Play the Hand You're Dealt
Posted on Wed Dec 31st, 2014 @ 7:43am by Commander Jordan Gunning & Commander Titus Livius Drusus PhD & Lieutenant Yzhara
Mission:
Vagrants, Vagabonds, and Thieves
Location: Officer's Mess [Deck 2]
Timeline: Patrol - Day 1 - 1320hrs.
There was little doubt in Gunning's mind that Drusus was bluffing. He'd only got a limited measure of the Magna Roman over the last couple of days on patrol but there was something about him- usually so stoic and serious- which told him he might have the drop on him. He flicked up the corner of his cards to double check his good fortune, two red hearts greeted him and he quickly allowed them to snap back to the table.
Yzhara, who despite being blind was proving a competent poker player, flipped the 'turn' card which often proved the undoing of any good poker hand. Three of hearts. Gunning's flush was on. A six of hearts had come out in the flop and all he needed was another one on the river.
He looked around the tightly packed officer's mess which they had converted to a makeshift poker room, with a low-hanging overhead light which lit little except the table and made their half-full glasses shimmer. On patrol, they were unable to have anything but synthehol but the drink boosted the tension.
Isolde stared at her cards ruefully, looking somewhat miserable. Of course, it was anything but miserable, but if anyone could bluff her way through a game, it was Isolde. She looked up, flashing a flirtatious glance at the others in the room. "I just do not think this is the game for me," she whined. She had already lost three hands.
Drusus was sitting on a pair of kings but the flop and turn had not gone his way. The best he could now hope for was three of a kind on the river and even then there was no guarantee that it would be good enough. It was a long shot that he didn't have to take; he had plenty of chips in his neatly ordered piles and could fold and still be ahead. But on the other hand, he'd already bluffed his way to a win in four other hands, so why not keep practicing? He carefully lifted one of his purple chips off the shortest of his towers and tossed it into the centre of the table. "Five hundred," he said, tossing in the opening bet of the round.
Yzhara's right antenna twitched ever so slightly at Drusus's bet. She was impressed that led that round with that big of a bet. She placed her hand over her cards again, reading them through touch. While in many cases her vision was superior to the others, she often had trouble reading images and text on flat surfaces, though she could extract their meanings through close textile contact. It still surprised her that the other let her deal, but she promised not to read any of their cards, and in the spirit of fair play, she had honored that promise. She was sitting on a Jack of Spades and a three of Clubs; two cards that were virtually useless together. But the flop gave her a Jack of Clubs, and the turn gave her another three. She felt good about this one, even with Drusus's big bet. But she'd have to wait her turn before she had a chance to bet.
Gunning's eyebrow shot up as the satisfying crash of chips rose into the air from the table. Five hundred was a lot, and Gunning was running close to broke after a series of catastrophic failures in previous hands. Still: a flush. He flicked a couple of short stacks into the centre of the table. "I'll see you that, and raise you one hundred."
Drusus maintained a passive expression as he noted Gunning's raised eyebrow; he clearly wasn't expecting a high bid. Interesting. When Gunning raised, Drusus controlled his reaction and immediately shifted his focus to Brand while his mind ran calculations.
Brands yellow eyes, slits for pupils, looked up as she smiled. "I'll match that," she said, casting away her miserable demeanor.
The Aenar's blank stare was probably a bit disheartening to anyone that had been paying attention, but so far Drusus and Gunning had been paying more attention to each other than to her. She reached for her chips, carefully counting out her bet by feel. She thought about calling, but decided that there was no fun in that. "I'll bite. Here's the call," she said as she dropped her chips on the pile. She reached back and picked up a couple more. "And another hundred, just for fun."
The bet was back to Drusus and he found a nagging part of his mind regretting that opening bid; though it was a quiet nag. He recalled the story of one of his ancestors who had bluffed an enemy army into believing that they faced a far superior force, when in fact the opposite was the case. His ancestor had achieved the deception through artifice, a clever tribune of engineers, some swift troop movements and three well-placed spies in the enemy camp. The ancestral Drusus had won the day and scared off the attacking army without a single drop of blood being spilled. For his efforts, that Drusus had been granted the agnomen Felix, and was later elected consul. Titus wondered if some small measure of Gaius Livius Drusus Felix's luck might have found its way into his own blood as he tossed another purple chip into the pot. "I'll raise up to one thousand," he said, his face betraying none of the glee he felt at taking such an audacious risk.
"Call." Gunning said flatly as the betting returned to him. His excitement about this hand had mostly dissipated with the absurd level of betting. The smart money said that Drusus already had a handful of what he wanted given his betting strategy. If the river didn't give him what he wanted then he'd be up a creek without a paddle.
The sound of the comm chirruping was a welcome reprieve for Gunning who got the impression that he was wildly out of his depth. "Bridge to Commander Gunning." The officer of the watch's voice came through loud and clear. "We've received a distress call from a small convoy of Shoka vessels- they claim to be under attack."
"Roger that. Lay in an intercept course and we'll be right there." The Commander tapped two of the chips he was considering contributing the pot on the table and rose to his feet. "Duty calls, folks. Let's get to it."
Commander Jordan Gunning
Commanding Officer
Lieutenant Commander Titus Drusus
Executive Officer/Chief Science Officer
Lieutenant Yzhara
Chief Flight Control Officer
Doctor Isolde Brand
Chief Medical Officer
