CHAPTER 249: CHAPTER 141: AWE-INSPIRING WITHOUT ANGER_2

Following the order, it was Ma Ke’s turn, and the next round would be Chen Botao’s.

In this round, Han Lie had bad luck and lost six times the base bet—exactly 60,000.

The next round, while Chen Botao was shuffling the cards, Han Lie directly threw out a 100,000 chip.

Good heavens! Not only did Chen Botao’s face turn pale, but the others also fell deathly silent.

According to the rules of thirteen-card poker, losing all three hands meant 600,000. If Chen Botao had a Special hand, the stakes would increase further.

When luck was truly against you, it was easy to lose over ten times the base bet in a single hand.

Fang Tongzhi quickly shot Wang Xiaotian a look. Wang Xiaotian, having no choice but to bite the bullet, urged, "Young Master Han, don’t get worked up. Why make such a big deal out of a casual game?"

I was just worrying about not having money to buy a gift for Pan Ge, Han Lie thought. And here someone is practically begging to hand me money. It would be a crime not to take it...

He chuckled inwardly, but his expression remained extremely cold.

"I’m in a hurry to get to sleep," he said. "One hour is the limit. I’ll accept any win or loss. No problem, right?"

Naturally, no one dared to question him further.

When playing poker, sometimes the dealer dealt the cards, and sometimes each player drew their own.

It was easiest to cheat when the dealer dealt, but drawing your own cards wasn’t absolutely safe either.

There was a basic sleight of hand that involved hiding a card in one’s hand. Then, while drawing cards, the hidden card would be dropped on top of the deck and drawn back into the hand in front of everyone.

The fastest and most skilled players with large hands could perform this so subtly that even high-speed cameras could barely catch it.

That’s why modern casinos have dealers deal the cards, and players are never allowed to touch the deck.

They didn’t have such conditions here, so they were at the mercy of ’Gambling King’ Han Lie, allowing him to do as he pleased.

In the previous hand, Han Lie’s luck hadn’t been good; the best he could make was a four-card flush.

However, those four cards were all he needed.

He held four spades—the Ace, King, 10, and 5. Any random spade drawn would complete a five-card flush.

As it turned out, his luck this round was exceptionally good, and all of the remaining nine cards he drew were useful.

His final hand was: three-of-a-kind Fives in the front hand, an Ace-King flush in the middle hand, and a full house of Eights over Twos in the back hand.

When it was time to reveal hands, Chen Botao was stunned.

His hand wasn’t bad at all: a pair of Aces in the front hand, a small straight in the middle hand, and a flush in the back hand.

However, he was completely crushed by Han Lie, doubling his loss.

Three points for the front hand, one for the middle, and one for the back—losing five points, then doubled, made for a total of ten points.

In a single hand, Han Lie won 1,000,000. He not only recouped the more than 200,000 he had intentionally lost earlier but also came out ahead by 750,000.

"Holy shit! Young Master Han, your luck is incredible!" Wang Xiaotian was the first to suck up, and the others chimed in, their faces beaming.

This round, four people had followed Han Lie’s bet. Although their individual stakes weren’t large, totaling only 15,000, multiplying it tenfold meant they had made a killing.

Ma Ke and Liu Yingjun had both lost to the dealer, but since they had bet small, their six-fold losses combined amounted to less than 80,000.

This deficit was truly impossible for Chen Botao to cover.

Chen Botao was dumbstruck for a long moment before angrily slamming his cards down.

"Fuck! What kind of shitty luck is this!"

Once angered, he again lost control of his emotions and his mouth.

There were too many such empty-headed, rich second-generation brats. Han Lie didn’t even consider him an enemy, just a walking wallet.

Chen Botao first settled the bets for the other two players, then started counting out chips for Han Lie. Awkwardly, they were short on chips.

This was normal. They hadn’t played for such high stakes before; the total chips on the entire table amounted to less than 1,000,000, not even enough to cover Han Lie’s own winnings.

Chen Botao pulled out his phone, logged into his online banking, and, gritting his teeth, transferred a cool 1,000,000 to Wang Xiaotian.

It had to be said, his arrogance wasn’t entirely unfounded; he clearly had some family wealth.

Pan Ge’s total allowance was only four or five million. One could only imagine how much Chen Botao’s family spoiled him.

But that wasn’t Han Lie’s concern; he only specialized in disciplining spoiled brats.

When Liu Yingjun was the next dealer, Han Lie actually lowered his bet, casually putting down just 1,000.

This was purely for entertainment.

Old Hu and the others who were following the bets saw this and immediately understood. This was to get under Chen Botao’s skin!

So, they casually threw in 500 each to join the fun.

As it happened, Han Lie lost spectacularly. Liu Yingjun’s hand was explosive—a rare Special hand type, ’One Red in the Landscape,’ which didn’t require comparison and directly paid out 16 times the bet from each player.

Liu Yingjun collected his winnings, casting a reproachful look at Han Lie.

"Young Master Han," he said, "are you messing with him or with me?"

Everyone burst into laughter.

The frustration of the others losing sixteen times their bet couldn’t compare to Liu Yingjun’s own rotten luck; a hand so rare it might appear only once a night had won him mere chicken feed...

Chen Botao was about to explode with rage.

He had to fork out another 160,000.

What infuriated him even more was that, despite the dealer achieving a clean sweep, Han Lie hadn’t really lost much at all!

"What in the goddamn hell kind of luck is this!"

Swearing at the poker table was common, and Han Lie couldn’t be bothered to bicker with him.

In the end, all that mattered was who lost the most money.

The next round, Han Lie was the dealer. Chen Botao hesitated repeatedly before finally getting timid.

He casually tossed in 1,000, mimicking Han Lie by crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.

Wang Hong decisively chimed in with a taunt on Han Lie’s behalf, "Hey, what’s wrong? Not even trying to get your revenge?"

Chen Botao stubbornly retorted, "Han Lie’s on a hot streak right now, isn’t he? So what if I want to lay low for a couple of hands? Poker is a game of brains, you know!"

However, Han Lie hadn’t cheated in these last two rounds.

He couldn’t control how much others bet anyway, so there was no point.

The result was particularly comical: Han Lie received a complete junk hand. Out of thirteen cards, he had no straight, no flush; the best he could muster was a pair of nines.

Good heavens, it was as if an entire year’s worth of bad luck had been concentrated into this single hand!

So, when Han Lie smilingly spread his cards, Chen Botao leaped to his feet, his eyes bulging and his lips trembling.