Updates ... To recap... Sugoroku is now on his way to America, traveling on a US Naval Destroyer. You have to wonder though...what kind of attitude is a 16 year old going to pick up being stuck on board a ship for a month with a bunch of swaggering, over confident navy types? Something to consider, yes?
And one final note...due to the interest generated by that last chapter, I have put my replies at the end of this week's installment. They ran a little long and I didn't want to bore you to sleep before you got to Sugoroku. : )
Have fun everyone!
Trixie21
Okay, you all know the drill. I have to take up valuable space and time to say that I do not own any part that is the coolness of the Yu-Gi-Oh universe. That honor goes completely to Kazuki Takahashi. Authoress as she bows subserviently before her shrine of great creators... "We're not worthy! We're not worthy! We're not worthy!"
This Old Man: Sugoroku's Story
Part 2: America
19. Winners and Losers…
They were just at the halfway point to Hawaii when Sugoroku played Richter.
Feeling rather secure in his ability to play decently well, he had sought the man out. When he found him in the torpedo room, he merely stood at the door until Richter noticed him.
"What do ya' want kid?" the weapons officer asked in a surly tone.
"A game."
The man stepped up to Sugoroku as he took a drag of the cigarette hanging from his lip, and as he looked Sugoroku over once thoroughly, he proceeded to blow the smoke into the younger man's face. Sugoroku forced himself not to blink more than twice at the smoke in his eyes. He wanted to hold himself still and look like a challenge worthy of notice. He hoped that by holding his ground no matter what Richter said or did, he would convey exactly that.
After a long moment, Richter nodded.
"Alright kid. You got yourself a game. Mess, 1800 hours. Got any cigarettes?"
Sugoroku nodded. The cigarette was one of the most valuable commodities when on board a ship. Men would pay almost anything just for one when they were out and needed it. He'd known that from playing chess on the docks. But it was even more so now that there was only the limited supplies the men carried on board with them. He himself did not smoke, but he'd been winning them in his games with the sailors and had amassed a nice little batch specifically to use to play Richter.
"Good. That's all I play for. Don't be late."
Sugoroku nodded and walked off. There was no need to stay. He'd gotten what he needed to know and that was all he wanted.
In just one hour he would be playing Richter.
When the appointed time came, Sugoroku walked confidently into the mess hall, a shoe box full of the cigarettes he'd won under his arm. Without a second of hesitation, he walked past some twenty spectators over to Richter's table, sat before him, and looked across as the man spoke.
"Hope you're ready to play kid."
Sugoroku only nodded as he continued to regard the man before him. Though Richter looked upon him in return with some disdain, Sugoroku did not flinch or waver in the least. He felt nothing but an over powering need to beat this man at this game, and he was ready to begin.
Richter shuffled the cards in his hand deftly as he said, "I'll keep it simple for ya' kid. Five-card draw, since that's probably what these jokers on board taught ya', high cards go. Ante up no less than 10 sticks and no bet max. Got it?"
Again Sugoroku nodded as he took 10 cigarettes from his box and rolled them to the center of the table and waited. Richter tossed 10 out into the pile and started flicking the cards out.
Sugoroku kept his eyes on Richter until after the cards were dealt and the remaining deck was set down, before picking up and looking at his cards.
5,7 and 8 of hearts, Jack of spades and 10 of clubs.
A straight, a flush, or on an outside chance, a straight flush, were his only possibilities. Richter tossed out 10 more cigarettes and got rid of one card. Sugoroku in response said, "I'll see it," and tossed out his cigarettes before getting rid of his Jack and 10. Richter tossed out the new cards and Sugoroku peered at them.
The 6 of hearts and 2 of diamonds had joined his hand. Absolutely nothing. Not even a decent high card. Sugoroku tossed his hand to the center of the table upside down as he said, "I Fold."
Richter nodded with a half smirk as he tossed his hand down for show as he stated, "two pair, Queens high."
He rolled thirty of the cigarettes back to his side, picked up all the cards and shuffled again as Sugoroku rolled another ante out. Once more, five cards each was given out.
Sugoroku's starting hand this round included two 3s, two 8s and the King of clubs. Well, two pair was better than what he had last time, but he wished one set had a higher value. He rolled ten cigarettes out and set the King loose. Richter saw the bet and tossed one card also. Sugoroku's last card of that hand was just a two of spades. No help, but he was still better than before. He rolled ten more cigarettes out. Richter saw the bet and raised it by 5. Sugoroku saw it with another 5 of his own and called it.
He placed his two pair, 8 high, down and waited. Richter gave a cold smile and placed down a full house comprised of three 7s and two Jacks. 55 cigarettes went to Richter's side.
And that was how it went for the rest of the game.
Sugoroku always seemed to be one card short of a decent hand and one step away from beating Richter. When it finally ended, Richter picked up his 2 boxs of cigarettes and gave a cold sneer as he walked off, just about every man leaving after him.
Sugoroku sat and just stared at the table. He was absolutely disgusted with himself. He knew he was better than this. Certainly every man has a run of bad luck once in a while, but this was absolutely beyond. He was sure he'd made the right choices all through out. No matter what, based on every card he had gotten, if he had tossed anything out other than what he did, he would have had less then what he ended up with.
He had never known such defeat before. It was utter, total defeat. He hadn't even been able to win a single hand. It was as if he hadn't even tried.
But he had. He knew it he had. But he still lost to Richter, and he hated the idea.
"Sugoroku?"
The young man made no answer to his friend.
Mark sat down next to him.
"You okay Sugoroku?"
"I lost."
Mark nodded sympathetically.
"We all do sometimes kid."
"I don't," replied Sugoroku through his teeth.
There was a sigh, then , "Sugoroku, Richter never loses."
"He will."
"Not anytime soon. Face it Sugoroku, he's got the luck of the cards. Why it just happens to some guys and not others, no one knows."
Sugoroku's right hand curled into a fist.
"I'll practice again and I'll play him again. And I will win."
Sugoroku gave his fist a light pound on the table to emphasize his point and then left. For hours that night, he lay on his bunk and stewed over it. How could he have lost so disgracefully? It just did not seem possible that anyone, especially him, could lose so badly. There had to be something. But what? What could it have been? What had he missed?
For the next two days, he went around to any one who would play him and again, won a sufficient pile of cigarettes to challenge Richter for a second time.
Richter happily obliged him, and proceeded to once more trounce Sugoroku as if the younger man didn't even know how to play.
Now Sugoroku didn't just feel bad…he felt completely humiliated. He couldn't even bring himself to look in a mirror. He lay in his bunk again after that for a full day and night, absorbed in so much self abuse that he didn't hear any of his friends when they tried to cheer him up.
Mark could only tolerate so much of it, and by the morning of the second full day of Sugoroku's unresponsiveness, he had reached his limit. That morning, he walked up to Sugoroku's bunk and after calling his name twice and getting no answer, he reached over, grabbed Sugoroku's shirt and hauled him completely out of bed. He set the surprised adolescent standing on the floor, and with a look of annoyance very uncharacteristic for the mild mannered man, Mark simply said, "That's enough of that. Follow me."
Sugoroku, still stunned by his friend's look, followed Mark unquestioningly through the ship's corridors to the very bowels of the Destroyer. Just outside of the engine room, Mark stopped and turned to Sugoroku.
"Okay kid. Here's the deal. I can't stand quitters and people who give in to self pity. You never struck me as the kind that would be either so here's what's going to happen. You lost. So what. You're going to suck it up and deal with it, and in the meantime, you're going to keep trying. You're no ordinary kid Sugoroku. You've proved that from day one and I'm not about to let you sink to something I know you're not. There's more than one way to play a game kid and you're going to learn how. I don't know why, but I honestly believe, that if there's anyone who can take Richter down, its you. Just about every man on board this ship believes in you just as much as I do. They want to see Richter get beat for once and I'm not going to let you disappoint them. Yeah you lost once. Sure you lost twice. You may even lose again, but that doesn't mean that it's the end and you quit. You keep going. No matter what, no matter who. You find another option… You learn more about what it is you're having trouble with… Then you go back and try it again. That's what makes a real man kid. Truth, honesty, courage, tenacity…never giving up…never running no matter how tough the journey is… You stand up to it. Will you be scared sometimes of what's in front of you? Hell yeah. But you don't run. You keep your faith in yourself and your abilities and you move forward. You are going to beat Richter and there's someone in here I think can help you."
Sugoroku stared at Mark.
He certainly had thought of playing to the best of his abilities. Captain Tanaka had been most adamant about that, but he had never once considered what the men on board the ship really thought of him and his playing. It was, in a way, a lesser version of when he had played the war games in school. People depended on his decisions for their lives in that instance. But here, people were depending on his abilities to see things right. Lives were not on the line, but honor, and the idea of what was fair, was. It was definitely a new concept.
Mark wanted him to learn a new way to play. He wanted him to beat Richter. He wanted to make sure that Sugoroku did not let everyone on board down, and think less of him. Mark wanted him to try again.
Fine.
Sugoroku's brow creased slightly with a new found understanding and need to go forward.
He would try again.
He had too.
He was being counted on.
"Ready?" asked Mark seeing Sugoroku's change.
Sugoroku nodded.
"Good. Get in there then."
Mark opened the door to the engine room and Sugoroku stepped in.
Sugoroku had been in the engine room before, and knew that it was a dangerous and noisy place to be, so he found himself wondering why Mark had seen fit to bring him here. It wasn't a long wait. From behind a large boiler, a man stepped out and Sugoroku smiled.
Vick Clemmons gave Sugoroku a half smile in return before looking up at Mark briefly.
"I'll need him for about 6 hours."
"Geez! 6 hours?"
"Yep. If it were anyone else I'd say at least a week. Of course if it were anyone else, I wouldn't be doing this at all."
"I know Vick. Thank you for your help."
Mark looked at Sugoroku seriously.
"You listen to this guy carefully kid. He's doing this as a special favor and I don't want him let down."
Mark grinned with a shake of his head, then, "You're going to learn things about cards that you never even imagined."
With that he walked out.
Quarter Master first class (QM1/c) Victor Clemmons studied Sugoroku for a long moment, before running his hand through his short, curly, red hair.
Victor Clemmons was what some would call a 'lifer'. A career navy man, Vick came aboard the Pemberton prior to her August. 23, 1943 commissioning as a first class Quartermaster, having studied the trade at the Quartermaster School in Newport, Rhode Island and at a destroyer pre-commissioning school in Norfolk, Virginia. He was considered one of the best, if not the best, helmsman on board. At 32, he was also one of the older men and though he had been accepted to M.I.T., he had declined the offer to stay aboard the ships of the Navy, the Destroyer being his favorite. Its steering was like no other ship and its challenge kept him happy right where he was.
Of course, these were the known facts about the man. What most didn't know, was that Victor was an always recovering, compulsive, gambling addict. He had intentionally joined the Navy over 13 years ago, to help break a habit that was so bad, the man had would have bet his life just for one more chip.
That known, it was no wonder he had become the stoic sort who preferred to be left alone in most instances where he had the choice. Though he could tolerate being near it with out falling into his old habit, solitude was just easier to go for than sitting in a room surrounded by card playing crew members. He made such an effort to steer away from gambling in any form, that he rarely would even touch a deck of cards.
But today, he was making an exception.
"Have a seat Sugoroku," said Vick as he sat on a large waist thick pipe that ran across the room along the floor.
Sugoroku did as he was asked.
"So you played Richter and lost both times, huh?"
Sugoroku nodded as he looked down at the floor at the memory.
"I even played with all my heart."
"Don't worry 'bout it. I'm sure you played a really great game both times, but what you don't realize is that you wouldn't have won no matter how much heart you used."
Sugoroku looked up in surprise.
"But I know how to play!"
Vick grimaced.
"You know how to play poker, sure, but not the way Richter plays it."
Pale amethyst eyes blinked.
Richter played…differently?
"It…looked like the same game."
"It was supposed to."
Vick pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket and started shuffling them, and for the first time since starting to play poker, Sugoroku looked closely at the hands doing the shuffling. The way Vick did it was, in Sugoroku's mind, almost an art form. He handled them with such skill and prowess, that it was as if the cards were an extension of his hands themselves. Suddenly Vick stopped shuffling, pulled a card from the top and turned it towards Sugoroku, and without actually looking at it himself, said, "Queen of Diamonds."
Sugoroku stared dumbly at the Queen of Diamonds held before him.
Vick placed the card back on the deck, and shuffled again for several moments before stopping a second time to pull a card from the top to show Sugoroku without looking at it.
"10 of spades."
Sugoroku's jaw dropped. Again, Vick had called the card he held, but had not looked at.
"Next time, it'll be a two of clubs."
Having stated what card was to be pulled, Vick shuffled again, and then pulled a card from the top. It was the two of clubs just as he had predicted.
Sugoroku was speechless.
He could not even begin to guess how Vick had done that.
"You see Sugoroku, Richter won every time, because he knows exactly what cards are going out to who. He even knows your finishing hand before its been dealt. So, mistake number one when playing with Richter; you played him not knowing what kind of player he was. Mistake number two; you let him deal the entire time. Mistake number three; you let him use his own cards. Mistake number four, though this is actually the most minor of them; you allowed him to set the rules of the game. You see, Richter doesn't play like everyone else, because he knows how to manipulate the cards according to his whims."
"Manipulate?"
"Control, influence, maneuver. He can make any card he wants come up just by repeatedly shuffling the cards in a certain way, for a certain number of times. With a good memory and a good hand, he can call any card from any part of the deck. Here, take a look."
Sugoroku took the offered deck and slowly thumbed through it, surprised to find the entire deck back in complete order. It didn't make sense. He had seen Vick shuffling the deck over and over with his own eyes. How could he have possibly done this?
Unless…
He turned up to Vick who nodded.
"I couldn't trust my own eyes," said the young man.
"In a way and only for now. You just didn't think along that line, and even if you had, you wouldn't have known what to look for anyway. But when I'm done, you'll know. Richter," continued Vick as he took the cards back and shuffled them again, "is like a magician. What he does looks like magic, but it really is nothing more than a well set up tactic of diversion and hand movement."
Vick then bent the cards in one hand, as the shuffling paused for a moment, and a card popped up into the air almost as if by itself. The red haired man grabbed the card out of the air and slapped it back onto the deck before resuming the shuffling. He did it again three more times, and a delighted grin spread across Sugoroku's features. He had never known a simple deck of cards could be so amazing.
"Now that was a trick. What Richter does, is called cheating."
The smile feel away from Sugoroku's face in a heartbeat.
"He…he cheated?"
"Every time, no doubt."
Anger welled within Sugoroku at the revelation. That was what he had missed! That was why he had lost! He had been right in that he had done absolutely nothing wrong in his game play.
"How does he do this?" Sugoroku asked in a hiss.
"That's what I'm going to show you, but I want to make it clear, that this is just so you know how to spot it. I don't want to hear of you ever using what I'm about to teach you in any game, at any time, any where. Got it? I hear about it, and you'll have the honor of me in your face when I'm not a happy sailor."
Sugoroku nodded.
He didn't want to cheat, but knowing how others did it would be an incredible help for all his future games.
Vick nodded back and started to shuffle the cards again.
Next Chapter: Tricking The Cheater…
R and R's gratefully appreciated: )
Ciardra ... Ah yes, poor Richter. Trust me though, he deserves it. I have him painted in my head as that vile bully type so it doesn't bother me one bit if he should happen to get taken down. Especially by Sugoroku. ; ) And don't worry. Its not too long of a wait.
Scarab Dynasty ... Hmm, where do I get my ideas? Honestly, from lots of different sources. Sometimes people I know give me ideas (whether they know or not!), sometimes its personal life experience influences, sometimes its just something that strikes me while doing my research for the era and sometimes I just use a dream inspiration. I did some research on WWII and Destroyers and it turns out they were quite...rocky. Definitely not like any cruise ship. I went on a cruise a few years back (to the Bahamas baby, lol) and I remember feeling a little headache the first day even with the stabilizers they use on the big ships. (Don't ask me how they work. That I don't know!) I thought to myself, "Man! What the heck would it be like on a ship without anything to equalize the roll and pitch on the open seas?" And that's when my evil side jumped in. Poor Sugoroku. But I feel like its the little things nobody really thinks about that makes life, his life, so believable. 'Course I could be wrong! And thanks so much for reviewing my Honda one shot. It is most outrageously appreciated!
PyroDragon2006 ... My grandfather taught me to play poker when I was little and we played with pennies or bottle caps lol. As for the dream bit... Most 'experts' of today would denounce those theories as false. Now even though I must claim a slight bit of artistic license to the wording of the dream theory content of the previous chapter, I have researched it and some neat things come to light. In the 40's and 50's (right in Sugoroku's time) people most often believed that they didn't dream in color. Scientists followed suit. Since the only way to establish such a fact was through questionnaires, it was eventually assumed that people did only dream in B&W. But we all know that famous saying about 'assume' don't we? As time progressed and these studies were repeated, it comes to light that as visual media such as TV and movies were colorized and became more available to more areas of the world, the hypothesis shifted, and more people reported seeing dreams in color. I personally think I dream in color, at least I get the impression I do, but when I wake up and think back, I can never seem to remember what the colors of an object was. This for me is odd since I make a strong effort to control my dreams and their outcomes. I also can wake myself up from one if I found it interesting enough to write down for a story idea. I have several notebooks full of such dreams. The theory of not being able to read in dreams could be due to the fact the few people can remember actually seeing words in their dreams. I dream of reading a book and yet when I wake, I cannot picture the exact words. Honestly speaking, until we can come up with a testing program that specifically targets brain activity for color dreams and reading, we may never truly know the answer. I personally am very happy thinking humans have the potential to do both, but think it truly depends on the person as an individual. Just please remember that this is technically being written in correlation to Sugoroku's time, not ours. I did go back and reword that portion of the chapter slightly to better reflect that little point, and of course, it only serves to again emphasize further that Sugoroku's ideals and beliefs are way ahead of his time. A fact with which we are very familiar with by this point, yes? However, if my insignificant writings happen to peak an interest in doing some research on anything I may throw in there, then that's awesome too. Expand your minds people! LOL. Wow. That's the longest reply I've ever written. I have a few links that you can follow to some interesting reading on the study of color in dreams and the theory, but since the 'MAN' has that annoying way of not letting us put links in, I'll just e-mail them to you. Its just easier!