from someone who I think is cheating."

"Cheating? What the fu –"

The white-haired kid turned his gaze toward the blonde, twirling part of his hair. "Don't deny it. You've been counting these cards the whole time to give yourself the best chance of success."

"Now that you mention it," the pretty-boy murmured thoughtfully and his girlfriend wrapped her arms tighter when he shifted, "his mouth has been moving, but I never thought much about it."

"What the fu –"

The sleazy man slammed his palm on the table. "Damn you! You made me lose all that money and you're now earning it!" He spun towards Matt. "Kick him out!"

He chose not to mention the fact that it was impossible for anyone to tamper with the cards and the fact that card counting worked on narrowing down chances. "It's not actually illegal to count cards; the best we can do is set someone behind him and record his ID so we can ban him from entering next time."

"Fine," the sleazy man conceded, a snarl still on his face.

Matt shrugged, calling for Gevanni to keep watch over the blonde. Once everything had been sorted out, he gathered the cards and resumed play. After all, there were still only sixteen minutes until his shift was over.

He could wait.

~ooo~

Eleven rounds later and it quickly became clear that the blonde's playing skills were plummeting. He lost each of them by a pathetic margin, sometimes refusing cards when he obviously could have taken more and the other times busting; once he even reached the score of 30. Despite the losses, the bets he made were low and Matt was unable to earn back everything he lost.

The rest of the table wasn't left unaffected. The sleazy man had long since left in frustration had his spot taken by a nerdy scholar whose movements were all mechanical and precise, and the pretty-boy had somehow shaken off his girlfriend, playing with a renewed frenzy. Most surprisingly, the white-haired kid had done nothing but improve from the clumsy play he started out with. He had won ten of the eleven, even achieving blackjack on four. He seemed to have figured out the intricate strategies of blackjack on his own.

Matt dealt himself his last card and sighed. His 18 versus the white-haired's 20 meant that he had to pay up again, and the kid's bet had been increasing. Really; his replacement should have been here already.

"Matt!" The voice of his replacement called, almost as if he had been summoned. Dressed in the uniform waistcoat and bowtie, Mido ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry I'm late – traffic problem."

Shrugging, Matt placed the cards back into the shoe and stepped out so that Mido could take his place. However, he didn't expect the other man's eyes fixated at the table, never moving.

He finally spoke, his voice sounding far too controlled. "How long have they been there?"

Matt blinked. "Who?"

"The blonde and the one with white hair. How long have they been there?"

"Fifty, I'd say."

If Mido reacted to the statement, he didn't show it. "How much money have you lost since they've arrived?"

"That doesn't matter," Matt cut in. "It's not related to the conversation. I'd like to leave now; thanks."

"What if I said that those two were M and N?"

Matt froze.

M and N were members from the Letters, a group that targeted casinos around the globe, raking in billions of dollars each year. The two of them worked in blackjack; M was a professional at counting cards and would act as the distraction, and there were rumours that N's shuffle tracking abilities let him know each and every card in the deck, and in which order.

Shit.

It had seemed so natural, he never considered the actions to be associated with M and N's modus operandi.

He was so screwed.

"So," the white-haired one spoke up, "now that you've found us, what will you do?"

Out of the corner of his eye, the pretty-boy's demeanour suddenly changed. From when a moment ago it was casual and nonchalant, it now resonated nothing but sheer amounts of determination. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a police badge – his police badge. "You're under arrest!"

"Che," the blonde scoffed, talking around a large piece of chocolate. "You've got some gall to think you can pull this off, you know?"

"If I have gall, what you've got is beyond that," he spat, pressing the clasp of his belt. At once, about thirty people rose to action in the now-silent casino, brandishing handguns with the same look on their faces.

M and N weren't daunted by the police's actions, leisurely stowing away their belongings with the same indifferent look on their faces. Slowly, they raised their hands into the air.

And the next thing he saw was darkness. The sound of screeching and shattering glass was the very next thing he noticed, and then he almost collapsed from the sudden absence of the support he leant on.

Almost instantly, the lights flickered back on. It was slow, but was enough to show him that nothing had been broken at all, and was also enough for him to see the conspicuous absence of two extremely important people and the extremely frustrated group of officers left behind.

And as far as he was aware, from that point on, Matt never saw them again.


A/N:

Hm. I never expected it to end that way, but oh well.

If you're wondering, L handles the poker side of things and B was the one who broke them out xD

Next time: Teacher C':

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