Play For It
I didn’t even really see it happen.
I heard a lot of shouting and the windows shatter, but I think my vision went. The force throwing my body was epic. There was no mistaking what had happened, the bus had lost control and flipped over on the highway.
I was unconscious in an instant, but I feel like my unconscious mind was expecting to wake up in an ambulance.
I was not in an ambulance.
I was sitting in a corridor of what looked like an old hotel. The floors were made of black and white tiles. The walls covered in off-white wallpaper with a floral pattern. There were antique wood grain cabinets about 20 metres apart down the corridor, each with a dimly lit lamp on it. It looked like the lamp lights stretched on forever. How long was this corridor?
It felt like I had been sitting there in silence for around an hour. I had wanted to get up and explore, to see if it was some kind of unusual hospital, but my legs wouldn’t move. Eventually I gave up and just stared at the wallpaper.
It had been a full hour of silence, but I was starting to hear something. Just faintly. It sounded like a soft scratching. I looked down the corridor, it was getting louder, getting closer.
I’m not sure what I was expecting to emerge from shadows, but it wasn’t this. Hopping towards me slowly, was a brown rabbit.
The rabbit stopped right in front of me and stood up on his hind legs. He glanced over his shoulder at the door in front of us, then back towards me and said, “I’m sorry to have kept you. It’s been a manic day”
“It’s quite alright” I replied, “I’ve had an unusual one myself actually”
I know I should probably have been shocked, but there was something about this situation that felt very normal. The same way I felt so accepting of not being able to get up and look around.
“Excuse me sir, are we in a hospital?”
The rabbit’s nose twitched, “Sadly not. The accident you were in broke several of your bones, and gave you a massive head trauma. You’ve lost a lot of blood. It’s pretty bad”
“But, but I feel fine. I haven’t got any cuts or bruises. Am I….dead?”
The rabbit stared off down the corridor. “Maybe” he said without looking back at me.
“What do you mean maybe? How can I maybe be dead?”
“When there is an event with multiple fatalities, the survivors aren’t determined immediately. You have to play for it.”
“What?!”
“If you want to come out of this bus crash a survivor, you’re going to have to win a game. On the other side of that door, is a table set for four to play poker. It’s Texas Holdem, have you played before?”
“Uh, yes, I have. I wouldn’t say I’m great at it, but I used to play with some mates at uni once a week”
“Well, you had better sharpen up quick, you’ve got a lot riding on this game. I’m your coach, every player will be assigned one”
My brain knew I should have been shocked. Maybe this hotel just desensitises you to the bizarre?
“Ok coach, what are your tips? It probably goes without say, but I’d like to win”
The rabbit was scratching behind his ear, he paused and stared at me for a moment.
“Tip 1. The hotel numbs emotions, it’s an advantage for you, but also for them. When you’re reading a player just remember, their face, voice and general mood will be influenced by the environment”
“Tip 2. Don’t delay the game. There needs to be a clear winner within 1 hour, otherwise everyone loses. No one survives the accident”
“Tip 3. You only have one chip, so every hand you want to play, it’s all-in. If you elect to play a hand and lose, you’re out of the game. This means no one has an incentive to fold and bluffing is a fool’s tactic. This means that your only choice is to play or pass, so obviously, no one chooses to play until all five community cards are revealed.”
I wasn’t the best poker player, so I actually felt like these probably worked to my advantage.
I opened the door and the rabbit and I entered the room.
The table was set for four players, but with five seats. “Who’s the extra chair for?”
“The dealer. Try not to stare”
“Why would I stare??”
From a door on the far side of the room came the dealer. He was a 7ft tall man with the head of a stag, massive antlers. How on earth do you not stare at something like that?!
Then the other players came in. There was a middle aged lady wearing a polka dot cardigan, a teenage boy with a shaved head and a tall man in a blue suit. Their faces were straight, but their eyes looked nervous.
The players all sat down. Next to each chair was a stool. The rabbit hopped up onto the stool next to me.
The lady had a large frog wearing a bow tie and top hat next to her. The boy was accompanied by a snake, and the man a little wood mouse.
Never in my wildest dreams could I ever have imagined such a sight. I was so amazed at the collection of characters at this game, I forgot just how much was at stake. Only one of us could survive the accident.
I hadn’t seen the boy before, but the lady was sat across the aisle from me. She screamed the loudest when the glass broke. I also recognised the man in the suit, he was in front of me, right behind the driver.
You could tell the lady was terrified, her eyes were shaking in their sockets. The gentleman frog kept whispering in her ear. Whatever he was saying, it wasn’t calming her down.
The stag sat quietly and dealt the first hand.
Two pocket cards to each player, and five face down on the table.
I had been dealt a pair of aces. I couldn’t believe my luck. The rabbit had seen them.
“Pass the hand” he whispered to me.
“What? I’ve got two aces, I could end up with three of a kind with aces. That’s a hard hand to beat” I stammered back softly under my breath.
“Pass the hand” the rabbit repeated “the woman’s going to do something illogical, she’s terrified, let it play out”
“Fine! I’ll pass. Do the players ever talk to each other?”
“Rarely in the first few hands. When the clock winds down and the pressure rises to end the game…that’s usually when the players start to exchange words”
The stag bellowed out “place your bets, who’s playing the round?”
I couldn’t believe what happened next, the lady pushed her chip into the middle of the table! Before the flop, the turn or the river! She has one chip to bet, her life is at stake, and she’s thrown it behind two pocket cards and five unknown cards…when she could have just waited and bet after the fifth card was turned.
The rabbit was right. She was scared. She wasn’t thinking about winning, she wanted her fear to end.
The boy and I passed the hand. The man in the blue suit put his chip in once all the cards were down.
She’d picked up a pair of 5s on the last community card. If she’d waited, she’d have known she was holding rubbish. He had three kings.
The rabbit was right. I had passed one hand, and now my odds of surviving had improved substantially.
The woman was a wreck. She started wailing loudly. The frog looked down, shook his head, then hopped down and out the door he’d come in through. “Noooo!” she screamed, “don’t leave me, please, please don’t…”
Before she could finish, she was gone. Her chair was empty.
The stag dealt six hands before there were two chips on the table again. The clock was counting down our hour, we had 32 minutes left.
I had drawn two pair, 9s and Jacks. I knew we needed to get moving, but this didn’t feel like the hand. The man in the blue suit had bet. He had bet more times than both the boy and I combined. I expected it to pass, but to my surprise, the boy threw his chip in. The snake smiled and hissed at the man in the blue suit.
“What’s going through your mind young man?” said the man in the suit.
The boy hesitated at first, but the cards were dealt, the man was already all-in, nothing could change the outcome now.
“With the cards that I’ve got, and the cards I can see on the table, I know that you’ve got a 3.6% probability of beating me. Which means I have a 96.4% probability of beating you. I take advanced math at school. I’ve only played poker once but I know how many of each card there are…so I can work out the statistics. It’s the only way I could think to play”
The man in the blue suit smiled. “You’re a bright lad that’s for sure. If you win this round you’ll have certainly earned it”
“Well” said the boy softly, “here it is”.
He turned over his pocket cards, and he could make a full house. Three queens, two sixes.
The wood mouse scurried up on to the shoulder of the man’s suit. It was whispering in his ear.
“Well indeed young man, but here’s the thing about probability. When it’s life and death, I need better odds than you it seems, playing with a 3.6% chance of losing feels a bit risky”
He laid down a straight flush. Diamonds, 4 to 8.
You could see the boy’s face change immediately. He wasn’t scared, sad or upset. He just looked, confused. His eyes just fixed on the man’s cards. He vanished trying to figure out the probability of what just occurred.
The snake hissed, “sixteen minutes gentlemen..” then slithered off.
Here we were, me and my rabbit, and the tall man and his mouse. Playing to survive.
“These hands have been taking about 4 minutes if no one plays” said the rabbit, “so you both really need to play to win in the next three or it’s over”
The tall man gave me a subdued smile. “Your rabbit is right my friend. We need to play. How about you and I both throw our chips in on the first draw of the next hand. With all the table cards face down. Leave it all to chance. If we wait and try to best each other at the end of each round it could be lights out for both of us”
I was a bit taken back, how could he so calmly suggest leaving his survival to complete chance?
I looked at the rabbit and asked “how often do players fail to find a winner?”
“All the time. It happens more often than not. Time takes all lives”
“Would you go all-in on the first draw if he did?”
“With only sixteen minutes left….yes, I probably would. If the clock winds down the hour, it’ll be over anyway”
“Alright” I said nervously to the tall man, “all-in on the first draw of the next hand”.
The stag dealt the hand. We threw our chips in.
I had the 5 of clubs, and the ace of diamonds. Not an overly encouraging start.
“How have you found the game?” said the tall man in the suit.
“Stressful!” I responded.
“I find these games exhilarating. Have you ever played something with such high stakes, it gives me such a rush”
The stag turned the flop. King of hearts, jack of hearts, ace of clubs. They didn’t do me any favours, but we had two cards to go.
“What do you mean, ‘you find these games’ exhilarating? How many life or death poker games have you played?” I scoffed and laughed a little. Was this guy for real?
“This isn’t my first game. I’ve survived six major accidents. A bomb on a bus in Lebanon, an avalanche in Switzerland, a bank robbery with lots of bullets in Mexico….I’ve survived them all”
The stag turned the fourth card. The 9 of spades. I could feel the blood drain from my face.
I turned to my rabbit, “What is going on?! Have you seen him here before??”
“Yes. He’s a regular”
“Why didn’t you tell me?!?”
“He’s 6 and 0. Hasn’t lost yet. I didn’t want to worry you, I figured your chances were better if you were calm and focused on the game”
“That’s crazy! How on earth can one person be in so many fatal accidents! It’s impossible!”
“Is it?” said the man in blue, now with a sinister grin running ear to ear.
I sat there in disbelief. My mind racing. I….I…I remember now. It was you. You grabbed the driver around the neck from behind. It was you! You caused the bus to flip! You, you monster, how could you! These aren’t horrible accidents, you caused them, you’re a murderer!”
The smug smile left the man’s face, he looked at me sternly and said, “once you’ve played and won. You’re living on borrowed time. Nothing excites you anymore, life is a very pale and dull experience. If you win this hand you’ll understand.”
“Oh come on! You’re a psychopath and you’re evil. Let’s face it. I’m not winning this hand”
The stag turned the final card. It was the 9 of hearts.
“No you’re not” said the man looking coldly into my eyes.
He laid down his pocket cards. The queen of hearts, and the 10 of hearts.
A royal flush.