Pirate Poker

It was just me and him now.  He didn't have a good poker face at all.  He was smiling at his cards, thinking of how good his chances were.  He did probably have some good cards, since I would doubt he's smart enough to bluff.  The ship swayed gently, rocking us and the rest of the crew watching.  

I had three kings, a six, and an eight.  Three of a kind is good but by his smile, not great.  Technically, I only had one king to start off with.  Since I have these puffy sleeves, it's real easy to slip in cards.  There's a bunch of aces, jacks, queens, you name it.  No one ever notices.  I had been sneaking the other two kings in, adjusting them perfectly so you wouldn't see more then the normal hand of five cards.  

"I raise ya twenty doubloons!" he said.  The crew gave a little gasp and there was some cheering.

I was confident.  A sneeze, a cough, it wouldn't matter.  I could get the last king, slip it over the six and get a four of a kind.  That's a hand to match twenty doubloons with.  I took a glance at my little treasure chest of money.  Everyone on the crew had gotten matching ones, since of a little adventure we went on.  You could buy a lot with this little chest, so no one else except me and him decided to gamble.  We were just playing this one hand, just a small gamble.  But it turned into this.

I looked him dead in the eye.  "All in," I told him, shoving the little treasure chest into the middle of the table.  The whole chest held about fifty doubloons.  Walking home with all one hundred would be excellent.  The crew was excited, they were shouting and hollering and drinking rum.  They wanted to see this play out.

He gulped and held his cards close to his face.  I play high stakes and I knew what was going threw his mind.  Should I really risk this?  Is it worth it?  Are my cards going to be good enough?  His silly grin was gone by now.

"Rum," he said.  One of his buddies handed him an almost empty bottle.  He drank it all then slammed the bottle on the table.  He slided his whole treasure chest in. "Me too."

Everyone burst out with drunken yelling.  He got pats on the back and was told he could beat me.  No one did that for me.  I wasn't the most liked here.  I faked a cough, successfully getting the card out of my sleeve.  I rubbed my nose with the hand that I was holding the cards in, pushing the king in front of the six.  

"You go first or should I, mate?"  he asked.  His smile was back again due to the little boost of rum.  

"Why don't you?"

He slammed his cards on the table.  A king, a queen, a jack, a king and a king. Three of a kind.  Wait- three kings? Shit! I'm done! The crew, no matter how dumb, don't stand a man who would cheat.  If I was thrown overboard this far away from port, I definitely wouldn't make the swim.  

"And you, mate?" he said.  The crew was silent in anticipation.  

"Well," I said, trying to keep calm, "I think you're a bloody cheater!"

He looked confused.  "What?"

I put my cards down carefully, making sure they wouldn't get messed up. It was all four kings and an eight.  "How many cards you holding on you?" I asked him.  

"This is- no! No!" His friends didn't cheer or smile or joke around.  They gave him a stern look.  They were actually believing this.  "Come on, no!"

"You wanted me doubloons that bad?" I yelled, trying to make a scene. I got up from the barrel I was sitting on.  "You did! You bloody cheat!"

"No! This wasn't- no!" He couldn't keep his words straight. He was too afraid.  That didn't look reliable at all.  I grabbed my treasure chest away from the table.  One of the biggest crew members, I think they call him Spud, came through the crowd.  He put his hand on the guy's shoulder.

"I don't like cheats," he said in a threateningly low voice, "You know what happens to 'im, eh?"

Spud pushed the other treasure chest towards me.  I was getting away with this and getting all the money!  

"No, no please! Not overboard, no!" he tried to plead.  Spud didn't care.  Spud pushed him off his barrel.

"Let's take it to the ledge, hmm?"  Spud said and grabbed the guy's shirt collar.  He tried to squirm away, but Spud was big.  He wasn't going anywhere but to the ledge.  The crew followed to go watch, but I stayed with my two treasure chests.  I didn't care about that guy.  I got what I played for and that's fine with me.