Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW
Author's Notes: Thank you for all the many reviews and the feedback.
Thanks to one of my guest reviewers Le Chiffre will make an appearance at the poker table.
This is loosely based on the World Series of Poker that was held in Reno in 1968. It was put on by Tom Moore and the winner was Crandell Addington. In the following years, Moore tried different formats and moved it to Las Vegas. In 1971 the event was moved to the current format of Texas Hold'em. The first year it was just stud poker and only eight people showed up.
Chapter Thirteen
Friday night at seven o'clock, Rhett and twenty-four other participants were seated at five tables. The first night they were just going to play for three hours. After that time was over the ten people who had the most money would move on to the semi-finals.
Rhett had asked Scarlett to sit where he could see her which she did. When they took their first break, Rhett told her to move to where she was seated behind him. He had smiled and said, "I can't stop myself from looking at you. I need to focus on the other players at my table. Please move."
"Of course, Honey."
At the end of the first night of play Rhett was in the top ten but just barely. He had been number ten. He had only beat out number eleven by five dollars. As they rode the elevator up to their room, they were both nervous. Scarlett said, "Do you think we will get used to all these new devices?"
"Yes. It will just take a little time. We both got use to indoor plumbing awfully fast."
"I do like taking a shower."
"I like taking a shower with you."
Scarlett giggled. She said, "And cars."
"And air conditioning."
"Yes, that was easy to get used to."
They smiled at each other. Rhett said, "This is a lot harder than I thought it would be. These people are professional poker players. They certainly don't give anything away with their expressions. I'm used to playing against drunks and boys that are still wet behind the ears."
"Even those two women?"
"I think they give even less away."
"What are you going to do?"
"I will have to find their tells?"
"Tells?"
"A tell is something that the other player does that he doesn't know he is doing. It lets me know if he has a good hand or a bad hand."
"Like what?"
"Like a man continually looking at his hand."
"Oh."
"Another way I can tell a man doesn't have a good hand is that he won't make eye contact with me. Unfortunately, these men aren't going to have simple tells."
"You will figure it out."
"Thank you, my dear. The trouble with reading someone's tells is they don't tell you how good the man's hand is just how good he thinks it is. I was playing against a young man one time, and I was steadily taking all his money. He was dealt a hand and when he looked at it, he got all excited. So, I assumed he had finally gotten a good hand. He raised the bet both times he could. All I did was see his bet. I was going to let him win that hand then get my money back on the next hand. When it came time to show our cards, all he had was three Queens which is not a bad hand but certainly not a great hand."
"Did he win the hand?"
"As a matter of fact, he did but lost all the rest."
Scarlett laughed.
The next day they walked around Reno in the morning. Rhett wanted to go to a bookstore, and they did. He found a book titled, 'The greatest stock buys of the last hundred years.' He then found another titled, 'The greatest inventions in the last hundred years.' The books were by the same author and Rhett hoped the man was a good researcher. Rhett had bought them to find out what had been invented in this century and get some history on the stock market. He had a feeling he was going to be gambling in an entirely new way in this century.
Scarlett was looking at the magazines. She had picked up a couple of them, Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and Reader's Digest. She turned to say something to Rhett but unbelievable to her Rhett was blushing. She blurted out, "What could make you blush?"
Rhett folded the center page of the Playboy magazine back up and with an uneasy smile said, "There is a picture of a naked woman in this magazine. It shocked me when I opened it up. Come along. Let's make our purchases and leave this store."
After they got outside, Scarlett said, "I wouldn't have thought anything would shock you."
"Nor would I have."
"Why did you blush?"
"It was embarrassing to be standing in a bookstore next to my wife looking at another woman's genitals. Also, because it was so unexpected. I wouldn't have picked it up but, it said it was a men's magazine."
"I think that is an understatement."
"Indeed, Now let's stop talking about it."
Scarlett didn't even try to hide her smile when she replied, "Of course, Rhett," And because she couldn't resist, she added, "I wouldn't want to embarrass you even more."
Rhett didn't reply. He let her have her fun.
The couple had lunch at the hotel. As Scarlett was looking out the window, she saw a bunch of scantily dress men and women around a body of water.
She said, "Rhett, look at those people. They don't have anything on."
"You are right."
"They look like they are only wearing their underwear."
"I agree."
The waitress came to their table and gave them each a glass of water. Rhett said, "What do you recommend?"
"A lot of people like the roast beef sandwiches or the meat loaf or the Salisbury steak."
Scarlett said, "I will have the fried chicken."
Rhett said, "Let me try the Salisbury steak."
"Mashed potatoes or fries?"
They both said, "Mashed potatoes."
"What kind of salad dressing?"
"What do you have?"
"French, Italian and Thousand Island."
"French"
"Italian"
Rhett read the lady's name tag and said, "Doris, what is that over there?"
Doris looked out the window and said, "I don't see anything."
"That body of water that everyone is in."
In a hesitant voice Doris said, "It is a swimming pool."
"Thank you."
Doris looked at them strangely and then walked away. Rhett said, "I know what swimming is."
"As do I."
"But I've never seen anything like that."
"I guess it is a manmade pond."
"I guess."
"Rhett, we are so lucky that Jasmine found us."
"And that Marshall let us stay."
"If they hadn't known who we were they would never have let us stay."
"We were fortunate that both of them are Civil War buffs"
"Yes."
Doris brought their salads and set them down in front of them. They both took a bite of their salads and Rhett said to Scarlett, "This salad dressing is good."
"What did she call it? French?"
"Yes"
After a few minutes of eating their salads Rhett said, "Are you ready to trade?"
"Yes."
They traded their salads. After they got their entrees, they ate some then they traded those too. It was what they did whenever they went out to eat. They ordered something they both like then ordered something they had never tried. That way they tried new foods but always had a satisfying meal.
They went to their room after lunch. Rhett read one of his books and Scarlett her magazines. Rhett turned on the news at six o'clock while they got dressed. They watched the local news next. There was a segment on the World Series of Poker being held in town. Rhett turned off the TV. Rhett turned to Scarlett, "Shall we go downstairs?"
"Yes, let's."
Rhett did much better on Saturday night. He studied his opponents at the table. He watched for their tells and three hours later he was up a significant amount of money. He had the most money at the end of Saturday's play. He was now guaranteed at least a prize of twenty-five thousand dollars. Basically, he would get his entry fee back. The next highest winner was Jean Le Chiffre.
The couple went upstairs and celebrated the only way a pregnant woman and a man on the wagon could celebrate.
The next morning, they had room service bring them their breakfast. They sat in the bed and ate their breakfast. Scarlett still thought it was decadent to eat breakfast in bed. That made it so much more fun. The poker play was going to start at one and there were going to be reporters there even one from television. Scarlett took a lot more care with her appearance because she might be getting her picture taken as the winner's wife.
Rhett and Le Chiffre sat down at the table with their winnings from the two previous days. Both of them were particularly good players. As the afternoon dragged on Rhett began to notice that when Le Chiffre got a good hand, he tapped his index finger on the table, it was ever so slight, but it was there. Rhett also noticed that when Le Chiffre had a bad hand, he put his left hand next to his left eye. That was when Rhett noticed that Le Chiffre's left eye was glass. It was almost five o'clock and they both had just about the same amount of money. Rhett had three of a kind, tens.
Le Chiffre saw Rhett's bet and raised him. Le Chiffre was acting like he was confident of winning the hand, but Rhett thought he was bluffing because Le Chiffre's left hand was next to his left eye. Rhett turned and looked at Scarlett. Something he would never have done before this time jump. Now they were a team. He was about to risk everything they had on a hunch. What If he lost everything on this gamble, would they be alright?
As Rhett was staring at Scarlett, she met his eyes. She nodded her head several times then she mouthed the words, do it. Rhett smiled his roguish smile. Scarlett smiled her mischievous smile.
Rhett turned back to the table and pushed all of his chips forward. He said, "All in."
His opponent looked shocked. He looked at his hand again and Rhett knew he was right.
Le Chiffre had a lousy hand. Unbelievable to Le Chiffre but the man sitting across the table from him in this high-stake game had looked at his wife for courage. Le Chiffre thought, 'What a weak man.' Rhett had not looked at his wife for courage but for confirmation. Le Chiffre thought Rhett Butler was bluffing. He thought Rhett had nothing. He was definitely going to call the man's bet and win the tournament.
When Rhett turned over his cards, Le Chiffre wanted to die. Butler had three tens. That beat his two pairs. Le Chiffre thought, 'Both of us had puny hands, but unfortunately mine was punier. We bet all that money on puny hands.'
Rhett won one hundred thousand dollars. He and Scarlett would have enough money to survive. He never wanted to do this again. He had been able to play poker for vast amounts of money before in their past life because it hadn't mattered. When he had been much younger it hadn't mattered if he lost. He was the only person who would suffer. After he had become successful it hadn't mattered because he had a lot of money. Now it mattered. Now he had to support not only himself but Scarlett and the baby.
Rhett and Scarlett got their picture taken quite a few times, but the TV reporter had not interviewed him. Rhett and Scarlett visited the casino that night just to see what it was like.
Scarlett and Rhett watched some people playing blackjack. Scarlett asked Rhett to explain the game to her. Rhett said, "The player plays against the dealer. Whoever has the highest score wins but if either person gets more than twenty-one, they lose, or the term is going bust. The dealer deals two cards, one face down and one face up to all the different players and himself. The dealer must take cards until he reaches seventeen. An ace can count as one or eleven."
Scarlett watched the play for a while. Rhett said, "Are you ready to go?"
"No. I think I can figure out a system to improve the odds of us winning."
"I am going to find a poker game."
"Give me twenty dollars."
"Alright."
Rhett happily gave her twenty dollars in chips. Rhett found a poker game to sit in on. After about two hours he reluctantly left the game to find his wife. He knew she was going to be unhappy he had been gone so long. Fortunately he was up five thousand dollars.
Rhett returned to the blackjack table and found Scarlett with a lot of chips in front of her. She smiled at Rhett and said, "Darling, you are finally back. Good. I am so ready to leave. What do I do with all these pretty chips?"
"We cash them in. Come along."
Later Rhett asked, "How did you win so much money?"
"I have a system. Let me explain it to you. I gave the low cards a plus one and the high cards a minus one. If the count was high, then that meant there were a lot of high cards left to be dealt. If the count was a negative number that meant there were mostly small cards left to be dealt. I bet accordingly and took additional hits accordingly."
"Did you play the dumb belle?"
"Yes."
"You won almost seven thousand dollars, and I made five thousand dollars at the poker game I sat in on. We will visit one casino a night here and in Las Vegas. We can't win a lot of money, or we will attract attention. We attract enough attention just by walking through the room."
"We are a beautiful couple."
"Yes, we are."
"Yes, Rhett, I like that plan."
They went back and forth between Reno and Las Vegas every other day for the next two weeks. Rhett would leave Scarlett alone to work her magic at casino after casino while he found a poker game to sit in on. When the couple left Las Vegas to return to New Orleans, they had over two hundred thousand dollars in the suitcase Marshall had lent them to put their money in. It was enough for them to live on until Rhett figured out how to make money in their new life.
Author's Notes: The system that Scarlett creates is based on the Hi-Lo system. This is the system that the people from MIT used to make a lot of money. They made a movie about it titled 21.