It seemed Ruricho Nadeshiko had formed a grudge against Ririka in the first round. Afterwards, she seemed to be constantly at odds with Ririka, choosing to call whenever Ririka called.
And Ririka was just as unreserved, often responding by questioning Ruricho Nadeshiko's declared hand.
"Two Queens!"
"Question."
"Three 8s!"
"Question."
"Three 5s!"
"No question."
Ruricho Nadeshiko declared everything from small hands like pairs to strong hands like straight flushes. No matter what she declared, Ririka was always able to accurately guess whether she was lying.
Ruricho Nadeshiko glanced at her remaining chips.
She still had 300,000.
She then looked at the chips of Anna Kinomiya, who was sitting next to her.
Excluding her original chips, she had already won 1,500,000.
Ruricho Nadeshiko's hand wasn't terrible, and Anna Kinomiya's hand wasn't always excellent either.
But the reason for such a large gap between them was that Ririka seemed to have seen through Ruricho Nadeshiko's thoughts, succeeding in questioning nine out of ten times, thereby "invalidating" Ruricho Nadeshiko's hand.
"Why?"
Ruricho Nadeshiko felt very unbalanced and grumbled indignantly, "My acting isn't bad, so why can you guess what I'm thinking? Are you cheating?"
"Are these decks of cards we're using problematic? Can you see the pips from the back?"
She flipped the cards over and stared intently, trying to find a pattern, simply unwilling to admit that her gambling skills and acting were poor.
"The cards are definitely fine. If they were problematic, I wouldn't have lost over 200,000," Meari pouted.
Ruricho Nadeshiko really was persistent. It was her own initiative to seek trouble with Anna that led to this situation.
Meari originally thought Ruricho Nadeshiko would target her fiercely during gambling, but during the game, she seemed to have forgotten about Meari, instead frantically picking fights with "Anna Kinomiya."
The result was already clear.
Their bets each round weren't large, yet Ruricho Nadeshiko still managed to lose 700,000, which was enough to show how badly she had lost.
During the gambling, apart from Ruricho Nadeshiko, Anna did not intend to target anyone else, but even so, Meari and Kurume each lost hundreds of thousands.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka basically called every round, and he lost the most. However, he didn't seem to care.
Anna Kinomiya's gambling skills were very strong; Meari felt this once again.
Ruricho Nadeshiko still wanted to find an excuse.
She lifted her head and cried out unwillingly, "Anna, are you targeting me!? Why do you question me every time! Are you all colluding to trick me?"
Ririka smiled and shook her head, "I'm not targeting Ruribird. It's just that your expressions are too easy to read. I feel like it would be a disservice to your acting if I didn't question you."
"Why, I didn't make any expressions when I was declaring?"
Ruricho Nadeshiko had learned her lesson after losing in the first round. Every time she declared, she put on a poker face, stating her hand expressionlessly.
Ruricho Nadeshiko thought it should be impossible for her to read anything from her face, right?
"It has nothing to do with your expression. The moment you see the cards, your subconscious has already revealed your feelings."
Ririka explained in a calm tone, as if she was talking about something very simple.
"Sometimes, even if you pretend to be calm, your hand subconsciously trembles. As long as you can't deceive your subconscious feelings, you can't deceive me."
Ririka didn't "cheat"; she was just constantly observing Ruribird's "micro-expressions."
"Micro-expressions" are the revelation and concealment of people's inner thoughts. People often convey their inner feelings through certain facial expressions and actions, unconsciously "leaking" other information. This characteristic of people can easily expose their emotions.
Although this subconscious expression lasts for a very short time, usually 1/4 of a second, and the shortest duration can be as little as 1/25 of a second, Ririka had been practicing micro-expression recognition since she was a child.
From a young age, she was taught the key points of recognizing micro-expressions by professional psychology professors through videos, and she had to memorize these key points after class.
To train the learned techniques for micro-expression recognition, she also needed to group with her companions to further consolidate the learned techniques, and then she had to deal with in-class exercises and occasional spot checks...
Ririka wasn't actually good at this skill, but after a long period of training, she was more or less able to analyze others' emotions and thoughts through micro-expressions.
She didn't actually pay extra attention to Ruricho Nadeshiko; it was just that her expressions were too easy to read.
Ririka thought about these things and secretly glanced at Ayanokoji.
Even though these were all things they had learned together, Kiyotaka had forgotten all of it... Ririka secretly sighed.
"Do you want to continue?" Meari kindly advised, "You've lost enough. You should save some money for yourself."
This person went from over ten million to 300,000... if she kept losing, she wouldn't even have money for dinner.
Ruricho Nadeshiko looked at Ririka; it was she who had won all her money...
She was very resentful and wanted to win her money back, but she also admitted that Ririka was very strong, and she was completely played like a fiddle.
However, she was also very unwilling to end it like this.
After a moment of hesitation, she said fiercely, "Continue, I must win back the money I lost!"
Anyway, 300,000 couldn't do anything, so she might as well go all in. What if she won back all the money she lost?
This person wouldn't give up until she hit rock bottom; everyone was a bit disgusted.
However, since Ruricho Nadeshiko didn't want to stop, they would let her have her way.
The gambling continued.
From this round on, Ruricho Nadeshiko became much more cautious and stopped arguing with Ririka.
If her cards weren't good, she would decisively fold and not call.
But even so, her betting money kept decreasing, and in a blink of an eye, she only had 230,000 left.
She wouldn't lose all her money like this, would she?
Just as Ruricho Nadeshiko's heart grew heavier, suddenly, her eyes lit up.
"I bet 100,000 yen!" she shouted, pushing half of her remaining chips to the gambling table.
The people who were dealing cards paused instantly at her words.
Ruricho Nadeshiko didn't have many chips left. She was betting half of her fortune this time. Was she confident in her hand, or was she going all in?
"I'll call."
"I'll call too..."
Finally, Ruricho Nadeshiko made a move, and others followed suit, even if their cards weren't good this round, they wanted to join the fun.
In this round, everyone called.
Including the ante, there was a total of 550,000 in this round.
As long as she won this hand, she would be able to turn the tables in one round! Ruricho Nadeshiko rejoiced inwardly, but she still had to maintain a straight face to prevent others from seeing her emotions.
As the first to raise, Ruricho Nadeshiko was also the first to declare her hand.
"This time my hand is a Flush!"
Ruricho Nadeshiko slammed her hand face down onto the table and looked at Ririka provocatively, "Anna, what are you going to do this time? Are you still going to question me?"
This time, Ruricho Nadeshiko was very confident.
She wasn't lying; her hand this round really was a Flush, which was a rare strong hand!
She really wanted to go all in, but she thought that if she did, it would make others suspect she had a strong hand and fold, so she suppressed that urge.
Question me quickly, just like before...!
She looked at Ririka with great anticipation, however—
"I won't question." Ririka shook her head.
Huh, not questioning?
Ruricho Nadeshiko was a little disappointed, but her spirits remained high.
Whether she questioned or not, she would still win this round!
"It's my turn to declare." Ririka didn't question, but a mischievous smile suddenly appeared on her face. "My hand is a Straight Flush."
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