Chapter 318: The Lucky Gambler

"Ah this..."

Looking at the two cards thrown into the center of the table, Xia Xia Yubing felt that she had probably already understood the rules of this game.

There are many ways to play poker. Some focus on strategy, and some rely purely on luck. And the game they are currently playing, the ratio of luck to strategy is about seven to three, seven parts luck, three parts strategy.

Pulling a card from other players' hands and discarding it to the table together with a card of the same suit in one's own hand is a very iconic operation. Xia Xia Yubing only knows one kind of game with this kind of gameplay.

"Drawing the ghost card, or called drawing a turtle, drawing an old turtle, drawing a lion and tiger... different places have different names, but the meaning is the same."

Xia Xia Yubing looked down at her cards again, her gaze lingering on the "Big King."

The rules of the ghost card drawing game are very simple:

After dealing the cards, each player draws cards from other players' hands in a certain order and compares them with their own hands. If they have cards with the same number and color as the drawn card, they can discard the two cards together to the table.

If not, they include the card in their hand, and then it is other players' turn to draw cards. This repeats until all cards are discarded, and then they can leave safely.

There is 1 "ghost card" hidden in the 54 playing cards, which some places in the country call a turtle or an old turtle, while in Japan it is called a "lion and tiger."

The player who draws the ghost card must shout "Ghost!" or "Lion and Tiger!" or "Old Turtle!" to declare to other players: The ghost card is in my hand.

As the card drawing process proceeds, each player clears their hand one after another and leaves safely. The last player holding the ghost card is the loser of this round.

Judging from the results of the previous gambling games, the loser's ending will be—death.

Slap—!

The crisp sound of playing cards hitting the glass tabletop startled Xia Xia Yubing from her thoughts. Looking down, two more cards were thrown into the center of the table.

Pair of 3s.

It was Ikes opposite the table. He didn't draw cards from others, but directly pulled two cards from his own hand and threw them on the table cleanly.

The two cards were: 3 of Hearts, 3 of Diamonds.

"This guy also reacted." Xia Xia Yubing muttered to herself.

This is the rule of the ghost card drawing game—to prevent the appearance of odd-numbered cards that cannot be matched, if a player finds that they already have a pair of cards in their hand before the drawing process begins, they can directly pull them out and discard them to the table.

Alan, who was sitting next to Ikes, also reacted quickly, lowering his head to check his cards. Xia Xia Yubing saw a flash of joy on his face, but it disappeared in a flash, and she already understood in her heart:

"This Alan should have two cards with the same number in his hand, but the colors are different, so they cannot be discarded."

Being in an eerie event, you must pay attention to the surrounding environment and the expressions and actions of others at all times. This is what she learned from Ning Zhe, and it is unexpectedly effective.

Xia Xia Yubing pushed the Persian girl sitting upright beside her. The latter shivered, hurriedly lowered her head to check her cards, and discarded two of them. They were two red 6s.

6 of Hearts, 6 of Diamonds.

At this time, the Gambler who had finished drawing cards sat back in its place, and the God of Wealth sitting opposite it remained motionless. Obviously, neither of these two ghosts had a pair of cards that could be discarded.

Xia Xia Yubing looked down at her cards, and there were no pairs either.

Then the next question is—who has the ghost card now?

Xia Xia Yubing held the fan-shaped poker cards with both hands, bit her lower lip: "Drawing the ghost card is a simple little game, people play it all over the world, and there are different rule variations in different regions."

Some places will randomly draw a card during shuffling, making an orphan card that cannot be matched appear in the remaining cards. This orphan card is the ghost card. Some places will draw the Small King and an 8 from a complete deck of 54 cards, and call the remaining Big King and the extra 8 a "King Eight." In the end, the person holding the "King Eight" is the loser of this round—this is also why the ghost card drawing game is called "drawing a turtle" or "drawing an old turtle" in the country.

"The Gambler didn't draw any card separately when shuffling just now, but used a complete deck of 54 cards to start this game, which shows that this game doesn't use the domestic turtle drawing rules, nor does it use the common 'orphan card is the ghost' rule."

Xia Xia Yubing held the fan-shaped poker cards with both hands, bit her lower lip: "Neither rule... which one is the ghost card?"

Thinking, the next round of card drawing has begun.

It is still starting from the Gambler, and in clockwise order, it will draw cards from Alan's hand.

Alan, who was sitting on the Gambler's left and had just had his cards drawn by the Gambler, turned sideways, reached out to Ikes, who was sitting on his left, and pulled out a card:

2 of Clubs

Alan gave a light "hiss" that was almost imperceptible, and included this 2 of Clubs in his hand.

He didn't have a card that could match the 2 of Clubs.

In other words: "The 2 of Clubs is not in his hand." Ning Zhe muttered to himself.

But if it's just like this, what's with that complicated expression he just had? Could it be that he also has a 2 in his hand? But because the color doesn't match, it can't be matched, so he showed that kind of expression?

Xia Xia Yubing looked down at her cards, and one of them was: 4 of Hearts.

"If Alan really has a 4 in his hand, then it must be the 4 of Diamonds."

This thought had only been in her mind for two seconds when Xia Xia Yubing noticed the Gambler sitting on her left side, who had been sitting still, looking at the cards in Alan's hand intentionally or unintentionally.

"Could it be..." An absurd thought appeared in Xia Xia Yubing's heart, making her a bit unbelievable: "No... it shouldn't be, right?"

If her guess is correct, then from the beginning of this game, it is impossible for anyone to win.

Card drawing is still going on.

Ikes drew a card from the God of Wealth's hand, and the God of Wealth drew a 9 of Spades from Sha Li Sha Li's hand. Neither of them had cards that could be matched, and each included the cards they drew into their hands.

Then, Sha Li Sha Li drew a 10 of Diamonds from Xia Xia Yubing's hand. Since there was no card that could be matched, Sha Li Sha Li had to include it in her hand.

This round of card drawing, except for the Gambler, everyone's luck didn't seem to be very good.

Xia Xia Yubing took a deep breath, turned her head, and the Gambler had already raised the cards in its hand slightly.

It was her turn to draw cards. Without too much hesitation, she reached out, drew a card, 8 of Hearts.

"Sure enough..."

Xia Xia Yubing looked down. The 8 of Diamonds that could match the 8 of Hearts was not in her hand. Clearly, she had done as Ning Zhe said, but her good luck today didn't seem to be reflected much, so she could only include this red 8 in her hand.

The second round of card drawing ended, and the third round of card drawing began.

It was still starting from the Gambler, and in clockwise order, it would draw cards from Alan's hand.

At this time, the eyes of the 4 living people in the room all gathered on the Gambler, except for the God of Wealth, who had his head on his lap, and Xia Xia Yubing, who was looking at the notebook secretly.

After confirming again that no new handwriting appeared, Xia Xia Yubing moved her gaze away from the notebook and looked at the ragged Gambler with other players.

The Gambler is the initiator of this gambling game. It did all the shuffling and dealing, and every round of card drawing started from it and ended with Xia Xia Yubing.