Chapter 19: A Total Defeat

"Don't believe me?

"Fine, then let me explain."

Lu Xinyi spoke unhurriedly. "It is quite obvious that the three of you are all 'conservative' types—the kind who wouldn't even buy a bank wealth management product unless it guaranteed both principal and interest, refusing to accept any risk whatsoever.

"I saw it from the very beginning. You resist the gamble and resist risk, which is why you chose this specific strategy.

"And this can also be seen from the number of chips you hold.

"I previously asked, seemingly in passing, if your chips were around 18,000 points, and you both implicitly confirmed it.

"This shows that when you exchanged your chips, you chose the lowest tier of 20,000 and only gambled for the minimum of two rounds before pulling out to cut your losses.

"Since you are all extremely risk-averse, you certainly wouldn't dare to go all-in against me right now.

"In terms of both psychology and chip volume, we are not even on the same level."

Qin Yao was somewhat astonished. "Chips? Is your chip count not 20,000?"

Subconsciously, she had assumed everyone's starting chips should be around 18,000, unless someone got lucky with a good hand and won, but even then, it would only be slightly over 20,000.

Lu Xinyi smiled. "Of course, my starting chips were more than you imagined.

"Furthermore, the three of them will continue to lose chips to me.

"The gap in our chip counts will only continue to widen. If you knew even a little bit about gambling tactics, you would know that the player with more chips holds an absolute advantage."

As she spoke, Su Xiucen timed out and folded.

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 to Qin Yao's right in the 3rd Community chose to raise; the next player folded; Lu Xinyi raised again.

"I understand..."

When it was Jiang He's turn again, she looked at the timer on the table, and her entire posture seemed to collapse.

Clearly, the players in the 3rd Community had already coordinated a fixed pattern: two players fold, two players raise.

Why not have all four raise together?

Because if all four raised at once, there was a high probability someone would quickly exhaust all their chips and be forced out of the game early.

Therefore, Lu Xinyi's strategy was to have only two out of the four players raise. These two were not fixed; they would only raise when they felt they had a strong hand.

The other two would fold to preserve as many chips as possible.

By having two players raise, they could maintain the strongest perceived hand on the table while continuing to raise without ever showing their cards, exerting maximum psychological pressure on Jiang He and the others.

If Jiang He and Qin Yao continued to call, Lu Xinyi and the other 3rd Community player would keep raising until everyone's chips were depleted.

Unless they held exceptionally strong hands, it was impossible for Jiang He and Qin Yao to gamble everything like that; it far exceeded the limits of their psychological endurance.

If they were seasoned gamblers who dared to take extreme risks and possessed strong acting skills, they might have found a way to break the deadlock.

But unfortunately, Jiang He, Qin Yao, and Su Xiucen were not those kinds of people; they were all risk-averse players.

Lu Xinyi had seen this from the start, which is why she chose this specific strategy to manipulate them.

"Forget it, we fold."

Jiang He and Qin Yao ultimately chose to fold, losing 2,000 chips each.

The game continued.

Qin Yao lowered her voice. "Sister Jiang He, we can't go on like this, can we? Up until now, we haven't even seen a single hand revealed. If we do show our cards, it's not like we're guaranteed to lose, right?"

Jiang He sighed softly. "But if our hands aren't strong enough, are you sure you can handle the risk of going all-in and showing your cards?"

Qin Yao was momentarily speechless. Clearly, she couldn't.

Jiang He whispered, "There is only one way left.

"There are a few rounds left. If we can get a big hand, we'll go all-in then and try to win back what we've lost.

"I refuse to believe that luck will never be on our side."

Qin Yao thought for a moment. "Then... what counts as a big hand?"

Jiang He considered it for a moment. "To be safe... I think it needs to be at least a straight or better.

"After all, it looks like only two people are calling, but in reality, they are picking the two strongest hands out of the four. If our hand is just a pair, it probably won't be enough."

Qin Yao nodded. "Understood."

Jiang He leaned closer to Su Xiucen and said the same thing.

Lu Xinyi naturally saw them whispering, but she didn't seem to care, simply continuing her routine of dealing, raising, and collecting chips.

Soon, eight rounds had passed, and the chips in front of Lu Xinyi were nearly piled into a small mountain.

As the cards were dealt again, Jiang He flipped her cards over with no hope left in her eyes.

Then, her eyes instantly lit up, and her breathing became rapid.

3 of clubs, 7 of clubs, Queen of clubs.

A Queen-high flush!

Although Jiang He didn't play much and didn't know the exact probabilities, she knew this was definitely a very strong hand.

The probability of any of the other six people having a better hand was extremely low.

"Stay calm, stay calm, don't show it...

"I can't raise too much at once, that would be too obvious. I'll call first and wait for them to raise slowly..."

Jiang He lowered her eyes, maintaining an air of dejection.

When it was her turn, she hesitated repeatedly before taking a 1,000-point chip from her stack and placing it in the betting area.

"I call this round."

However, in the very next second, everyone folded.

Lu Xinyi smiled as she tossed her cards onto the table. "It looks like your luck was good this round. Take these chips; they are rightfully yours."

Jiang He's expression froze instantly.

The robotic arm swept the chips toward her, but looking at those few 1,000-point chips, even though Jiang He had won, she felt worse than if she had lost.

It was as if her last string had snapped; Jiang He completely broke down.

Previously, even though she had been losing, she had held onto a sliver of hope—thinking that if she could get a big hand and go all-in against the opponent, she could win back everything she had lost.

Even though she didn't have many chips left and an all-in win would only net her a few thousand, that would have been enough.

But now she realized that she was not even in the same league as Lu Xinyi.

Her psychology had been completely manipulated, and her clumsy acting hadn't fooled anyone.

The final round began. Jiang He, Qin Yao, and Su Xiucen were dejected and helpless, merely hoping the game would end quickly.

They each looked at their hands; no miracle occurred.

Just ordinary, junk hands.

"Fold."

"Fold."

"Fold."

A smile appeared on Lu Xinyi's face as she once again won all the chips.

"Then thank you three for your hospitality. I hope you'll have the chance to visit our 3rd Community in the future."

Jiang He left the table in a daze, looking at the remaining chips in her hand—14,000.

She had been lucky; in the round where she hit the flush, she had won the entire pot of 6,000 chips. If she hadn't won that round, she would only have 8,000 left now.

Qin Yao and Su Xiucen were in even worse shape.

Su Xiucen had folded throughout the entire game, but fortunately, she only lost the blinds and had 8,000 left.

Qin Yao had followed Jiang He's raise once and was left with only 7,000.

It could be said they had lost miserably.

Combined, the three of them had lost a total of 26,000 chips, which translated to approximately 18 days of visa time.

Jiang He returned to the rest area in a trance and sat on the sofa.

On the large screen, the game countdown continued to tick down.

1:02:59

1:02:58

Because everyone had folded so quickly in this multi-player game, it had actually only taken about ten minutes; there was still one hour of total game time remaining.

However, the three of them could do nothing during this time but wait.

But just then, the booth in the chip exchange area, which had been locked the entire time, suddenly opened.

"Huh?"

Qin Yao looked over in surprise.

Lin Sizhi walked out of the booth, his left hand in his suit pocket, calmly surveying his surroundings.