Playing Cards
"Ready for another fun afternoon of guys time?" Eugene smiled warmly.
"Yeah!" Varian pumped his fists. "What do you have planned this time?"
"Today we're going to introduce you to blackjack." Eugene answered.
"I'm the best at blackjack. I won all the games at the orphanage." Lance boasted.
"I can't figure out how he does it." Eugene whispered. "But he's very good at it."
"What are the girls doing?" Varian asked as he took a seat. Ruddiger rubbed up against his legs, chittering with excitement.
"They're making bird feeders with Rapunzel. But trust me, this is way more fun." Lance insisted.
"Oh." Varian thought bird feeders sounded pretty good, so blackjack must really be something amazing to be considered the superior activity.
"I've got 4 decks here. We shuffle all the decks together and deal out two cards to everyone. The idea is to get 21 points or as close to it as you can. Each card is worth the value of the card from 2 to 10. Face cards, that is jacks, queens, and kings, are also worth 10. The ace can be worth 1 or 11 points, your choice. If you have a low number, you can be 'hit' again and we'll deal you another card. But if you go over 21, you lose. If your hand is better than the other players, you win. The dealer 'hits' on 16 or lower and stays on 17 or above. If the dealer goes 'bust' or over 21, all the players win. But if the dealer has the best hand, all of the players lose." Eugene explained. "Since you're new to this, we'll use candy in place of gold coins. You can bet whatever you want." Eugene dumped out a bag of candies which the group quickly measured into 3 equal piles.
"Okay." Varian had memorized the rules already and was working out a system. If he assigned all the cards from 2-6 with +1, 7-9 with 0, and 10-ace with -1, he could keep a running count of the cards played. And if he divided that total by the number of decks in play (4) he'd know the true count. A high total meant there were plenty of face cards left to draw and the advantage was to the player. A low total meant there were fewer remaining face cards and the advantage was to the dealer.
"Here we go. I'm dealer." Lance dealt the cards. He had one face up card, the 5 of hearts and one face down card, to make the players have to guess at his total. Eugene showed 17 (7 of spades and king of clubs) and Varian 14 (6 of clubs, 8 of spades.) Lance looked at his hidden card (a queen of clubs).
"Are you betting?" Eugene asked.
"Yes." Varian nodded the running count was +1 (from the 5, 6, and King played). It wasn't truly in his favor yet, but betting on the first round would help him get the feel for how the others played. Varian slid a candy into the center of the table.
"Wanna bet, Eugene?" Lance turned to his friend.
"I'm in too." Eugene slid two candies into the center.
"Will you hit?" Lance asked Varian.
Varian nodded. "Yeah." He got another card, a 5 of diamonds, making his score 19.
"How bout you, Eugene?" Lance asked.
"I'll hit too. Gotta show the kid the ropes." Eugene professed. He was handed a 3 of clubs. At 20, Eugene was winning.
"You can still hit kid, but you might go bust." Lance warned.
"I'll stay." Varian decided, hoping the dealer would bust.
"I'm staying too." Eugene announced.
"Okay, now I reveal my cards." Lance showed that he had a 15 total. "Less than 17 so dealer hits." He drew a 6 of diamonds and totaled 21. "As I expected, the dealer wins." Lance said smugly.
"I want to play again." Varian may have lost, but he saw possibilities for how he might win in later rounds. Lance nodded and dealt a 2nd round of cards. They played peacefully for 10 rounds, before Varian started frowning.
"Something wrong, little man? Jealous of my winnings, perhaps?" Lance laughed.
Varian scowled. "Jealous of your cheating, maybe. There's only supposed to be 4 queens of clubs, and you've played 5!" he accused.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about." Lance bluffed.
"Ruddiger thinks otherwise. Show him, boy." Varian pointed his raccoon at Lance, and Ruddiger immediately jumped on top of him.
"Hey now, stop it." Lance tried to get rid of the raccoon, but Ruddiger merely dug his little paws in and continued to climb. He got to Lance's left sleeve and sniffed suspiciously.
"Don't touch, you're gonna tear it!" Lance bellowed. Ruddiger pawed at the sleeve, dislodging 3 queens and 4 aces that Lance had hidden up his sleeves.
"I knew it. I knew you were cheating when the queen showed up twice in my count!" Varian said righteously.
"Lance, I am so disappointed in- wait, what do you mean by count, Varian?" Eugene was dismayed.
"I keep a running count of all the cards that have been played." Varian answered, and began explaining his system. Lance was snickering, but Eugene looked upset.
"You're not supposed to count cards! It ruins the game if you can predict what's coming next, instead of guessing and relying on luck." Eugene pointed out.
"But it's not breaking the rules, is it?" Varian persisted.
"...Not technically, but if another dealer found out about your system, I guarantee you'd be thrown out of the game. You can still play with us, but if you're gonna count cards, you can't bet." Eugene compromised.
"Tough going, Varian. Looks like I'll be the one with the most candies." Lance reached down to eat one, and got his hand slapped by Eugene.
"I haven't forgotten about you! Cards up your sleeve, how could you? And I bet this isn't the first time you've cheated, either!" Eugene fumed.
"Well, at least you'd win one bet." Lance tried to defuse the situation with humor but Eugene wasn't having it.
"Both of you are spoiling what should have been a fun game! I'm done here." Eugene brushed aside the remaining cards down on the table, then scooped up all the candies. "As the only one here who played properly, the candies are mine." Eugene declared.
"Well that hardly seems fair. Nobody told me math wasn't allowed." Varian grumbled.
"And I've been playing this way for years. It didn't bother him when he didn't know about the hidden cards." Lance added.
"...That was kinda neat. If I hadn't been counting, I never would have suspected you'd hidden cards somewhere. Could you maybe teach me how to put cards in my sleeves?" Varian asked.
"Only if you teach me that counting system. I don't understand it, but it sure got Eugene worked up!" Lance said.
"It's a deal." Varian stuck out his hand, and Lance shook it, making a few more cards fall to the floor. Eugene sighed, but he knew when he was beaten. It would take awhile for him to trust Lance and Varian enough to play cards again, and even then there wouldn't be any betting allowed.
The End
For some reason, I really like that Lance and Varian have learned completely the wrong lesson from all of this. Poor Eugene, stuck being the only 'honest' one.