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The four men were once more seated at the table. From the previous match, Garett had learned quite a bit about this game- the most important piece being that even veteran gamblers wouldn't be able to win if luck wasn't on their sides.

Unless of course, they were simply testing the waters and holding back their real skill...

The host began sliding cards over to each player one at a time until each person had 5 cards. His hands moved so fast it was difficult for Garett to see what he was doing.

Garett picked up his deck of 5 cards to reveal

"What?" Garett almost said out loud as he looked at his deck.

Garett ran a quick multi variable calculation in his head.

"more or less... 4%"

That was the chance that he would receive a deck of cards as dangerous as this one.

3 minuses and 2 zeroes.

One could argue that this was the worst possible starting hand. Given that 5 minuses was equivalent to +5, 4 minuses and a zero could be considered better than this hand, because if you happened to trade in the 0 for a minus, or if you happened to trade a card for a minus with your partner, you would easily obtain plus 5.

This situation was different however, it presented itself with risk.

Garett looked over to his partner, who had 3 pluses and a minus, and 1 zero. Daniel's eye began to twitch.

From the patterns they had discussed earlier, Daniel suggested that Garett trade in his two zeroes. If he could obtain a single minus, or if Daniel obtained another minus, they would trade cards so that Garett would be left with 5 minuses, and Daniel would give his minuses away for better cards.

It was a win win situation if it came to fruition.

There were currently 4 minuses in sight. 6 remained, however they could certainly be in the hands of the opponents. This meant there was less than a 6 in 20 chance that they would receive a minus on any given draw.

However, they had 3 total draws.

In the best case scenario, assuming none of the opponents held minus cards, there was roughly a 2 in 3 chance that they would obtain their needed card. This could be increased to a 3 in 4 chance roughly if Daniel switched out one of his plus cards, however that was unlikely, as that would be accepting his own demerit in order to assist his partner.

But something unexpected happened.

On the first turn, the host asked if anyone would like to trade out their cards. Nobody volunteered to do so- it seems that nobody wanted to leak information to their opponents. Then, the second stage occurred.

The host asked for everyone to place their cards if they wished to do so, and both Daniel, Garett, and the man with glasses placed down 2 cards.

The other man remained firm and didn't move an inch. He seemed to be confident in his deck.

The cards were flipped, revealing a minus and a zero from the man with the glasses.

Once more cards were dealt, and Garett took a look at his own deck.

He received a minus and a zero.

He had done it. Looking over to Daniels deck, he saw that in exchange for the plus and the zero he had given up to maximize Garett's chances, he had received 2 zeroes in exchange. Garett felt somewhat bad that Daniel's hand had suffered as a result of trying to help out his partner- however all that was left now was to trade out cards. If Daniel traded the minus in his deck for a zero, Garett would end up with an outstanding +5, and Daniel would still end up with a +2.

The 3rd and final trade in occurred, and oddly- the man with the square beard didn't move a muscle.

"Could his hand be good enough that he doesn't want to risk a trade in making it worse? Perhaps he learned that from the practice round..."

Then, the round of the trade in began.

"If you wish to trade cards with your partner. and they accept, then you may do so now."

Garett picked out his zero and handed it over to Daniel. This was the least he could do to help someone who risked losing points for his sake.

However...

Daniel didn't move.

"I refuse your trade offer"