Yang Yi counted the stack of chips in front of him: exactly 500.
There were ten blue chips worth 10 each.
Twenty green chips worth 5 each.
The remaining three were black chips worth 100 each.
Little Lin dealt with impressive speed—a result of Mazi's rigorous training. Yang Yi got the feeling that in his younger days, Mazi must have been a frequent visitor to the high-stakes tables of Macau.
"You all recognize the suits, right?" Mazi interrupted, as if remembering something important. "Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, Clubs."
"Yeah, we know them," everyone chimed in.
"Not bad. How about the English names?" Mazi raised the stakes, looking over at Yang Yi. "Who's got the best English here?"
"Hearts... red peach..." Yang Yi stammered, offering a hilariously literal translation.
"Alright, give it a rest," Mazi cut him off. "It's Heart for hearts, Spade for spades, Club for clubs, and Diamond for diamonds. The abbreviations are h, s, c, and d."
"Good. Now, let's find the Dealer!" Mazi smirked, waving a hand in satisfaction for Little Lin to continue.
Little Lin shuffled and flipped six cards from the deck, laying them out on the table: Ad, Qh, 3s, As, 8c, and 2d.
This was the "Draw for Button" phase before the game officially started.
The six cards corresponded to the six players. Aces were high, and deuces were low. If two Aces appeared, the suit order—Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs—determined the winner. Yang Yi had the Ad in front of him, while Mazi had the As. Mazi became the Dealer for the first hand of the session. The blinds were set at 5/10, with a 500-chip buy-in for everyone.
To Mazi's left was Xiao Liu in the Small Blind (SB) for 5, needing to put in one green chip.
Next to Xiao Liu was Golden Tooth in the Big Blind (BB) for 10, tossing in a blue chip.
The Dealer (BTN), Small Blind (SB), and Big Blind (BB) are the key positions. After every hand, the Button moves clockwise to the next player, and the other positions shift accordingly.
Little Lin reshuffled, collected the blinds, knocked on the table, and began dealing the hole cards.
Yang Yi picked up his two cards. The feel and the print weren't as good as the ones at Blackie's place; Mazi had clearly cheaped out on the deck.
The cinematic scenes Yang Yi often saw in Hong Kong movies, where people shoved "All-in" at the drop of a hat, were non-existent at Wufang. From the start, all six players were incredibly cautious. Often, as soon as Little Lin finished dealing, he'd have to collect the folded cards and reshuffle for the next round.
The reason was simple: almost everyone only played pocket pairs or hands containing an Ace. Mazi had told them that an Ace was the strongest high card; if an Ace hit the board, you'd have the best possible pair—"A pair of Aces." Similarly, if you held a pocket pair of 8s and another 8 appeared on the board, you'd have Three-of-a-Kind (a set), which beats any single pair.
Thus, whenever someone called or raised, Yang Yi could roughly guess they held a pocket pair or an Ace-high hand. If a player had been betting consistently and suddenly stopped, they likely saw an overcard on the board that beat their hand.
At least from Yang Yi's perspective, Zhen Zhen, Mazi, Golden Tooth, and himself followed these rules strictly. Xiao Liu and Dragon occasionally showed hole cards like Ts Js, Kc 9d, or 5c 6s.
The first few matches ended quickly. Yang Yi took one first-place and two second-place finishes, netting 660.
As others were felted, they'd sit on the sidelines and nag the remaining players to finish up, since sitting idle was boring.
"Yi, how many titles have you won now?" Zhen Zhen asked.
"Not that many, just one."
"Yang Yi plays well," Mazi chimed in, checking the time on his phone. "Is this our last game for the night? Anyone still looking for a win?" He tilted his head toward Golden Tooth.
Everyone immediately caught Mazi's drift and looked at Golden Tooth with a grin. He was the only one without a ranking yet, having been eliminated in fifth or sixth place every time. Golden Tooth adjusted his reading glasses and flashed a wide grin. "Nobody leaves until I get a trophy today, got it?"
Hearing this, Little Lin stretched his aching arms. "Then you guys can play all night. I'll go find you another dealer."
The group started heckling him, offering to deal in his place.
Who wouldn't want to be the dealer? It was a risk-free way to make a few hundred a night. But in the end, most couldn't resist the temptation of the game itself—sitting at the table meant a chance for much higher earnings.
Everyone believed they had a shot at winning; card players always have that unexplainable confidence.
Only Little Lin stuck to dealing, claiming he didn't care for the game, though Yang Yi could tell he was itching to play.
Little Lin was curious—the second defining trait of a poker player. He often leaned over to peek at Yang Yi's cards, and Yang Yi would lift a corner to show him.
Mazi sorted his newly bought chips. "Let's look out for the new guy this round. If you don't have the cards, don't BB Golden Tooth."
The "BB" Mazi referred to was a local shorthand for a Bad Beat—when a leading hand loses to a lucky draw. In plain terms, Mazi was saying that if it looked like Golden Tooth was ahead, the others shouldn't go chasing draws; they should let him win his trophy in peace.
And so began the final game of the night.
Dragon and Xiao Liu had already placed earlier and spent the evening chatting with Mazi about other business—accounts, odds, things Yang Yi didn't understand. After losing a few hands, they called it a night and left early.
Mazi's playstyle became aggressive. He cleaned out Dragon and Xiao Liu's chips. Later, however, he held a pair of Aces but lost to Golden Tooth's two-pair and was eliminated.
Zhen Zhen also abandoned her usual steady "girl style." She started seeing flops with just a King in the hole. Previously, she had been the "Queen of Aces," refusing to play without one.
Now, only Yang Yi, Golden Tooth, and Zhen Zhen remained. Little Lin stood up and gave a long stretch. Dealing all night was clearly exhausting; this session had been a real "dealer-killer."
Mazi signaled Little Lin to rest and took over the deck himself.
Take out Zhen Zhen, then lose the chips to Golden Tooth. A second-place finish wouldn't be bad, Yang Yi thought to himself.
In Texas Hold'em, winning is hard, but losing is the easiest thing in the world.