March 30
18:44
Sylvie Montaigne
It's finally time again to play whatever game the Confidence Trick throws at me. The Quarterfinal looms over the horizon and I have just over an hour before I leave. But I have my preparations out of the way. So I sit down for a game of sevens.
I deal four hands of 13 cards. After the deal, all of the sevens are laid face up. The first player has only one move to play, the 6 of spades. This is followed up with a 5 of spades by the next player, who also has the 4 of the same suit. The third player has three kings and an ace, not a very strong hand. He plays his 6 of clubs
The fourth player has a godsend, all of the 8s, two of the 9s and a 6. He plays his 8 of clubs and keeps control of the high clubs. Back to the first player, we'll call him Daniel. He has the 5, 3, and 2 of clubs. He plans on playing the 5, the 4 will almost certainly come out before his next turn, and he can play the 3 and 2. The second player, we'll call him Jim, plays his 4 of spades. Then the third, we'll call him John, passes his turn. The fourth player, let's call him Will, plays his 8 of hearts, maintaining his dominance with six out of the 8 cards that can be played.
The 4 of clubs didn't come out as Daniel had planned, but that didn't matter as the 4 of spades let him play his 3 and then his 2. Jim had no choice but to play his 6 of diamonds, allowing John to play his 5 of diamonds. Will plays an 8 of spades, knowing that he will get rid of his 10 and Queen.
Daniel plays a 2 of spades as planned. Jim follows up with a 9 of spades, giving control of the suit right back to Will and forcing John to pass. The 10 of spades comes out.
4 of diamonds, Jack of spades, 3 of diamonds, Queen of spades. Daniel passes for the first time. Jim plays the last high spade, the King of spades. John then has to pass for a third and last time. Will closes off the low spades wih an Ace, offering no help to Daniel, who uses his second pass. Jim has the 2 and Ace of diamonds, he plays the 2 and will play the Ace on his next turn.
John has no play and no passes left, he is out of the game. and his hand is laid out for all to see.
Will's dominance continues as he holds five of the six cards that can be played, but he still has that Ace of hearts. Deciding that he needed to play it, he plays his 6 of hearts. Daniel still has no play, and so uses his third pass.
Jim plays a 5 of hearts. John held the 4 of that suit, so that is also played. Will chucks his 8 of diamonds, waiting for the 9 and 10 to come out. Daniel is left with no move and is out of the game, leaving two players. Jim closes the low diamonds and Will closes the high clubs with his 9 and the 10 through King from the two defeated players.
Jim uses his 9 of diamonds and Will closes the low clubs. Jim then plays his 3 of hearts, followed by the discarded 2. Will responds with the Ace of that suit. Jim realises that he can pass, force the 9 of hearts out of his last opponent, play his queen, force a pass, and play his 10 of diamonds to win. So he passes, however, Will passes in response. This repeats until both players pass three times. Jim must now play a card, allowing Will to play the next card in sequence and force a fourth pass, winning outright and scoring a complete victory.
Sometimes (like this time), a player has such a commanding hand that he can force the other players out of the game and win without a fight. Sometimes, seven of the eight ends will be closed and the player holding that 5, 6, 8 or 9 can dominate the game. I play many more hands of this game, simply because of the number of ways it can end. A commanding victory by one player or a four way race to the finish. The possibilities are endless!
As the clock changes to 20:00, there is a knock on my door, as expected.
"Sylvie Montaigne, it's time." I'm ready to leave for Riverside. It will be a long, two-day ride to the next venue.
April 1
17:00
I finally arrived at Riverside, California. The game was set to start tomorrow, so they drove me to a nearby hotel to get some rest. Tomorrow at noon, the game will start.
"Your room, madam." An usher showed me to my room for tonight. "We will call you at 11:00 tomorrow, as you know, the game will begin at noon. You are not to leave this room until then. To enforce this, we will lock you inside. Worry not, everything you need to continue life, aside from contact with the outside of course, is all here."
April 2
07:15
A hotel in Riverside, California
Dana Andrews
I wake up to a Saturday morning. Today, the Quarterfinal of the Confidence Trick will take place. There are still about four hours until the doors unlock and I am escorted to the venue. I take this time to think about the astronomical debt that we have. Of the four of us that chose to move on to this point, I owe $455,000, Sylvie owes almost $4.5 million, Grace owes about $1.6 million and Ashley owes almost $1.2 million. Add that up and we owe about 7.7 million dollars. I have to hope that we can clear that debt today. I am restless for the morning. All I can focus on is that door. I know for a fact that the door will unlock at 11:00, but that does nothing to stop me from staring at that door.
After almost four hours and what must have been almost a thousand glances at that door, I hear the sound of something unlocking. The door finally opens and suited men and women appear.
"Mr. Andrews, are you ready to leave?"
"Yes, I am. I've been waiting all morning for this."
"Keep this on you until the game starts" An usher gives me a nametag. It says "Dana Andrews" on the top line and "Quarterfinalist" on the bottom line. The ushers escort me from my room to a garage to a van. We then take a short drive to what appears to be an abandoned mall. There are a few other vans such as the one which I am in on the parking lot. This must be where we'll play the next game. An usher gestures for me to exit the vehicle. I do so and then am escorted inside the building. There are dozens of others in the building. I assume that these people are other players.
"Hey! Dana! Over here!" I look around for the source of those voices. No doubt they sounds like Grace and Ashley. As the voice becomes louder, I know that I'm getting closer to them. Eventually, I am able to see them through the crowd of people.
"Nice to see you both again after three weeks! By the way, have you seen Sylvie?"
"No, haven't seen her yet, but she'll be here." More and more people enter the building. "Let's go somewhere where we can see the entrance. That way, we'll see her when she enters."
"Great idea, Dana." We try to distance ourselves from the crowd as much as we can. It doesn't take long for us to separate from the crowd. Just in time for Sylvie to make her entrance.
"Here we are once again."
"Sylvie!"
"Nice to see the three of you again." The reunion is short lived as a man appears near a railing one floor above us and his voice blasts the room.
"May I have your attention please?!" The crowd falls silent. "Thank you. And congratulations to our 110 quarterfinalists for making it this far! Give yourselves a round of applause!" Unexpectedly, or not, there is no applause. Nevertheless, he continues. "Welcome to the Quarterfinal of the Confidence Trick! We are almost at the end folks. By the end of the day, 10 of you will earn places in our Grand Finale! Without further delay, we will divide you into eleven groups of ten players. Please form a single file line in front of the check-in desk. You will draw a number out of a bag. Once you draw a number, you will be escorted to the room with that number. This number will tell what group you are in. Now may the first Quarterfinalist come up and draw a number?"
"Shit. That means that the four of us are gonna be split up." I reacted to the near certainty that we would all have to go it alone.
"Oh my God..." is all that Ashley can say. Grace and Sylvie however, were confident in their abilities. They were sure that they could play any game the Confidence Trick had to offer.
We waited for our turn to draw our numbers. One by one, the Quarterfinalists each drew a number. Eventually, everyone had drawn a number except the four of us. All we could hope for is that there were at least two of any number left. Grace draws her number first.
"6." Grace said. Next, it was Sylvie's turn to draw.
"11."
Now it was my turn to draw. I draw... 2. So far, Grace, Sylvie and I have been put into three different groups. Unless Ashley drew a 6, 11 or 2, we would each have to play alone.
"Come on... give me a 2..." Ashley muttered to herself, praying to match one of our numbers. She drew... 3. That meant that we would play in four different groups, with no one to help us. We were then escorted to our groups in this Quarterfinal.
Author's Note: Please Read!
On the 28th, I am moving to College Park. If there is anyone who is currently attending or will attend University of Maryland College Park this fall, PM me. Tell me what you think of my stories so far.
Also, watch out for a new story coming to this site soon, Tribunal. Thirteen gamblers who have made their livings through cheating are given one last chance to redeem themselves by gambling the way they were supposed to gamble in the first place. This new story will take concepts from Liar Game as well as Judge by Yoshiki Tonogai.
