Royal Flush

All bets in!

Clifton Wilde was having a night like none that he'd ever had before and the pile of chips that lay in front of him was irrefutable proof. There was fifteen thousand dollars worth of chips in his possession and Clifton's fortune showed no indication of reversing. This latest hand added another small amount to the pile; the amounts had been getting smaller and smaller as the other players began to play more carefully, not daring to bet too much against Clifton's winning streak.

Before the next hand was dealt, one of the players decided to call it a night, following in the footsteps of the other three who had already left. Alan had won seven thousand dollars during their previous game, but was now just a little above where he had started. There was only Clifton and one other player left, a man named Jake. Of course, it couldn't last forever, he thought. He knew that they would eventually get tired of losing. Besides, he had already won a substantial amount of money. The cards came to each player and as the leading winner of the night, Clifton waited to look at his hand until Jake had seen his.

Jake could not believe his eyes. As he spread his cards out, he witnessed the best hand of the night: four kings. He knew that he would make a substantial bet, but as he pondered his strategy, his face did not dare betray the excitement of such a winning hand. He could certainly win back the majority of what he had lost to Clifton.

Clifton observed Jake as he began to pick up his cards. He was not sure what he was hoping to see as he knew that Jake was too experienced to give any indication of what was in his hand. As Clifton observed his cards, he was pleasantly surprised. He had the best hand that any of them had seen that night.

Jake bet five hundred dollars and Clifton saw the bet and raised it one thousand. Jake saw the one thousand and raised it another thousand. The two men went back and forth until the pot was worth five thousand dollars. Jake was confident in the hand that he had. After all, there were few things that could beat four kings and the odds were astronomical. He raised the bet another thousand dollars to a pot of six thousand dollars.

Clifton saw the bet and raised it ten thousand dollars. He grinned triumphantly as he considered his winning hand, but was concerned when he saw how calm and cool Jake was. Could he possibly have a better hand? Clifton grinned and reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small black notebook and threw into the pot.

Jake wondered what Clifton could possibly be playing at. He had known Clifton for quite some time and he never allowed that notebook to leave his hands before. He was not sure what Clifton had in there; he only knew that it was priceless to him. He had seen him take phone calls in the corner of the room and write in that notebook. He had seen Clifton nearly put a man in the floor because he reached for that notebook in jest.

Jake turned his cards over in defeat and folded. There was no way he would match that ten thousand dollar bet, especially since Clifton had put his notebook into the pot. Considering how that night had gone up to that point, it would not have surprised him if Clifton showed him a royal flush. Jake got up from his chair and it was clear that tonight's poker game was over.

Clifton reclaimed his notebook and the pot which was worth just a bit over twenty thousand dollars. The two men shook hands, and Jake counted Clifton's chips, and then counted twenty thousand dollars and handed it to Clifton. Once Clifton was gone, Jake approached the table to see what his hand had contained. It was against the rules, and it was certainly frowned upon, but Clifton had left them face down instead of putting them back into the deck. Jake was filled with disgust as he saw the five low cards that made up Clifton's hand. They were all spades, which meant that Clifton had a flush. It was a good hand, but not better than four kings.

Clifton arrived at home with his twenty thousand dollars and could not help but grin. He had no idea what Jake had in his hand, but whatever it was, he was clearly not confident enough in it. As he walked through his living room, he dropped his keys. As he bent over to pick them up, the notebook fell out of his jacket pocket. Clifton picked it up as well, then flipped the pages to reveal nothing more than doodles, shopping lists, phone numbers, and random notes. He tossed it onto his coffee table and proceeded into his bedroom. Then he opened his safe and placed his winnings inside it on the top of the genuine priceless notebook. As pleased as he was with himself, he would have been even more so if he had known he had bluffed down a man with four kings. The bluff was part of the game. Was it arguably dishonorable? Absolutely. But it was nowhere near as bad as the kings he knew Jake kept in his sleeve.