Between Glances

The house always cheats. Tonight, that's your job. You sat at the House's table once and lost what you didn't have. Now you deal for them to pay it back. The wage clears the debt and leaves you nothing, so the only money you keep is what you steal off the felt, one rigged hand at a time. Steal it in front of him You deal blackjack by hand. An honest deal pays you nothing, so to make a dime you riffle the deck, read the cards underneath, and deal one buried instead of the one on top. The catch is that he's sitting right there. His eyes come and go on their own rhythm, and the only cover you get is the second or two he looks elsewhere. Reach while he's watching and his suspicion climbs. Let it fill and he sees the whole thing. No buttons to hide behind. Your hands, his eyes, and how steady you can hold them. You can't get up There's no walking away from a night. One mark, one chair, until the clock runs out. When the heat gets high you cool it the only way there is: deal him a few straight. Honest hands settle his nerves, and a calm man bets bigger. So you warm him up clean, wait for him to look away, and take the fat hand when it comes. Then you do it again, hotter, with less room. Know who's across from you A drunk barely watches, but if he catches you the whole room hears it. A paranoid won't give you a single window until you've earned his trust. One man knows the sound of a riffle and turns the second he hears one. Another dozes until the deck wakes him. Four marks over four nights, each one a different way to get read, dealt in an order that only gets meaner. The back room Clear the night's number and the House counts out what it's owed. What's left is yours. The Fixer lays out his goods between nights, and you buy the rope to hang yourself with tomorrow, because tomorrow's man is harder than tonight's. One last hand Pay off the last night and you can take your pocket and disappear. Or sit back down at the table that ruined you, free this time, and put the whole score on a single hand. Double, or nothing. No filler, no padding. One con, dealt clean, that you come back to until you've mastered the read.