Gym and Slimline by Emma Burstall

Author:Emma Burstall [Emma Burstall]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2013-04-05T16:00:00+00:00

She was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a big tournament tonight. It was a sizeable entrance fee – $2,200 – but the winner would net around $15,000. The thought made her heady.

She wasn’t familiar with most of the players, but she knew Johnnypwe, of course. Her old adversary. She felt a prickle of fear – and excitement. She pulled back her shoulders and paid her fee. Ha! Screw Mark, she thought. Screw everything. If she was an addict it wasn’t surprising, the way he treated her. In fact it was a miracle she hadn’t laced his cornflakes with rat poison years ago.

Her eyes felt sore from so much crying earlier on. She rubbed them. The blinds – the forced bets that the first two players must put in the pot – started at 25/50, and most of the players seemed pretty lackadaisical – content to limp into pots, calling on the small bets rather than raising them.

She spent the first few rounds hovering around 5,000 chips – in tournaments you always played with chips – down to 4,000, up to 5,500, but never beyond.

After about half an hour, she was down to about 4,200 chips and she was relieved finally to get some good cards. She wriggled in her seat with pleasure. Now things were looking up! By the end of the fourth level her stack had increased to just under 7,000. She felt quietly confident.

In the fifth level she was dealt pocket 10s – a pair. She noticed that NiceOne456 – she hadn’t come across him before – was playing increasingly aggressively. His stack had fluctuated more than anyone else at the table. He raised to three times the big blind: 1,000 chips.

Percy guessed that he didn’t really have much of a hand, so she raised to 3,000 chips. He called. About two-thirds of his chips were now in the pot.

The flop – that betting round where the three cards are dealt face up – came down 7-8-ace. NiceOne456 moved all in, adding something like another 1,200 chips to the pot. She had around 4,200 of her 7,000 in there.

Percy was on tenterhooks. She’d have to think quick. She considered the possibility that he had an ace in his hand, but she was convinced even before the flop that he’d go all in no matter what, based on his aggressive play and the relatively small size of his remaining stack.

She bit her lip and called.

The turn was a 3, the river – that fifth board card – a 7. NiceOne456 revealed his hand – an ace – so his ace-ace-7-7-8 beat her 10-10-7-7-8. She’d lost more than half her chips. She groaned.

She could feel the sweat appearing on her upper lip and starting to trickle down her back. Johnnypwe had been uncharacteristically quiet. She glanced at the chat box, then wished she hadn’t.

‘Tut, tut, Boady,’ he smirked. ‘Bad play.’ She flinched, deciding not to respond. He was playing nasty mental games with her, trying to shake her up.

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