Taka Nishi
April 3rd – Evening
Shinjuku, Toriyama Bar – Back Room

The expression "I couldn't lose if I tried" was not usually supposed to be a lamentation.

Yet, this night, it had been an extremely strange curse. When he had sat at the table, Taka had been entirely prepared for the mark to be a bad poker player. That was almost a given due to the rumors floating around. There was, after all, a reason Taka expected him to be so gratified and exuberant after a win, they didn't happen often.

What Taka had not however been prepared for, was for this guy to absolutely suck ass.

He had no poker face. Every time a card he wanted hit his eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas. During the many, many times he was bluffing, he sweated like a pig in a sauna. He bounced his leg when he was drawing for a straight, he tapped his chips when he was nervous, and he never changed up his game. Under any normal circumstance, Taka and the other players would have locked eyes once, and once only during the entire game, mutually agreed to stay out of each other's hair while they slowly milked his savings dry, and all walked away with a hundred thousand yen or so for an easy night's work.

Putting the game together the way Taka had was a masterwork that should have one some kind of award. Of particular note, during one hand, after having bet entirely to much for what was obviously a low pocket pair, the dumbass had gone all in against the chip leader who had hit trips from the flop trying to bluff him out. The only way Taka could salvage had been to, through some kind of miracle of perseverance, actually bluff said chip leader himself into folding. Taka had been playing conservatively, so the uncharacteristically large bet worked. Taka ended up winning the hand, but since he had less chips then hiragami, he stayed at the table. It took more then an hour to patiently give the jackass back his chips through an assortment of "unlucky hands." Eventually he wiped out the table then had another "bad run of luck" to feed his opponent the win.

Giving him my hard earned money was still less annoying then actually hearing him brag though. Offering a good cigar, Taka had offered a glass of whisky to celebrate, and the fatass had gone hook line and sinker. Taka was trying to contemplate his approach while inwardly marshaling his best pokerface. This was to avoid grimacing at a nail's on chalkboard level annoying recap of the game, replete with guesses, offered with complete assurance of what Taka and the other player's cards had been during different hands.

Said guesses were of course so inaccurate that one could find a better track record located on the score card of a broken clock.

Finally however, the drinks seemed to start hitting, and Taka believed if there was anything to get, now was the right moment.

"you know, you got me good tonight," Taka said ruefully, lighting a cigar. "Losing here wasn't fun of course, but now I cant afford the real game that I was looking forward to."

That got Hiragami's attention. Of course it did. waving a high stakes game under a gambling addict's nose was like handing a heroin addict a filled syringe.

Taka pulled a nondescript card out of an expensive alligator skin wallet. The card was simple, listing just an address, but it was printed on expensive paper.

"I spent months getting this, months I tell you. But the minimum buy in is 1 million yen. Dammit all, 4-6 fat cat businessmen with more money then sense for the taking, and now this thing is worthless to me. I guess ill sell it, see if I can get some of my money back..."

Taka sighed mournfully, inwardly gauging the mark's reaction.

Take the bait you ratfaced bastard...