Private games can be dicey. Make sure you walk in with both eyes open or you might just walk out a stack lighter, wondering where it all went wrong.

The players chose their seats and now it was time to choose their buyins. Joey wanted to see what Craig had hidden up his sleeve, so decided to first buy in small for 100. Craig noticed this and the corners of his lips slightly sunk.

Craig had a friend of his deal and the game launched with a full table. 

For a while, nothing occurred outside of Joey's expectations. The players here were even lower level than the ones he played with at Angelo's, so he had an easy go of it. Within a short time, he managed to triple his stack from 100 to 300. 

The only other player doing well at the table was Craig, and Joey had to admit that compared to the rest, Craig was indeed more skillful, but that was all.

Recognizing that Joey's chip stack had become a decent size, when no one paid particular attention, Craig sent a hidden signal to the dealer. The game went on.

Joey continued chipping away at the other players. Finally, he got involved in a decent hand with Craig.

Craig was the aggressor, raising preflop, barrelling flop, barrelling turn. Joey called the whole way with a flush draw. On the river, the flush draw missed but it still a very scary card. 

He could sense Craig was not strong and the river card was likely bad for him. Joey felt a river bluff had a high chance of stealing the pot. He went all in.

Craig snap-called him. Rocking a smile from ear to ear, "What do you have?" he teased Joey.

Joey flipped over [6s 8s], nothing, a busted flush draw. Craig flipped over [9c 9d], a pair of 9s and won the pot. 

Joey lost.

"Great call Craig!"

"Damn, this guy's winning streak is starting again..."

"Hey, take it easy on us huh? haha"

The other players didn't seem surprised, but Joey felt something was off.

The board was [2s 2h Ts Qd Ad], a terribly scary board for a pair of 9s, as it would lose to any hand with any 2, T, Q, A, and several other hands.

Craig should have not been able to make that call, and even if he was, he couldn't have made it so quickly and fearlessly. Joey immediately took a break from the game and went to the bathroom.

'No, there's something shady going on. For a while now, Craig's played too confidently. He hasn't made any blatantly suspicious moves before, but due to wanting to flaunt his thin call against me, he slipped and called too fast. Now I know something's up... He must've known my cards!'

'That's the only way he could've called like that. I just need to find out how...' Joey returned to the game and sat down, acting normally.

"What's wrong Joey, don't tell me you're broke again?" Craig's friends chortled.

'I need to keep playing or they'll know something's up.' Joey realized.

"Give me 100." It was time to buckle down. Joey decided to stay away from Craig, play conservatively, and focus on finding the problem. It didn't take long.

'They're just high school kids in the end, they're not careful enough.' Joey's eyes focused as he looked at the culprit.

Joey had played with Craig before so he was aware of some of his physical habits. Today, Craig was spending an unusually long time staring at his opponents' cards.

'It's on the cards. He's marked the cards somehow!'

'In most games, it's routine to occasionally change the decks. They must've snuck in a dirty deck. Now that the secret's out, I just need to learn their language.'

Joey spent a lot of the following time folding. Instead of playing, he spent as many moments as possible gazing at the backs of the cards, trying to spot any difference he could find. After some time, his eyes shot opened wide and he smirked. 'You're dead!'

"Get me another 300 in chips." Joey bought in for the remainder of the money he had brought.

Craig couldn't hide his delight. "Whoaho! Looks like even strays have a secret stash," Craig mocked. His friends jeered.

"Craig, how much do you have there in front of you?" Joey asked.

At this implicit provocation, the ends of Craig's mouth couldn't help sinking, but soon he remembered that he had nothing to fear. "Looks like about 1200. Why, you want a piece, short stack?"

"Do me a favor. Keep those chips neat and organized for me. That way, when I win them, you could just nicely slide them over here. It would really just save me a lot of effort if I didn't have to pile them all back together. You understand. You can do that right, buddy?"

Craig snorted, no longer arguing. He wanted to let the results speak for themselves.

The game ensued. This time, Joey went out of his way to target Craig, and he didn't feel the need to wait for strong cards to do so. They clashed.

Craig raised preflop and barrelled the following rounds as Joey kept calling him down. Flop. Turn. Again he bet the river, but Joey finally raised!

Joey only had jack high, but it was enough!

Tchh...Craig moved his tongue around his teeth. He knew Joey only had jack high, Unfortunately, he was bluffing and couldn't beat that. 'Damn! This punk is lucky I can't call his bluff, but it won't happen again,' Craig reassured himself.

Craig and Joey were running the game as the other players faded into the audience. Now their stacks were evenly matched at 800, but not for long. 

Craig once again came out raising preflop and Joey reraised, Craig called. On the flop, Craig bet and Joey called. On the turn, Craig bet again, and Joey called again. Lastly, it came to the river.

'He's got nothing, I've got this.' Craig told himself. "Bet the same amount."

"Raise." Joey insta-raised Craig.

Instead of being upset, Craig actually openly smiled. 'Haha what an idiot! He's bluff raising me but he doesn't know I can see his cards. He has nothing! That's just more money for me!' "I'm all in," Craig had absolute faith in himself.

"Call."

...

"You...what now?" Craig couldn't believe his ears.

"Man, you have good hobbies. That snap call feels really nice! Style points bruh!"

Craig had to look around to make sure he hadn't been transported to bizarro world. The simple reason is, Joey really had nothing, he had ten high...and yet, he called.

"Come on, whatchu got mannnn? Don't slowrollll me. I really like my hand, but you never know, poker is a crazyyy game baby." Joey slowly and meticulously rubbed the salt on Craig's wounds like he was helping him do his back with suntan lotion, unwilling to miss a spot.

And it stung...the reason being, Craig couldn't beat ten high!

He had [6c 2d] for 6 high. The only reason he went all in was that he was absolutely sure there was no way Joey could call with ten high. He was absolutely sure...absolutely sure...abso...lutely.

'How much do we really know about the universe anyway?' Craig had started contemplating philosophical questions.

...

Life has its ups and downs.

Now, Craig was facing a second dilemma. He had no chance of winning the hand, it was over. His only choice was whether to flip over his 62 and have Joey flip over his 9t, completely embarrassing him in front of everyone. Or, he could muck his hand, and Joey probably wouldn't show his cards, at least saving his dignity. It was an easy choice.

Craig couldn't display anger this time. He couldn't afford for it to leak out that he had been rigging the deck here, something he'd already been doing for a long time against these players.

"Craig, the chips buddy, the chips. Pass them over here neatly, like we agreed." Wax on, wax off.

'We didn't agree a damn thing!' Craig scolded internally, but still did as Joey asked.

"Craig, my good friend, I really appreciate your maturity about this. After all, this is simply a case of your wealth being reassigned to the needy. Just consider it an unplanned donation, okay? Don't forget to talk to your accountant and see if you can get a tax deduction." He agreed that tax avoidance was not tax evasion.

"Really, you should feel good about this. I'm probably more happy to get this money than you're sad to lose it. The total happiness in the world has increased. You did a good thing today. I'm proud of you."

Joey's motto was to always spread positivity.