"Ah, our other guests must have arrived."

The host swiftly made his way to the door and opened it, to reveal two more men, both well dressed. One of them wore a bright red suit, and the other a dark green suit.

The first man wore glasses with lenses and frames so square that you could use the 90 degree angles to slice something. His long black hair flipped as he confidently entered the room.

"This man is no pushover", Garett thought to himself. The aura brought about by the man with the glasses told Garett that he was there to win, and by his own strength. It was as if he could feel waves of pride emanating from the man.

The other man was extremely short, and relatively plain. He was about 4 feet tall, and was most likely in his late 40's. He had short brown hair that stuck up like a military cut, and well trimmed facial hair that formed a rounded square around his mouth.

He took twice as many steps to cover the same distance as the other man, but he still carried himself with dignity. He seemed to be a veteran gambler, and one who could easily read the situation by a glance.

"Veterans eh?", Garett thought as the four men sat at the table. "It looks like I'm going to have to get pretty serious today then."

Garett had never played against veteran gamblers. He was excessively interested in gambling, but that interest had led him to study the games- not play them. The most he had ever put on the line was some chump change with his friends.

Why was this? Was Garett not the type of person who was thrilled by a risk?

He was. However, to Garett, the money that was held in the balance of the gamble was merely a method. When he gambled, his pride was what really held in the balance. His ability to turn the tables in his favor, and win more often than not.

The thing that thrilled him was the outcome. When one schemed to make it so that they had a greater chance to win, the scheming would be all for naught if they were to lose anyways. But it was exactly that which Garett gambled with. If ones schemes assure that there is a 99% chance of victory, and victory does not come, then they were worth just as much as if one did not scheme at all.

Time is worth more than money. Human effort is what gives value to money. And gambling was a manifestation of this human effort. If the human effort did not result in anything, then it was worthless, no matter how intelligent or well done it is.

The four men sat at the table, and the host stood up in order to explain the rules.

"In an attempt to promote fairness, our casino likes to introduce new and unique games to our new customers. These games are our own creations, and as such have likely never been played by anyone in this room- giving nobody an unfair advantage."

The host's hand reached into his pocket, and he pulled out a deck of what seemed to be playing cards.

The four men all stared at the host as he continued explaining.

"This game is to be played in pairs. It is called 'plus or minus'."

The host turned over the deck of cards, and spread them out in front of the players on the table to reveal that there were only 3 types of cards.

There were cards that had a blue 'plus' sign, a red 'minus' sign, and a grey zero with a slash through the middle.

"In this game, there are 40 total cards. 10 Pluses, 10 minuses, and 20 zeroes. The deck will be shuffled, and each player will be dealt 5 cards. After receiving ones cards, there will then be a trading phase, which consists of 3 levels. During the trading phase, you may select a number of cards to be traded in for another randomly selected card from the deck. You can only do one trade in per game, however if you wish to trade in cards, you must select which level of the trade in you will trade your cards during."

"On the first level of trade in, you can trade in any number of your cards- even all 5 if you wish. Once the first level of trade is over, the cards that each member traded in will be flipped over and revealed to everyone at the table. The second trade in level will then begin, in which you may only trade 2 cards maximum. The cards will once again be revealed, and then the 3rd level of trade in will occur, in which you may only trade 1 card. Once again- you are only allowed to trade in on a single level, so if you wish to trade in 3 cards you must trade in on the first level."

This rule seemed sound to Garett. The worse hand you had, the more cards you had to trade in, and the less information you were allowed to acquire about the possible remaining cards. Similarly, if you had a good hand and only wished to trade in 1 card, you could obtain a lot of info about the remaining cards in the deck, and decide whether to take a risk or not.

The host continued explaining.

"You are allowed to see the decks of your partner, which is why we have 2 people on each side of the table. This will then allow for the 3rd and final session of the game. This is the switching session. In this session, if your partner agrees, you are allowed to switch cards with them. Why is this rule present? Because the goal of this game is to not come in last. The only person in this room who will leave without winnings is he who has the least points at the end. This goes without saying, but each plus is worth 1 point, each 0 is worth 0 points, and each minus is worth -1 points."

The man with the glasses pushed them to his face with his middle finger in a sophisticated manner.

"And what of the loser?", he inquired.

"Those who have the money to pay will simply pay for the winnings that the others receive. For this gamble, that will add up to a total of 2000 dollars. However, our casino prides ourselves on allowing the opportunity for even those without money to make money from gambling, and as such we have offered a plan of part time work for the casino for anyone who does not have the money to gamble."

The man took his hand off his glasses and nodded, satisfied.

"There is one special hand in this game however. This hand is extremely rare, and almost never comes up, however there is a certain chance that it could happen. If you have a hand where every card is a negative, this is called "A negative and a negative makes a positive". In this case, your hand is worth the same as having all pluses.

The men all nodded in agreement.

"Now, in this gamble, we will only have one round- winners take all, and loser pays all. However, we will perform a practice round first followed by a 10 minute break so that you all may come accustomed to the game beforehand. Is this alright?"

The men all nodded in agreement, and the dealer began to shuffle out the cards.

----

The cards were dealt, 5 to each player. Garett took a look at what he had been dealt during this practice round.

1 plus, 2 zeroes, and 2 minuses.

"Within reason as far as chance goes.", Garett thought. However, this was only the practice round. If something fishy was to happen, it would occur during the next round.

He took a glance at his partners deck. 2 pluses, 2 zeroes, and a minus. Also well within the realm of standard probability.

Since 3 minuses were in sight, that meant 7 more remained- potentially in the deck, however- the chance of recieving one of these was low as there was likely to be 1 or 2 more within the opponents hands.

As such, Garett strongly considered placing down all four cards. (2 minuses, 2 zeroes) that were not a plus. However, this was a simulation of how the actual game would run, so he instead decided to play it safe and keep the zeroes.

"I don't need to show the opponents how risky I like to play just yet. We can wait until the real game to pull any real tricks."

The dealer then spoke up. "If there is anyone who would like to trade their cards in on the first level, please place your cards down on the count of three. One, two, three."

The man with glasses placed- all 5 cards down. Nobody else moved an inch.

He pushed up his glasses, and smirked. "Could it be that you are all holding back due to the fact that this is a practice round? Or perhaps nobody in this room has any balls?"

Nobody gave into the taunt, but Garett laughed a little bit on the inside. "This guy... he's trying to provoke the other players into making rash decisions. If I wasn't levelheaded, perhaps I would've fallen for that obvious bluff... however, I think its all but certain that it was a good decision to hold back for now."

The host signaled for the man to turn his cards over, revealing 2 minus signs and 3 zeroes.

"An interesting choice... however, not a bad one. Without even a single plus it would be better to give up your entire hand and try for a new one than to only give up a few cards.", Garett thought.

The man then received 5 new cards.

The host then signaled for the 2nd level of trade in. On the sign of 3, Garett placed 2 cards at the same time as his partner, who also placed 2 cards- a minus and a zero, as well as the other man, who also placed 2 cards.

They all flipped, to reveal their cards. The other man had placed 2 zeroes. This was slightly risky, as it meant that he did not have any minus cards- otherwise he would have traded those in. This meant that he risked getting a worse score than before, should he pull a minus and a zero.

2 cards were dealt to each player in order, to refill their decks.

"And with that, all players have traded in- so we will now be moving onto the partner trading phase. If you wish to trade with your partner, you may do so, assuming both parties agree."

Garett looked at the 2 cards he received. In exchange for 2 minus cards, he received a 0 and a minus, giving him a total of +-0 (1 plus, 1 minus, 3 zeroes).

His partner had received a plus and a zero in exchange for a minus and a zero- a net gain of 2 giving him 3 pluses and 2 zeroes, for +3.

Daniel looked at him and twitched his eye. It drew a circle across his eyelid, followed by a horizontal dash. Realizing what Daniel was suggesting, Garett gladly accepted, and Daniel gave up a zero for Garett's minus.

This resulted in Daniel being at +2, while Garett was at +1. A good team play to ensure that nobody gets left behind in last.

The other 2 didn't make any trades, and the session came to an end.

"Alright everyone, flip your cards over!", the host exclaimed.

The four revealed their decks. The man with glasses has 2 pluses, 2 minuses, and a zero for +- 0. The older man revealed a plus, a minus, and 3 zeroes, also for +-0.

"Seems trading in backfired on him", Garett thought. He would have ended up with at least +1, had he not traded in his cards and received the minus.

And as such, Daniel came in first- with Garett coming in 2nd, followed by the other 2 men. There were no external influences to this game, and as such the result was almost completely up to chance.

The host then called for a 10 minute break before the real game was to begin.

----

Daniel and Garett stood together, both of them sipping on some black coffee.

"Garett. You recognized my sign, didn't you?"

"Of course I would. I've seen that trick hundreds of times."

"I see. Let me form a light code for this gamble, since we have a lot on the line- and also a lot to win."

Of course, a month of working wasn't a huge amount, but given that they would lose the chance to win a couple hundred or a thousand dollars and have to work instead, this motivated the two to not lose.

"If I make a zero, plus or minus- well, you should get what that means. If I flick my eye upwards, it will mean "Trade your cards in." If I flick it down, it will mean to hold off. If I flick my eye to the side, it will mean that I plan on doing a partner trade at the end depending on the situation."

Garett nodded. "Alright."

Garett headed back into the room alone.

"Can I trust Daniel to help me out in a pinch? I've covered for him time and time again, so he certainly owes me...but..."

A bad feeling came over Garett.

"Will he really come through in a pinch?"

Garett shook off these thoughts. In order to avoid being reliant on another, all he had to do was win on his own.

Daniel, on the other hand, let out a slight chuckle as he stood alone drinking his coffee.

"Naive.... you're too naive, Garett. I hope for your sake that you learn from the lesson I'm about to give you today, and give up gambling once and for all. After all, I wouldn't want anyone else using you like I am about to..."

----

Intermission

Authors note: Hello all. I've been working on this chapter bit by bit throughout the week, and its coming together nicely. I was deciding on whether or not to actually include the practice round within the story, but I ended up deciding to do so to show you readers how an actual game might play out. Just so you all know, the practice round was generated using a random number generator, and while I made the 'decisions' for each player, the outcomes of these decisions were not under my control as a writer. What a coincidence though that things worked out almost perfectly as if I had written the story on my own...

Also, I wrote this story originally on webnovel, and am currently transferring it to other sites such as this one, however unfortunately this site has a 15000 character limit. Therefore, some chapters (Such as this one), I have to split into many parts and cut things where I don't really want to cut them, so if things seem a bit choppy with the chapter endings that is why.