...Oh yeah, the nice woman that stopped by a few days ago to drop off a batch of cookies for Ranma, who shared the treats with the staff. He didn’t picture her as the type to play poker.
♠♥♣♦
One would expect that the middle Tendo sister would be the poker player in the family. One would be right, for the most part.
She joined in games here and there using the money she acquired. She liked poker, it was a game of wits and odds, and joined nearly any game that played 5 Card or Texas Hold’em Poker. Sometimes she lost and sometimes she won, but more often than not she broke even, give or take. It didn’t matter; she’d always be able to refresh her purse.
Eventually, however, Kasumi became concerned about the company her younger sister kept, especially after Ranma became a dealer at the Imperial Hotel Casino. Nabiki shrugged it off and said she would have to play the game to understand. So Nabiki talked Kasumi into playing a few rounds with her, her blackmailed gains verses the leftover money from the budget. The middle Tendo figured her sister an easy mark.
She was so very wrong.
Kasumi cleaned her out nearly every time. And when she didn’t Nabiki struggled to simply break even. It took Nabiki weeks to figure out her sister’s expert bluffing technique that could fool even her, and eventually she figured it out.
Her sister simply didn’t bluff. Or rather was too honest a person to lie in any fashion, including a bluff.
That was the simplest bluff of all.
After awhile Nabiki simply quit the games found here and there and concentrated on beating the chips out of her older sister. She made some headway after figuring out how Kasumi ‘bluffed’, but Nabiki couldn’t count on one other simple thing: her sister knew her too well. Every bluff, every faint Kasumi saw. She could nearly tell the strength of her hand by how the middle Tendo reacted.
In Kasumi’s eyes the greatest victory wasn’t even the game. Her sister was no longer hanging about questionable company, Nabiki gave (Kasumi thought lost wasn’t the right word) extra money to the household and she understood Nabiki’s love of Poker.
Then Nabiki found a poster for the Imperial’s Strip Poker Tournament.
♠♥♣♦
“Oh my, what’s that?” Kasumi asked as she looked over the middle Tendo’s shoulder. On the poster her sister was looking at was a siloutte of a woman pulling her panties off.
“Oh just a little tournament being set up at Imperial. A Strip Poker Tournament... with a Twenty MILLION Yen cash prize!” Kasumi closed her eyes and sighed, sure she missed the Yen Signs spinning in her sister’s eyes like cherries in a slot machine.
She only missed a gleam.
“Can you imagine winning that amout of cash? And best of all NO ONE playing will probably be a real poker player? Think I have a chance?”
“Nabiki!”
“Come on Kasumi!” Nabiki said, waving her hand. “Ranma-Kun’s going to be there, he’s the dealer you know. Even if, by chance, I lost I’m sure he wouldn’t let anything get out of hand.”
“I... But... You can’t do this!”
“Really? Why not?” Nabiki tilted her head to one side; eyes locked on the cash prizes.
“If I can’t talk you out of it, then... I shall win you out of it!” Turning her head Nabiki noticed Kasumi’s cheery smile turn into a look of determination. ‘Excellent...’ she thought mentally.
Somewhere a rich old, wrinkley man sneezed.
“Well... I suppose you can try, but on one condition. If I win I go to the tournament. If you win, you sign up for it. Best... four of seven hands?”
Kasumi didn’t pause for a moment before nodding. “Deal.”
Four quick hands later Kasumi was declared the winner. Nabiki never stood a chance.
Then again, sometimes losing was winning.
“Well, I lost then. I suppose you’ll have fun for me and the tournament, right Kasumi.”
“Yes Nabiki, of... course...” Kasumi’s face drained of colour for a moment before her entire body blushed a bright red, so caught up in preventing her sister from entering she forgot the stakes.
It felt almost wrong to trick her sister, but Nabiki figured Kasumi would clean out the place easy. And it wasn’t like anyone there could actally PLAY poker, right?
... Oh well, if by the off chance she didn’t win Ranma would be there to ensure nothing bad happened, he always did after all.
♠♥♣♦
1. Tèa Gardner
2. Michiru Kaioh
3. Haruka Ten’ou
4. Kasumi Tendo
5.
6.
7.
8.
And then there were four.
And after that there were five, this one adding...
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(Posted Thu, 04 Aug 2005 18:32)
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