The Heckler

Chuck, the burliest of the four men, looked at his cards sourly and then glanced across the table to where the deaf man sat. The deaf man was wearing gray flannel slacks and a navy-blue blazer over a white dress shirt open at the throat. He looked as if he had just got off a yacht someplace. He looked as if he were waiting for a butler to serve him a goddam Martini. He also looked like a man who was sitting with four cards to a high straight.

The game was five-card stud. Two of the players had dropped out on the third card, leaving only the deaf man and Chuck in the game. Looking across at the deaf man’s hand, Chuck saw the three exposed cards: a jack of spades, a queen of clubs and a king of diamonds. He was reasonably certain that the hole card was either a ten or an ace, more probably a ten.

Chuck’s reasoning, to himself, seemed sound. He was sitting with a pair of aces and a six of clubs exposed. His hole card was a third ace. His three-of-a-kind had the deaf man’s possible straight beat. If the deaf man’s hole card was a ten, he was sitting with a four-card straight, both ends of which were open. The chances of filling it seemed pretty slim. If his hole card was the ace, his straight was open on only one end, and the chances of filling it were narrower. Besides, there was always the possibility that Chuck would catch either a full house or four-of-a-kind on that last card. His bet seemed like a safe one.

“Aces bet a hundred,” he said.

“Raise a hundred,” the deaf man answered, and Chuck had his first tremor of anxiety.

“On what?” he asked. “All I see is three cards to a straight.”

“If you looked more closely, you’d see a winning hand.”

Chuck nodded briefly, not in agreement with the deaf man, but with an inner conviction of his own. “Raiseyou a hundred,” he said.

“That’s fair,” the deaf man said. “And once again.”

Chuck studied the deaf man’s hand once more. Three cards to a straight showing. The fourth card to the straight obviously in the hole. Whether it was open on one end or both, it still needed a fifth card.

“Anda hundred,” Chuck said.

“Be careful now,” the deaf man advised. “I’ll just call.”

He put his chips into the pot. Chuck dealt the next card. It was the ten of hearts.

“There’s your goddam straight,” he said.

He dealt his own card. The four of diamonds.

“Aces still bet,” the deaf man said.

“I check,” Chuck said.

“I’ll bet a hundred,” the deaf man said, and Chuck’s face fell.

“Yeah,” he answered. “I’ll see you.”

The deaf man turned over his hole card. Sure enough, it was the ace.

“Straight to the ace,” he said. “I think that beats your three aces.”

“How’d you know I had three aces?” Chuck asked, watching the deaf man pull in his winnings.

“Only from the force of your betting. I don’t think you’d have bet so heavily with two pair. So I assumed you already had your third ace.”

“And you raised three aces? On the strength of apossible straight?”

“On the strength of percentages, Chuck,” the deaf man said, stacking his chips into a neat pile. “On the strength of percentages.”

“Some percentages,” Chuck said. “Luck, that’s all. Dumb luck.”

“No, not quite. I was sitting with four cards to a one-ended straight: the jack, queen, king and ace. In order to make my straight, I needed a ten—any ten. And this was the only possible way of improving my hand to beat your three aces. I had to catch that ten. Ifnot, if for example I simply paired one of my cards, I couldn’t possibly beat you. Am I right? So what were my chances of completing the straight? My chances against making it were nine to one, Chuck.”

“Well, those seem like pretty damn steep odds to me.”

“Do they? Consider the fact that no tens had appeared at any time during the game. Of course, either you—or our friends before they dropped out—could have been holding tens in the hole. But I knew you had an ace in the hole, and I took a chance on our friends.”

“The odds were still too steep. You should have dropped out.”

“But then I’d have lost, wouldn’t I? And your own odds against improving your hand were even steeper.”

“How could they be? I had you beat to begin with! I had three aces!”

“Yes, but how could you improve them? In one of two ways. Either by catching a fourth ace or by catching another six to give you a full house. I knew youcouldn’t catch the fourth ace because I was sitting with it in the hole. In any case, the odds on catching it, even if Ihadn’t been holding it, would have been thirty-nine to one. Considerably higher than nine to one, don’t you think?”

“What about the possibility of a full house? I could have caught that other six.”