"Wow, Kokoro-san! You're so good!" My last opponent of the first round tells me as I reveal my full house. I just won the first round!
Of course, I pay the second, third, and fourth people extra in order to minimize my impact on the game. After I pay my opponents, I go over to Igarashi's table, where she's playing her match with two others. Igarashi has many more chips than they do. You can't "re-buy" extra chips, so after you run out, you're eliminated from the tournament.
The other two players seem to go all in after a flop of 10, 9, and J, and Igarashi calls. After the next two cards are reveled, all three players show their hands. One of the players had a pair of jacks, one had a two pair of 9 and 10, and Igarashi has a straight of 8, 9, 10, J, Q, winning the hand and the first round.
I pay the second, third, and fourth place players as well. The decision to let Igarashi and I into the tournament was not very popular, so in order to preserve the point of this tournament- to improve my relations with the public- I need to shell out a little extra to the losers of the game.
After a few hours, all of the first round matches have been completed. My hand is cramping from writing out so many checks. Because there are 100 first-level rounds instead of 64, I'm giving away a lot more money than what I first imagined. Unless I get some other sponsors, there won't be many more tournaments like this in the future.
The second tournament level starts, and I'm one of the last ones to play. Igarashi is one of the first, so I get to see how she bets. Playing against her is like playing against a bot that's on the "super hard" difficulty. She's an expert at probability, and although she can rarely predict what other players have, she can definitely count cards and estimate her chances of winning a given hand.
After halfway through the match with Igarashi, it's my turn to play. It's really tough, but I end up in first place, much to the chagrin of the other competitors. I pay them their fair share and go back to the tournament bracket, only to see that in the final round. It looks like it will be me against Igarashi and eight others.
