While the two were chatting in their minds, the dealer called over Ms. Hoshinomiya, the Class B teacher. After the situation was explained, she quickly gave her ruling:
"Ara~ This problem is quite easy to solve," Ms. Hoshinomiya said with a beaming smile, clasping her hands together. "Since the rules require a call to see the showdown, then just compensate the student with twenty-four thousand points. That should do it."
"What! There's no such rule!" Yamauchi began to shout, clearly not accepting the decision.
Bang!—a fist slammed the table.
"Hey, you. Quiet down." Ishizaki slammed his fist on the table, rolling up his sleeves to show off his muscles.
Seeing this, Yamauchi instantly recoiled and sat back down with an awkward laugh. The girls at the table were also startled by his sudden outburst.
Ms. Hoshinomiya watched this scene unfold, putting an index finger to her lips as she mused, "You do have a point... In that case, how about I just treat this as a case of cheating?"
Yamauchi's head immediately started shaking like a rattle drum. He waved his hands frantically, saying, "No! No! No! It's just chips, I'll pay! I'll pay up!"
As he said this, not waiting for her to mention any more terrifying punishments, Yamauchi hastily grabbed the corresponding chips from his stack and tossed them into the pot.
Ms. Hoshinomiya nodded in satisfaction. After signaling to the dealer, she didn't leave right away but stood by to watch the game.
And so, she watched with her own eyes as 'Hiyori Shiina' opened with a 4,000-point raise, effortlessly scaring everyone into folding.
Then, with a weak hand—a pair of tens—she took all of Ishizaki's chips. In an instant, the requirement to advance from this table was raised to 250,000 points.
As the game restarted, Ms. Hoshinomiya watched Ishizaki dust himself off and head toward the slot machines. She then turned her gaze to the girl beside her, who was busy organizing her chips, and asked with a smile, "Two bluffs in a row like that... Aren't you afraid someone will call you on it, Shiina-san?"
As she spoke, the others at the table all looked over.
Symon's hands paused for a moment. He glanced up at the others at the table, and after a brief thought, smiled and said, "You're mistaken. This isn't a bluff. It's simply the optimal decision based on the available information."
Symon finished stacking the last of his chips and explained casually, "When it's clear that everyone is employing a conservative pre-flop strategy, unwilling to invest chips in uncertain hands, the success rate of my raise already far outweighs the cost of failure."
"To put it simply, the profit from stealing the two blinds is enough to cover the loss from being called by a strong hand once. This is an advantage born from information asymmetry."
"However, luck is always in flux. No one can consistently be dealt strong hands. Or rather, folding has become the dominant theme at this table."
"Therefore, as long as everyone's strategy doesn't change, in the long run, my victory is inevitable."
"To break this death spiral, you can only take a marginal hand and use the same method I do to try and scare me off. But the problem is—"
Reaching this point, Symon looked at a pensive Ms. Hoshinomiya and asked with a smile, "When that time comes, do you think I won't be holding a real hand?"
When he finished, the expressions around the table varied. Shiranami recoiled on the spot, but Sō Shibata's eyes flashed with understanding.
Yamamura and Airi Sakura watched the 'girl' speak with such confidence, their eyes filled with an indescribable envy.
As for Yamauchi, he wore an expression that screamed 'I've learned something,' pinching his chin, lost in thought.
Ms. Hoshinomiya applauded softly and said with a laugh, "I see. Combining probability, risk management, and psychological warfare... It seems Class B has encountered a formidable opponent. Even I, as a teacher, am getting a little worried."
Although she said that, Hoshinomiya's face still wore that same beaming smile, showing no signs of nervousness at all.
Meanwhile, Hiyori Shiina poked her head out in their shared consciousness and whispered, "It feels like you always do things at the strangest times, Mr. Ghost…"
Her own goal was also to lower everyone's guard and raise the betting threshold. Her chosen method was to fold and observe, letting the situation develop on its own.
This ghost, however, chose to proactively shatter the stalemate, employing a brilliant feint. She had no idea where he had learned such tactics.
"After all, waiting is troublesome, and I've never been very patient."
With that response, Symon glanced at Ms. Hoshinomiya beside him. Without looking at the two new hole cards the dealer had dealt, and paying no mind to the so-called positional advantage, he once again picked up four chips and pushed them past the white line on the table. A challenge!
At the table, everyone looked at the smiling 'girl' with various expressions.
After a long while, someone—it was unclear who—swallowed hard, and finally, there was a response:
Yamamura looked at her hand and cautiously added three red chips to the table.
Chihiro Shiranami looked at her cards and, after a long hesitation, covered them again and likewise tossed two red chips into the pot.
At the same time, Shibata, recalling the girl's recent words, also pushed four chips onto the table.
The pot had now reached twelve thousand points.
Whether they liked it or not, thanks to Symon stirring the pot, the price of entry had now become 4,000 points. That was an indisputable fact.
At the same time, the dealer also revealed the three community cards for this round to everyone:
Symon glanced at the Heart 7 and Diamond 7 in his hand, then casually tossed a black chip onto the table.
He turned to the eagerly watching Ms. Hoshinomiya and asked with a grin, "Sensei, you didn't happen to see that, did you?"
"I saw it," Ms. Hoshinomiya winked cutely. "Rest assured, I won't tell anyone."
He clearly has nothing, yet he's sticking to his openly declared strategy of applying maximum pressure. She couldn't for the life of her figure out what the girl was thinking, and she was eager to see how the next round would unfold.
The sound of their conversation reached the ears of the three players still in the hand, its meaning a bit unclear.
However, Yamamura and Shiranami quickly made their decisions, both choosing to call.
They were both just one card away from completing their hands, and having come this far, they couldn't possibly give up halfway.
Only Shibata was still hesitating. After a long pause, he looked up under everyone's surprised gazes, and broke the silence, "Raise, 20,000!"
Hearing this, Symon glanced at Yamamura and Shiranami, who had now folded in response to the raise. He casually tossed his own cards toward the dealer and said with a smile, "You win."
The moment he spoke, as Chihiro Shiranami stared in shock, Shibata scratched his cheek a bit sheepishly, a brilliant smile instantly appearing on his face.
Ms. Hoshinomiya, standing nearby, was also quite surprised. She thought 'Hiyori Shiina' would continue applying pressure and was not expecting her to fold so suddenly, yet in doing so, she was perfectly executing her so-called 'strategy for certain victory.'
"Aren't you going to try, Mr. Ghost?" Hiyori Shiina asked with some surprise in her mind. "But your luck has been so good..."
Symon considered this for a moment, then replied calmly in their mind, "For variables beyond my control, until I'm truly backed into a corner, I can hope they add to my success, but I can never pin all my hopes on them. That's too great a risk."
He wouldn't do something as foolish as arbitrarily expecting a lucky break.
___
🔥 Fresh content has just dropped! 🔥
New Story: COTE: Natsuki Subaru Returns to School, but as the Purge King
✅ Read 40 chapters ahead on every series!
✅ Unlock supporter-only perks and news!
Let's reach these milestones together:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 free chapter for all readers
🚀 140 MEMBERS = +5 bonus chapters for all series!
👻 Walnutchan on P...