Chapter 020: This Kid’s Gone on Tilt

Chapter 020: This Kid’s Gone on Tilt

Yao Bin had gone all in.

Though he’d pushed forward what looked like tens of millions at once, the actual stake worked differently—an all-in bet was always capped by whichever player held fewer chips.

Wu Chen still had twenty-one million left.

Which meant Yao Bin’s all-in amounted to twenty-one million exactly.

Wu Chen’s choice was simple: call and compare hands, or fold.

He studied Yao Bin, one hand still resting on his hole card—the card he’d left unchecked all this while. Now, finally, he lifted one corner to look, then set it back down.

“All in!” Wu Chen shoved every chip he had forward.

“Mr. Wu, care to raise a bit more?” Yao Bin asked, watching his face closely. The two of them had exchanged a few words over the last ten hands—Yao Bin had asked his surname, and Wu Chen had answered simply, Wu.

“Shall we add another fifty million?” Yao Bin asked.

“Bring fifty million in chips!” Before Wu Chen could answer, Li Ruotai had already turned and signaled Bao Wei, waiting by the door.

“Hold on.” Wu Chen raised a hand to stop him, then turned. “Bring a hundred million.” He looked back at Yao Bin, smiling. “I’ll raise you a hundred million.”

Yao Bin’s expression shifted at once.

Across ten hands of careful observation, he’d come to believe Wu Chen was a man who trusted luck a little too much—yet also cautious, cautious enough to fold outright on the very first round more than once.

Only when his first upcard ran high did he skip checking the hole card straightaway.

And whenever the visible cards left him at a disadvantage, he checked it without fail.

This hand, his first upcard had been the ace of hearts—dominant from the start. Which meant he’d waited until the very last moment to finally look, and only then called the all-in.

Something in Yao Bin’s expression soured.

He lifted the corner of his own hole card again, just to confirm. The king of diamonds.

A pair, then. A pair of kings.

For Wu Chen to beat that, his hole card had to be an ace—giving him a matching pair.

But since Wu Chen hadn’t looked at it beforehand, the odds of that ace sitting there were vanishingly small. Which was exactly why Yao Bin had gone all in and goaded him into raising.

He was certain: whether Wu Chen called or refused and went straight to showdown, the win was his either way.

He wanted Wu Chen to call.

And Wu Chen had called.

But now he wanted to raise by a hundred million more.

By the rules, since this was the final round, Yao Bin still held nearly two hundred million in reserve. His own all-in had been capped by Wu Chen’s stack—but if Wu Chen chose to raise, the ceiling became however much Yao Bin himself was holding.

If Yao Bin wanted to raise further, he’d need Wu Chen’s agreement. Refuse, and the hand went straight to showdown as it stood.

But if Wu Chen wanted to raise, no discussion was required—he simply needed the chips brought over, so long as the amount didn’t exceed what Yao Bin held.

Bao Wei arrived quickly with a hundred million in chips.

Just a small box—twenty gleaming gold chips in total, Crown Entertainment’s highest denomination, five million apiece.

Wu Chen slid the entire box across the table. “Raise.”

Yao Bin’s face stiffened. From everything he understood of Wu Chen by now, a move like this meant only one thing—the man’s hand had to be genuinely strong. And there, plain on his face, was the tell: his left hand still resting on his hole card.

By Yao Bin’s earlier read, Wu Chen only rested his hand there unconsciously when the card beneath it truly mattered.

“Mr. Wu, you’re being far too hasty,” Yao Bin said, breaking into a smile. “Hit a big hand and rushed straight to win back your boss’s losses. If you’d added only the fifty million I suggested instead of a hundred, you’d have taken fifty million more off me.”

With that, he flipped his hole card. A king—matching the king already showing. A pair of kings.

He swept up his whole hand, turned it face-down, and tossed it aside.

He wouldn’t call the raise. Fold.

Barely twenty million lost. He’d already won more than two hundred million earlier—a trivial sum.

And if it meant he’d finally cracked Wu Chen’s impatience, well worth the price.

Wu Chen only smiled, offering no reply to Yao Bin’s little lecture.

“Your hole card was an ace?” Li Ruobing, unable to resist, asked from beside him. Wu Chen had checked it far too quickly for her to have caught it—not unless she’d been lying flat across the table.

She didn’t gamble, but she understood the rules well enough. In that spot, the only way Wu Chen could be certain of victory was if his hole card had been an ace.

Who would dare raise a hundred million without a guaranteed win?

“No—it was the two of hearts.” Wu Chen turned his hole card over, smiling.

The room fell into a strange, total silence.

Wu Chen’s hand: two of hearts, ace of hearts, six of clubs, seven of clubs, three of spades.

Yao Bin’s hand: king of diamonds, king of spades, ten of spades, six of hearts, four of diamonds.

Wu Chen held nothing but a scattered hand, ace high.

Yao Bin had held a pair. Kings.

Which meant, in truth, Yao Bin’s hand had been the stronger one all along. Had he called that final hundred-million raise, he would have won outright. But convinced he’d already read Wu Chen’s habits, certain the hole card had to be an ace, he’d folded instead.

Wu Chen had turned a weak hand into a twenty-one-million win off Yao Bin’s all-in. Counting the earlier rounds of betting, the hand had netted him twenty-five million in total.

“Hahahahaha!” Li Ruotai’s laughter broke the stunned quiet, loud and sudden. He clapped Shen Guangjun on the shoulder. “Boss Shen, your friend’s nerve isn’t quite what I expected. Hahahahaha—”

Shen Guangjun’s barbed little jokes had been grating on him all morning. Now, at last, Li Ruotai had his chance to strike back, and he’d been holding it in far too long.

They’d only won back a little over twenty million, but he looked as pleased as if they’d clawed back the full two hundred.

Shen Guangjun’s expression soured. He said nothing, swallowing it whole.

Meanwhile—

“You bluffed me,” Yao Bin said, staring at Wu Chen.

“You’re the one who didn’t call. How’s that on me?” Wu Chen spread his hands, smiling.

“Heh.” Yao Bin gave a short, cold laugh, then smiled again and adjusted his glasses, composure already restored. He was certain, once more, that he’d caught another glimpse of Wu Chen’s habits at the table.

“Take it back,” Wu Chen said, glancing up at Bao Wei, gesturing at the small box of hundred-million chips.

It had only been brought over on loan. He had no need of that money.

Play resumed.

Wu Chen held fifty million in chips.

Yao Bin still had a hundred and ninety million—thirty million his original stake, a hundred and sixty million pure winnings.

Over the next twenty-odd hands, Yao Bin discovered that even without deliberately feeding Wu Chen wins, beating him remained nearly impossible. He lost more than he won.

Wu Chen was strange—contradictory, even. He trusted to luck, he bluffed freely, and yet sometimes played like the most timid man alive.

Every so often he’d fold without warning, denying Yao Bin any payoff even when his own hole card ran strong.

Other times, with terrible upcards and a hole card good for nothing more than a single pair at best, he’d call straight through to the end regardless.

It left Yao Bin convinced that Wu Chen was, in fact, a true master—flawed, yes, overly reliant on luck, blessed with an unusually good day at the tables, but a master all the same.

What he didn’t understand was that Wu Chen wasn’t lucky at all. Nor did he trust to luck in the slightest.

And while Wu Chen understood Yao Bin completely, Yao Bin understood nothing about him.

Every hand, every flicker of expression before and after Yao Bin glanced at his cards, every small unconscious movement—Wu Chen caught all of it. He was the one truly capable of reading an opponent’s hand through nothing but a face and a gesture.

Which meant Yao Bin never stood a chance against him at all.

The thirty-seventh hand ended with Wu Chen folding in the second round.

By now, his chip count had climbed to a hundred and fifty million.

Yao Bin had only ninety million left.

The thirty-eighth hand.

Wu Chen straightened his hole card without looking, checked the second card instead, and flipped it over. The nine of clubs.

Yao Bin’s second card: the three of clubs.

“Two million.”

“Call.”

“Three million.”

“Call.”

Both sides called through to the final round.

Wu Chen’s four upcards: nine of clubs, seven of hearts, three of hearts, six of spades.

Yao Bin’s four upcards: three of clubs, six of clubs, nine of hearts, seven of diamonds.

Ranked high to low, both hands read identically—nine, seven, six, three—differing only in suit.

“All in!” Yao Bin shoved everything forward at once.

Wu Chen glanced at his watch, then smiled. “It’s getting late. I should be heading to lunch. Shall we speed this along?”

“Meaning what?” Yao Bin asked.

“One hand settles it,” Wu Chen said. “My luck’s been good today, so—beyond calling your all-in, I’ll add another hundred million. What do you say?”

“Trying to bluff me again?” Yao Bin burst out laughing.

He knew full well Wu Chen hadn’t even glanced at his hole card yet this time. This wasn’t a bluff anymore—this was genuine, blind faith in his own luck.

Their visible cards matched exactly. By suit, Yao Bin’s edged slightly ahead, thanks to his nine of hearts.

“You sure about this?” someone murmured at Yao Bin’s ear.

Shen Guangjun. With Yao Bin all in and out of funds, any further raise required his approval—and his money.

“Mr. Shen, I’ve been watching him this entire time. He hasn’t looked at his hole card once. As for me…” Yao Bin leaned in close, murmuring, then carefully tilted his own hole card just enough for Shen Guangjun to see.

The nine of diamonds.

A pair of nines.

“Unless his hole card is the nine of spades, there’s no way he beats me…”

“You’re certain he hasn’t looked?”

“Certain. And all four nines showing up in a single hand? The odds are next to nothing. This kid’s gone on tilt. His luck’s been good today, but—”

The two of them traded a few more hushed words.

Shen Guangjun straightened, mulled it over, then clapped Yao Bin on the shoulder with sudden bravado. “Fine! We’ll call. Go ahead and raise!”