Usefulness
"I can't believe a club as lame as train club actually has poker nights," Sam scoffed as her and Freddie sat in the middle of her living room.
"Okay, first of all, it's not 'train club'; it's the Training Bros," Freddie corrected. "And it's not lame!"
"I've been to a meeting, nub," Sam smirked as she pulled out a deck of cards and began to shuffle. "And it was the definition of lame."
"The only thing lame about that meeting is that I got kicked out of the club for six-weeks because of your little stunt," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "And they only let me back in because I told them we broke up!"
"Look, do you want to cry about me blowing up a few of your precious trains, or do you want me to teach you to play poker?" Sam snapped.
"Um, poker please," Freddie replied.
"Alright then," Sam said, handing him a few cards. "So basically, everybody starts with five cards. Your goal is to either have the best hand or bluff to make everybody else think your hand is the best."
"So you have to lie?" Freddie frowned.
"No, you bluff," Sam corrected. "Which is where I think you're going to have the most trouble."
"I can bluff!" Freddie defended.
"Yeah, alright," Sam smirked and she pulled out a bag of potato chips. "Anyway, I couldn't find any poker chips, so we have to use regular chips."
"But won't we get grease from the chips on the cards?" Freddie frowned.
"Dude, my mom got these cards from a fisherman in Vegas, I'm sure they've seen a lot more than grease," Sam said.
"Um, okay, remind me to sanitize my hands after this," Freddie said.
"Priss," Sam smirked. "So remember, ace is the highest card. Five of a kind beats a flush, and a pair is a weak bet. Got it?"
"Could you-"
"Let's go," Sam said, dropping a few chips into the middle of the table. "You'll learn as you go."
Freddie sighed as he slid a few chips into the middle. "Alright."
"Remember, don't make it so obvious whether your hand is good or bad," Sam said.
"I'll be fine," Freddie said as he picked up his hand. "I know how to bluff."
He looked down at his cards and saw that they were terrible. He had a two, seven, eight, ten and king of different suits. Basically, his hand was worthless. But he knew he had to make Sam think it was great.
"Wow, this hand is really something," Freddie grinned. "Yup, you should just quit now and-"
"Your hand's garbage," Sam said at once. "You're bluffing."
"I-No-Well, okay," Freddie conceded, laying down his hand. "But see, if you knew I was bluffing that means I can bluff. So ha, in your face!"
"The point of bluffing is to do it in a way so people don't know you're bluffing," Sam said, shaking her head. "So you can take that 'ha' and shove it down your-"
"Fine! Let's try again!" Freddie said.
Sam laughed as she dealt out two new hands. "Don't be so obvious this time."
"I wasn't obvious last time!"
"Uh, you kinda were," Sam chuckled.
Freddie looked down at his new hand. He couldn't believe it; he had two, three, four, five, and six; all of the same suit. That was a great hand.
He glanced up at Sam, to try to see if he could figure out how her hand was. But her face was calm and non-telling.
"Let's see," Sam said casually. "I'll raise you…one chip."
One chip? That's it? Her hand must suck! Freddie thought triumphantly. He pushed in nearly half of his chips. "I see your one chip and raise you…thirty!" Freddie smirked.
Sam grinned as she laid down her hand, revealing a ten, jack, queen, king and ace, also all of the same suit.
"What?" Freddie exclaimed as he threw down his own inferior hand.
"Read 'em and weep," Sam said happily as she popped some of her winnings in her mouth.
"But-But why would you only bet one-"
"I was bluffing," Sam said. "Seriously, if you want to be good at poker, you've got to learn how to bluff. Besides, you learn how bluff and it will help you even outside the game too. It's a real useful skill."
"How?" Freddie scoffed.
"Well," Sam said. "Remember when we were dating and you asked me if I liked that green and blue striped shirt you got on sale at the mall?"
"Yes…" Freddie said slowly. "You said it looked good."
"Yes I did," Sam smiled. "And that was the art of bluffing at its finest."
"Wait, you didn't like the shirt?" Freddie frowned.
"Dude, it looked like something you would wrap a sick cat in," Sam replied. "But since we were like, a couple, I figured I shouldn't actually say that since I was supposed to be nice to you…so glad those days are over."
"Let's go again," Freddie said, determined. He grabbed the cards and began to shuffle. "I'm gonna get this game down pact!"
…
Two hours and countless games of poker later, Freddie had still yet to win a single game.
"I don't understand how you always seem to know what my hand is!" Freddie fumed, frustrated. "You've got to be cheating; do you have these cards marked or something?"
"No, I've told you, you're just a terrible poker player!" Sam snapped. "You make it way too obvious how good or bad your hand is!"
"How?" Freddie demanded. "I didn't even speak those last five rounds!"
"You've got a tell," Sam shrugged.
"A tell?" Freddie repeated.
"You know, a little thing you do each time you get a good hand," Sam said. "You have one for when your hand sucks, too."
"What is it?" Freddie asked.
Sam sighed. "Fine, I'll tell you. But only because we're out of potato chips and beating you so much is kind of getting boring. Every time your have a good hand you…you purse your lips a little bit."
"I-I do?" Freddie said. He hadn't even noticed.
"Yeah, it's kind of subtle," Sam nodded. "But…you do it. That's how I know that I should fold. But when your hand's bad, you flick your thumb a little."
"You actually noticed those things?" Freddie said, impressed.
Sam shrugged. "I'm observant."
She got to her feet. "Anyway, I've got to go meet Carly at the mall. I'm supposed to help her find a birthday gift for her granddad. At your poker game tomorrow just…just don't give any of them anything to play off of. You need to be a blank, emotionless slate. Do that and you may stand a chance."
"I'll try," Freddie nodded. "Um, wait, Sam? About what you said earlier…about you 'bluffing' about liking my shirt when we were dating…Was-Was that the only thing you ever bluffed about?"
Sam gave him a small smile. "Yeah," she said softly. "It was the only thing. And that I'm not bluffing about."
….
The next day Sam was sitting alone in the Groovy Smoothie with a basket of fries in front of her, absentmindedly fiddling on her Pearphone.
"What's up, Puckett?" Freddie said brightly as he suddenly walked in.
"Oh, hey," Sam said, looking up. "You're back from your geeky poker game?"
"It wasn't geeky," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "But yeah, we just finished up."
"So how'd you do?" Sam asked.
"Um, very well," Freddie grinned, pulling out a small wad of bills.
"Whoa, how much is that?" Sam questioned.
"One hundred and twelve bucks," Freddie said triumphantly.
"Nice!" Sam said, high-fiving him. "I can't believe you managed that!"
"I just listened to what you told me," Freddie said. "I kept a straight face, made sure I didn't fidget, kept my mouth shut…I was in the zone! I may be able to take you on now!"
"Let's not get carried away, nub," Sam said, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, yeah," Freddie said. "But hey, since it was your teaching that helped me win this money, how about I get you a smoothie? I know you hate eating fries without a proper dunking beverage."
"Sure," Sam laughed. "Get me a-"
"Raspberry-Mango Splat," Freddie nodded. "I know what to do."
