He looked down at his cards, an eight, nine, ten, and queen of hearts in his hands. He knew the odds of pulling down the jack of hearts. They were vastly against him.

His mind wandered away thinking of how he had come to this point in his life. The things he had done both good and bad, and he looked at his cards. He reached over and took hold of his drink, knowing that drinking doesn¡¯t help gambling he still needed the occasional shot just to keep his comfort.

The sounds around him slowly permeated his thoughts and brought him back to reality. Here he was, four cards running to a straight in his hand. The sounds lingering in the reality of this place Asia, northeast Asia, to be exact and to be more precise, the Paradise Casino in Pusan. Across from his chair was a croupier, or to others, a dealer. Next to him, on his right, was an enchanting young lady, perhaps too young to be in this place, but then this was a place of disjointed contrasts. Things here, were not the typical thing, at least that was what he was becoming to learn.

In a world that had certain first world characters, he had to live with third class levels of beliefs. But, he mused to himself; this is what life is like, incongruous. He looked around again, wondering what were the stories behind the others at his table. The English speaker two seats down to his left, was a pretty obvious Joe, as was the Russian beside him; however, he could not place the single young lady on his right, and to him this was perplexing. And he did not like being perplexed, since it was always a distraction to his thinking.

He went back to looking at his cards, this time trying to read their faces, trying to understand what they hand for cards, so he could determine the raise or the fold. A pretty good gambler himself, he was also a pretty good face reader, and while the teacher and the Russian sailor were easy reads, he always found himself coming back to the woman beside him.

He looked again at the young woman, her face an ambiguity and tried to read her implacable face for some sign as to what she had in her hand. He could not see anything, finally he said to himself "screw it" he placed his cards on the table and called for the next card. The dealer drew the card from the deck and handed it over.

He picked up the card, and glanced at it inconspicuously, taking note, it was the jack of hearts. He put it in with his cards, and looked around at the other players. He watched them picked their cards up and tried to read their reactions Nothing, from the woman or the Russian. The teacher on the other hand was totally predictable his face gave away the benefit of having received a good card from the dealer.

He thought for a bit, this could be it I could make money on this hand if I play it right. I just can¡¯t figure out about her, what is her stake in this game. The dealer, called out for the draw. The Russian played it cool, dropping two and asking for two, the dealer gave them up. The teacher followed next dropping one and getting his card. The woman dropped a card and picked up another, nothing there.

The Russian placed a small bet, and the teacher folded his cards. The woman played through. He thought, this could be interesting and slowly, raised, placing 200,000 won on the table. She looked at him and the Russian and matched and raised, both he and the Russian looked at her again trying to divulge even the simplest information from the implacable face of the young woman. She just smiled and said the raise is yours to the Russian. The Russian laughed and said in broken English, yes it is with a smile on his face, showing he had been here before.

The gambler looked at him with a grin and watched as he raised the pot 400000 won. He looked at his cards and thought about it and followed his instinct. The instinct that said, here he was looking at a perfect straight flush, what are the odds that they have one of the two hands that can beat him were very small, very small indeed.

The gambler matched and raised by another 500000 won. There was now about 2000000 won on the table in the pot and things were getting warm. He took another drink as the woman put in her 900000 won into the pot, high stakes poker, and very high stakes.

People had started to gather about watching the players as the stakes began to increase dramatically. The story of the gamblers had run throughout the room and people, being curious were becoming wrapped up in the moment. There was a noticeable tension in the air now. A tension that was now becoming tighter and thicker in the room air, he was beginning to hear the increase in the chatter, but it was not a real problem everyone was still being respectful. He looked again at his cards and glanced at the other two, the Russian and the young woman.

He thought once again about the odds as he looked at the young woman. The gambler took his chance and decided to stay in the game. The Russian looked cool in the heat, and raised the ante another 250000 won. It is now or never thought the gambler, and he bit the raise. He put is his 250000 won and jumped it another 500000 won thinking this will tell me something about what she has in her hand.

The young woman looked at the two of the men and matched the raise by the Russian and also the 500000 from the gambler. The Russian matched the gamblers raise. The pot was now over 3000000 won, definitely high stakes poker, just what you want to have some fun of the legal kind. The gambler looked at the other two players and raised another 250000 won. The Russian spoke up, saying it was beyond his price range. Now the game was down to just the woman and the gambler. The gambler looked at the woman, she matched his raise and finally called.

There was nothing left. No more wondering, no more magic, no more dreams. He reached down picked up his cards and with a flourish dropped them onto the table. Quietly he spoke a straight flush 8 through queen, she looked at him and said good hand, but it does not beat the royal flush I have as she lowered her cards to the table revealing a royal flush. The gambler looked at her and said well the pot is yours and it was a good game and he watched her gather the pot into her hands. His one last thought, was I wish I knew more about her as she walked away with the pot and his well-earned money.

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