tampered | [Open Log] Not so very far from here...

Entry tags:

boardwalk empire - meyer lansky

[Open Log] Not so very far from here...

When; Around 10 pm on February 13.
Rating; PG-13 I would imagine.
Characters; Meyer Lansky, and anyone who either works at Lucky's or wants to come gamble!
Summary; It's basically just happy fun times at Lucky's. Or unhappy not fun times, if you decide to cheat or break things! Employees, gamblers, random people wanting a drink... all are welcome!
Log; As far as Meyer was concerned, ten at night was the best time to be at Lucky's. Everyone who worked there was there by then, and that meant he could take a break from dealing hands of poker to wander through the small card room and schmooze with the regulars, as well as greet everyone who came through the door.

As he made his rounds, he was solicitous, complimenting one man on how much money he'd won in a lucky game of blackjack, and commiserating with another man on his empty wallet once he'd lost several hands of poker. He was always suggesting people have another drink, stay for a little while longer, see if they couldn't get their luck back. Maybe just one more hand would win them everything.

If you walk through the door, you're likely to see a large crowd, but Meyer will make sure to push his way through it to greet you personally, shake your hand, and suggest that you take a seat. You never know, tonight might be your lucky night...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She shakes her head, blushing a little at the admission. It would probably be the thing for her to know in working here, it was only a matter of time before one of the patrons who'd wanted to buy her a drink wanted a hand of cards too, and she wanted to make sure that the house won. Back home, she'd played a couple of games of bridge, which she had gotten bored of very quickly, but the types of parties she went to had never included anything like poker.

"Would you? That would be simply grand of you."

"It's a pretty easy game, if you're a quick learner. Do you have a minute right now?"

Because he's relatively certain he can teach her the basic rules fast, and he might as well use his break productively. That's standard for him -- a break is meant to be time away from work, but he almost always treats it as an extension of work. Still, he likes Ruby, and it would be to his benefit to have all of his employees capable of playing the games.

"Sure, I'm free now." She looks both excited and a little nervous, hoping that she can keep up.

He finds an empty table, pulls up a chair, then gestures for her to sit down, too. He feels like he's known how to play card games his whole life, but that can't be true. Someone must have taught him at some point, and it's just stuck with him. He's pretty sure he can make it easy for her.

"Grab that deck of cards over there," he says, gesturing to an unused deck that's sitting on top of the bar.

She reaches over for the cards and then takes a seat next to him, leaning on the table with one elbow and sliding the deck along the surface to Meyer.

He takes the cards, shuffling them quickly, not looking as he does so. It's obvious that he's used to dealing cards.

"You want to learn how to play against the house, or how to play against other players?"

He's pretty sure that since she works for him, she wants to be taking money from other players, if she can, but it never hurts to ask.

"Against other players," she replies, her eyes following his hands and the speed of his shuffling.

"Right."

He's glad she picked that. It doesn't hurt to know how to play against the house, but he'd rather she wasn't making any money off of him in that way.

"I'll teach you seven card stud. It's versatile. You know what kinda cards are good and what kinda cards are bad?"

He really hopes she at least knows what a good poker hand looks like.

She wouldn't try and take advantage of him, or anywhere she worked for that matter, in that way, it just didn't sit right with her. She felt far more comfortable with the idea of winning money from patrons who were coming in to gamble it away anyway than trying to swipe it from the house, that didn't feel like earning it at all.

"Picture cards are good. And spades are more valuable than the other suits, I think? I know that if you have four of the same number, you're pretty much guaranteed to win."

It wasn't much, but it was all she could really put her finger on, it wasn't knowledge she'd ever thought she'd need.

"You've got a lot to learn."

It was something, but it wasn't nearly enough. He wouldn't try to overwhelm her with statistics about winning, then, as much as he found that kind of thing interesting. No, that would just put her off the game, if it seemed too mathematical, too intimidating.

"Yeah, 'picture cards' are good. Four of a kind is good, too, but they don't always mean you win. For example, a straight flush is higher than four of a kind -- a straight flush is when you have all five cards in consecutive order, five through nine, say, and they're all the same suit. And even higher than that is a royal flush, which would be a ten to an ace in the same suit. Those are rare, though. You got that?"

She nods along as he explains, keeping up so far. "So what I want to do is find five cards in the same suit in order. Okay."

"Sure, but you've gotta realize that that's statistically rare. You'd be more likely to find three of a kind, and even more likely to find two of a kind or two pair. Those are okay hands, too, but not great. You can even win a lot of games with a flush, where all five of your cards are just the same suit. It all depends on how good at bluffing you are. I've seen guys win a game with just one pair, because they know how to pretend they've got something good."

He pauses, shuffling the cards again, smiling slightly. "Are you any good at bluffing?"

"Okay, so if I get two that are the same, or something like that, I should hold onto that rather than try for something better?"

She gives him a knowing smile then; bluffing was something that women had to learn to be good at, in Ruby's opinion. It made sex far smoother, if nothing else. "I'd say so."

"See, this is where it starts to matter what other people have. In seven card stud, you start out with two cards in your hand that no one can see, and one face up on the table. Then, after all the bets are made for the first round, you get another card face up on the table. At that point, people can see half of your hand. If you see a guy who's got two aces on the table, and you've got nothing, it's time to think about folding and trying the next round."

He smiles at her comment about bluffing. He'd guessed she was probably pretty good at it, being in the profession she was, at least. "Or, you can bluff. Maybe you can pretend you have something great in your hand. Maybe you'll get another great card on the next round, but you gotta remember, everything except your first two cards and the final, seventh card, are visible to everyone else. You have to be careful and pay attention to what other people have."

"That sounds far easier than I thought it would be. I've only really seen people hiding all their cards before. It sounds like you can rely far more on strategy rather than luck with this one."

"So as well as bluffing yourself, you need to be able to watch everyone else and figure out whether they're bluffing?"

"Right."

He's glad she's getting it. The last time he'd tried to teach poker to someone who'd never played before, he'd given up in frustration. That was partially due to the fact that he used far too many statistical terms and went way too in depth. This time, he's trying to make it simple.

"You also need to have a good memory. Say you're playing with five people and one guy folds on the second round. You should remember what cards he had on the table, because then you know what you're not going to get dealt. If he had an ace, and you're looking for aces, well, your chance of getting one just went down by 25%."

For a moment she imagines herself needing to remember the location of all fifty-two cards at any given moment, and check them off on a list, but she quickly realises that it wouldn't be so complicated as that. "This all seems far more straightforward than I thought it would be. There's a lot of logic to it, really. Hopefully I'll pick it up in no time."

"You'll be fine. You want to play a round against me, see how it goes?"

He's really more interested in seeing if she does have a good poker face, and if she has any obvious tells. He has the feeling that if she turns out to be decent at the game, he'll be able to make a lot more money. People will pay to play with someone who looks like her, and if she can take their money while being charming about it, all the better.

"Sure!" She sits up in her chair somewhat rather than leaning against the table, laughing a little. "I can't promise I'll be fantastic straight off the bat, but I'll do my best."

"Nobody's fantastic right away, not even me."

He deals them both two face down cards, then one card face up. Picking up his face down cards, he looks at them, face unreadable.

"Okay, here's the way it works: the player with the lowest face up card -- that's me, in this case -- has to start the bidding. So I'll put one dollar in."

He's actually going to put a dollar in, too.

"Then, based one what you've got in your hand there, and what's on the table, you can either put a dollar in too, make a higher wager, or fold."

She slides the face down cards to the edge of the table and picks them up, trying so hard to make her face unreadable that she fails utterly, her brow furrowing as she looks at them, biting on her lip thoughtfully.

"Okay, well in that case I'll put in a dollar, too."

She takes a roll of bills from her purse and throws one on top of his.

He smiles slightly, watching her face.

"Okay, now I'm going to deal us each another face up card."

He does so, not giving any indication as to whether his hand is good or bad, although from what's showing on the table, it's hard to imagine it being any good yet. "From here on out, the player with the highest cards showing has to bet first. That's you, so you can either fold based on what you've got there, or you can add however much money you want to the pile."

She sits there for a moment, considering, then decides it's best to lay out her train of thought for him. "All right. So from what's on the table, it looks like I've got the better hand. But if you're bluffing - if I can tell that you're bluffing, that is - then you could have a much better hand than me, so in that case I should fold and not risk it. But on the other hand, I could have a good couple of cards and you could have nothing, so I should raise the stakes. If I did that, there are two options - I could get you to raise them too, which would put us both back at square one really, or it might make you fold, in which case I'd win, but not nearly as much money as I could potentially. Or it's possible that both of our hands are terrible, and we're both bluffing, in which case it's just a case of whoever folds first - it becomes less about cards and more about reading the other person and keeping yourself hidden then."

She looks across at him, hoping she hasn't missed anything obvious.

He nods, obviously impressed. She's picked up on it quickly, and she's understood that it's about far more than what cards you get dealt and what kind of luck you have.

"That's about the long and the short of it, yeah. This game, especially this version of this game, is pretty much about reading other people and knowing basic statistics. That just leaves one question, though -- can you tell if I'm bluffing or not?"

She shakes her head, the smile wide on her face. "No, I haven't a clue. You're really good at this."

She pauses for another moment, her eyes flickering between him and her cards. "I think I'll throw in another dollar and see what happens."

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