"You don't believe me?'
'Fine, let me explain.'
Lu Xinyi spoke leisurely, 'It's very obvious, the three of you are 'risk-averse' types, the kind that buys investment products from banks that guarantee principal and interest, and accepts no risks.'
'I noticed from the beginning that you reject gambling, reject risks, so you chose this approach.'
'Moreover, this is evident from your chip count.'
'Earlier, I casually asked if your chips were around 18,000, and you tacitly agreed.'
'This indicates that when you chose to exchange chips, you picked the minimum 20,000 level, and only gambled the minimum two games before quickly stopping to avoid further losses.'
'Since you are all extremely risk-averse, at this point, you definitely don't dare to go all-in against me.'
'In terms of psychology and chip amount, we are just not on the same level.'
Qin Yao was a bit surprised, 'Chips? So, your chips aren't 20,000?'
Previously, she subconsciously thought everyone's initial chips should be around 18,000 points, unless someone got lucky and won with good cards, but that would only be just over 20,000.
Lu Xinyi smiled, 'Of course, my initial chips were more than you imagined.'
'Furthermore, the three of them will keep losing chips to me.'
'The gap in our chip amounts will only get bigger. If you understand gambling tactics even a little, you should know that the player with more chips has an absolute advantage.'
While speaking, Su Xiuqin had already folded due to timeout.
Jiang He gritted her teeth and chose to call 1,000.
To help Jiang He, Qin Yao also chose to call 1,000.
The player from Community 3 on Qin Yao's right chose to raise, the next player folded, and Lu Xinyi raised again.
'I understand now...'
It was Jiang He's turn again; she looked at the timing sign on the table, and it seemed as if she was about to collapse.
It was evident, the players from Community 3 had coordinated, with a fixed two players folding and two players raising.
Why not all four raise together?
Because if all four raised together, someone might quickly run out of chips and exit early.'
So Lu Xinyi's strategy was to have only two of the four raise, and these two were not fixed, they would raise only if they felt their cards were strong.
The remaining two folded, trying to preserve their chips.
Two people raising preserves the biggest cards for their side while continuing to raise without revealing cards, creating maximum psychological pressure on Jiang He and the others.
If Jiang He and Qin Yao continued to call, then Lu Xinyi and another Community 3 player would continue to raise until everyone exhausts their chips.
Jiang He and Qin Yao can't afford to risk all their chips when their cards aren't strong enough, as it far exceeds their psychological limit.
If they were seasoned gamblers, daring to take high risks with excellent acting skills, perhaps they could find a way to break the deadlock.
But unfortunately, Jiang He, Qin Yao, and Su Xiuqin are not such people—they are risk-averse players.
Lu Xinyi saw this from the start, which is why she chose this targeted strategy to counter them.
'Forget it, let's fold.'
In the end, Jiang He and Qin Yao chose to fold, each losing 2,000 chips.
The game continued.
Qin Yao lowered her voice, 'Jiang He, this isn't working for us, is it? We haven't even revealed our cards yet. If we reveal our cards, we might not necessarily lose?'
Jiang He sighed lightly, 'But, without strong cards, calling to reveal, can you handle that risk?'
Qin Yao was momentarily speechless; clearly, she couldn't.
Jiang He lowered her voice, 'Now there's only one final option.'
'In the upcoming games, if we get big cards, then we'll go all-in and try to win back what's been lost.'
'I refuse to believe that luck will always be against us.'
Qin Yao thought for a moment, 'Then... what counts as a big card?'
After considering for a moment, Jiang He replied, 'To be sure of winning... I think at least a straight or better.'
'After all, it seems like the opponents are following with two players, but in reality, they are picking the two strongest cards out of four. If we only have a pair, it might be too risky.'
Qin Yao nodded, 'Understood.'
Jiang He approached Su Xiuqin and whispered the same to her.
Of course, Lu Xinyi also noticed their whispering but didn't seem to mind, just continuing methodically, dealing, raising, and collecting chips.
Quickly, eight games passed, and the chips in front of Lu Xinyi had almost piled into a small mountain.
In the next deal, Jiang He opened her cards without much hope.
Then her eyes lit up, her breathing quickened.
Clubs 3, clubs 7, clubs Q.
A strong flush with a high Q!
Even though Jiang He hadn't played much, she didn't know the exact odds, but she knew this was definitely a strong hand.
The probability of the other six having better cards than this is very low.
'Stay calm, calm, don't show it...'
'And don't bet too much at once; that's too obvious, first call and wait for them to increase...'
Jiang He lowered her gaze, putting on a dejected look.
When it was her turn, after much hesitation, Jiang He took out a 1,000 chip and placed it in the betting area.
'I call this round.'
However, in the next moment, everyone else folded.
Lu Xinyi smiled, tossing her cards on the table, 'It looks like you had some luck this round, take these chips, they're all yours.'
Jiang He's expression froze.
The mechanical arm swept the chips before her, but looking at these 1,000 chips she won, Jiang felt worse than losing.
It was as if the last string had snapped, Jiang He completely collapsed.
Though she'd been losing the whole time, she still held onto a sliver of hope, thinking if she had big cards and went all-in against the opponent, she could recover all her losses.
Even though she didn't have many chips left, winning an all-in would net her only a few thousand, but that would still be enough.
But now she realized she and Lu Xinyi were not on the same level of opponent at all.
Her mind had been easily controlled, and her poor acting couldn't deceive anyone.
The final round started dealing, but Jiang He, Qin Yao, and Su Xiuqin were already dejected, utterly helpless, just hoping the game would end soon.
They glanced at their cards; no miracle happened.
Just ordinary rag cards.
'Fold.'
'Fold.'
'Fold.'
A smile appeared on Lu Xinyi's face as she once again won all the chips.
'Well, thanks for the hospitality, I hope to have the opportunity to visit you in Community 3 in the future.'
Jiang He left the table despondently, looking at the remaining chips in her hand—14,000.
Her luck was decent; she won the table stakes 6,000 chips with her flush. If she hadn't won that round, she'd have only 8,000 left now.
Qin Yao and Su Xiuqin's situation was worse.
Su Xiuqin folded throughout, luckily only losing her stake, leaving her with 8,000 points.
But since Qin Yao followed Jiang He in a raise, she was left with only 7,000 points.
It was a total disaster.
The three of them together lost 26,000 points of chips, which, when converted to visa time, amounts to about 18 days.
Jiang He returned despondently to the rest area, sitting on the sofa.
The countdown timer on the large screen continued to count down.
1:02:59...
1:02:58...
Since this multi-player game had quick folds, it actually only took a few minutes, leaving about an hour of total game time.
But, during this time, Jiang He, Qin Yao, and Su Xiuqin could do nothing, only wait.
However, at this moment, the locked cubicle in the chip exchange area unexpectedly opened.
'Huh?'
Qin Yao glanced over unexpectedly.
Lin Sizhi emerged from the cubicle, left hand in the pocket of his suit, calmly surveying the scene.