With the gauntlet now thrown, and in such spectacular fashion, I was excited to see what Nikita was going to do. The next time play circled around to the big Russian, however, I was shocked to see him fold yet again, drawing a smug chuckle from Lucas on the other side of the table.

“All bark, no bite. What a disappointment.” The Belgian commented.

Nikita ignored him and instead turned to his left and looked at me. I would have preferred that he keep looking at Lucas.

“I remember you. You are man from boarding ramp, yes?”

Why was Nikita talking to me now, of all times? Shouldn’t he be focused on the guy he had just given such a decisive challenge to? I didn’t really see why we needed to retread our embarrassing first encounter right at this moment.

“Yeah, that was me. Sorry,” I said.

“Your face I do not recognize,” Nikita said. “I look around this room and I see only familiar faces, but you I do not think I know. This is first time we meet, yes?”

“That’s right. My name is Bryson. You wouldn’t know me because I’ve never really played poker before.” I admitted.

“And you start off with big high roller tournament? Very strange choice.”

“I can’t really argue with that.” I admitted. I didn’t have anything worth playing, so I took my hand and pushed it towards the dealer.

“Is easy to tell this is… how do you Americans say?... ‘Your first rodeo’.” The words didn’t sound accusatory or malicious. Nikita was simply making a statement of fact.

“Yeah, I guess I’m a little out of my depth,” I admitted. There was no point hiding it when Nikita could see right through me.

“But you enter tournament anyway. You do not look like rich man, so entry fee is not small matter to you. Am I wrong?”

“You’re not wrong.” I said, feeling sillier by the minute. I wanted to lie and pretend like my coming here was somehow rationally justifiable, but convincing Nikita of an untruth seemed like a complete impossibility. “I pretty much had to pay everything I had just to get in.”

“Tell me, if you win big prize, what you do with money?”

That stopped me dead in my tracks. I had never really considered the possibility of actually winning.

“Well… I…” I faltered. I had always had a vague idea that if I had a lot of money it would be nice to live “the good life”, but it suddenly dawned on me that I had never considered any specifics. I could buy a bigger house, but where? A better car, but what model? Of course I should probably invest most of the money, but how? I realized that I had never given any thought to any of this.

By this time the hand was finished. Lucas had folded quickly to the Sicilian player, but had lost only a tiny portion of his chips. The dealer collected the cards and passed out a new hand. Nikita looked at his cards. Appearing to decide that they were worth playing, he pushed a few chips into the middle then returned to me.

“So you do not know for what you would want money. In that case you are here for girl!” The big man’s face lit up with a grin. I didn’t even know his face was capable of such an expression.

“What… how do you know that?” I asked, dumbstruck.

Meanwhile, the flop came down. Lucas made another of his patented huge bets. Nikita folded, losing even more of his chips.

“Pay attention to the game you big oaf!” Lucas jeered at him. If that stack gets any smaller it’ll be the size of your-”

“Man do stupid thing for only two reason,” Nikita said, cutting Lucas off and ignoring him entirely, “Is either for get money or for get girl. If you do not enter big tournament for get money then it must be other thing.”

The dealer dealt out another hand. Nikita pushed more chips into the center. His pile was getting dangerously small.

“I suppose that makes sense,” I admitted.

“Who is pretty lady?” Nikita asked.

“I’d rather not say. It’s kind of personal.” I didn’t want to recount the whole story of how I’d come here. I knew it would make me look even stupider than I did already.

“Fair enough. I will not pry further. Waiter! Over here please! I have order!” Nikita called to one of the wait staff who were wandering the room. A few services were provided to the players during the tournament in order to ensure they had whatever they needed to play their best game, and, more importantly, to squeeze even more money out of them by offering overpriced drinks and massages.

Lucas bet big again, and this time Nikita called. Down came the flop. The king of hearts, the four of clubs, and the ten of spades all hit the board. This time after Lucas bet, Nikita went all in. Lucas called, and pushed his hand to the dealer to turn it face up.

“Give me one moment.” Nikita said to the dealer. He had finally gotten a waiter’s attention. “Two shots of vodka, if you would.”

“Coming right up, sir.” The waiter said, and left to grab the drinks.

“I hate to distract a Russian from his vodka, but keep your focus on the game!” Lucas was getting visibly frustrated with Nikita’s nonchalant attitude.

Nikita gave his hand to the dealer, who turned both the hands face up. Both players had a ten in hand, but Nikita was also holding the king of clubs, giving him two pair and the advantage over Lucas. The turn and the river both came up as irrelevant cards, and Nikita doubled up his chips.

“I see your game.” Lucas sneered. “You’re not going to play anything you aren’t sure you can win, huh? What, is the ‘tilting master’ too scared to try and bluff? Or do you know I’ll call you on it?

“Only donkey try to play every hand.” Nikita responded.

“And only a coward waits for the safe play,” Lucas shot back, “No wonder you have a girl’s name, ‘Nikita’.”

“Nikita is girl’s name in India, but in Russia we give it to little boy. Sort of like how Lucas is boy’s name in Belgium but your mother give it to little girl.” Nikita's unreadable stony expression had returned, although I could easily guess the intention behind this particular statement. 

“Whatever. I only need to win one hand to bust you. We’ll see how big you talk when you have to hit the rail.” Lucas replied, referring to the poker world’s version of sidelines. Nikita ignored this.

The waiter came up to Nikita and delivered him his two shots of Vodka. He took one and held it out to me rather than responding to what Lucas had just said.

“I propose toast, to you and your mystery lady friend! Nikita said to me with his grin back on his face. The difference in demeanor when he was dealing with me and when he was dealing with Lucas was like night and day, and he seemed to be able to make the switch at will. “May you be like Prince Charming and win her heart!”

“Oh! Um, thank you!” I said, taking the shot glass from him.

Looking over at Lucas, I saw that he was fuming. I was reminded of a child in a grocery store, acting out and trying to get their parent’s attention while the parent ignored them. All of a sudden it dawned on my what Nikita was doing. By focusing on me rather than Lucas, he was denying the obnoxious little manchild what he really wanted: attention. He would needle him occasionally and then ignore his responses while being very attentive to someone else, namely me. All of this was driving Lucas up the wall. Nikita had successfully tilted his opponent. All that remained now was for Lucas to make a crucial mistake that would seal his fate. Nikita and I knocked back our drinks.

“Whew, that’s got a bit of a burn to it!” I said, “But thanks, I appreciate it.”

“Is my pleasure,” replied the Russian.

On the next hand, I found myself holding the king of diamonds and queen of clubs. I hated to jump into the middle of the feud between possibly the two most dangerous players at the table, but I had no excuse not to play a hand like that. Nikita also seemed to like his cards, and he bet twenty-five thousand. I called, sure that it was the right play to do so but feeling like I was staring down the barrel of a gun. Lucas, who could hardly seem to find a pair of cards he didn’t want to play, jumped right into the action by raising to eighty thousand. Nikita called and, with great trepidation, so did I. Then it was time for the flop. The deuce of hearts, the queen of diamonds, and the five of spades all came off the deck. Pairing my queen in hand. Nikita bet another twenty-five thousand. I called. Lucas shoved all in and looked at Nikita with a smirk. Nikita didn’t look at him at all and instead resumed conversing with me.

“So if you used all of money to enter tournament, what you do for food and drinks?” He asked, playing with his chips and delaying on taking any action.

“I mean, I still have some pocket money left over. It’s enough to-”

“No, no, no, this will not do! Waiter? Waiter! Whatever this man order put on my tab for rest of cruise!”

“No I really couldn’t…” I tried to protest.

“I insist,” said Nikita. “I have many millions of American dollars. Cost of drinks is nothing to me, at least assuming you drink vodka like American and not like Russian, yes?” he laughed at his own joke.

“Do something!” Lucas practically screamed.

“Careful! it’s illegal to rush your opponent when he’s making a decision.” The dealer cautioned, “Let me worry about whether he’s taking too long, okay?”

Lucas looked like he wanted to strangle somebody, but he relented.

“I apologize for chips I am about to take from you, by the way,” Nikita continued to talk to me and ignore Lucas. “Still, they will be going to cause of beating stupid donkey man, so that is good thing.” With that statement he turned to the dealer. “I call, all in.”

Now play was passed to me, and I hesitated, trying to think. If I called and I lost, then this would be the end of my tournament life. I had a pretty good hand with a pair of queens, but Nikita seemed convinced that he could beat me, to the point where he was already apologizing for his victory. Was he bluffing? I had the high pair on the board, but for all I knew Nikita could be holding pocket aces. And then there was Lucas to think about. Sure, he bluffed a lot, but sometimes he actually had decent draws. Was I willing to risk going out of the tournament before having talked to Alva or even letting her know I was here? No, I couldn’t afford to lose at this point. With a sigh, I folded my cards.

With the two remaining players all in, both hands went face-up, and I immediately felt very foolish. Lucas was holding an ace and a five, meaning all he had was a pair of fives. Nikita had the queen of hearts, giving him a pair of queens just like me, but he only had a ten of spades for a kicker which meant that I had just folded the best hand. Nikita hadn’t just tilted Lucas, he had tilted me too. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the card on the turn was the king of clubs. If I had stayed in I would have had an almost unbeatable two pair! I wanted to crawl into a corner and die. The river revealed the eight of diamonds, and Nikita took the hand.

Even though Lucas was all in, the rules of the game did not allow Nikita to do anything more than double the chips he already had, so the remainder of the pot went back to Lucas. Still, despite the fact that he remained in the game, that massive pile that he had acquired early on was disappearing fast. The Belgian was absolutely livid. It looked like there was nothing more he wanted to do in the world than crush Nikita.

Nikita sat out for several hands. The other players bet some chips back and forth. I lost a hand to Oliver while Lucas fumed and stared Nikita down. Lucas was so focused on Nikita that he lost an good chunk of his chips to a Mexican player who was sitting to the Russian’s right and who hadn’t really made any waves the whole day. Lucas’s chips were dwindling to the point where if he went all in with the Russian again and lost it would spell the end of his tournament. I would have thought that in this situation he might try employing a little caution, but the moment Nikita found a hand that he thought was worth betting on, Lucas couldn’t seem to call fast enough. They went to the flop, and the dealer revealed the four of clubs, the nine of clubs, and the jack of diamonds. Staying true to form, Lucas went all in. Nikita called. The hands went face up, and I was dismayed to see that Nikita’ ace-nine suited in spades was losing to Lucas’s jack of clubs and seven of hearts. The pair of jacks would beat the pair of nines unless something changed.

I looked over to Nikita. He sat there, arms folded, ice-blue eyes focused on the cards before him. What thoughts were going through his head right now? I wished he could read him as easily as he could read me. If I were in his position I would be scared out of my mind. If he lost this hand his stack would be so small that there would be almost no chance of a comeback, and this after all his big talk earlier while up against one of the most self-satisfied and smarmy human beings I had ever met. A loss here would be a blow to the ego I’m not sure I would have been able to endure if I were in his chair.

The card for the turn came down, and my heart soared! It was the ace of clubs! All of a sudden Nikita had two pair with aces over nines and those jacks didn’t look so great after all! Nikita wasn’t out of the woods yet, though. A jack or any club could still win it for Lucas. The dealer burned a card, went to the river, and…

The six of diamonds came off the top of the deck. Nikita had won! I couldn't have been happier if I had won the victory myself. Lucas swore loudly and punched the table’s cushion. Then he pointed a finger at Nikita.

“You got lucky this time, bastard, but it’s still the first day. I can still buy back in, and when I meet you again I’m going to destroy you!”

“Yes, you go buy second bullet. When you come back, try playing big boy poker and maybe you last longer than hour next time.” Nikita was now wearing a slight smirk of his own. I thought it suited him better.

Lucas stormed off, and Nikita exhaled audibly. I turned to him in surprise.

“Were you… scared that Lucas was going to win?” asked.

“Nothing scarier in poker than unpredictable idiot,” Nikita said, “He have good hand? He have bad hand? He play exact same way regardless. Odds say I win if I only bet on great hand, but odds sometimes wrong. That’s why when I sit down I say to myself ‘I will not play with this man’. I prefer opponent who behave in smart way so I can cause them to make stupid mistake. Genuine idiot is scary. Sometimes stupid mistake favors genuine idiot.”

“What made you change your mind?” I asked.

“He get on my nerves.” was Nikita’s only explanation.

Got on his nerves? Perhaps. But as I took a look at my next hand I couldn’t help but remember when Shirley had left the room crying. It might have been my imagination, but when that happened I thought for just one second that I had seen a flash of red-hot anger in Nikita’s icy cold eyes. Perhaps there was a little more to it than the Russian was letting on.