Raising the Stakes
The chances of every caller folding or making a completely incorrect call in any given round were very small, so it was nearly impossible for the caller to take all the chips. Basically, whoever called in a round was bound to lose their base stake.
Of course, the base stake was nothing much—unless someone raised its value.
Calling put you at a disadvantage, but callers could win a lot as bettors. Take the first round, for instance: even if the winnings were split five ways, Xu Huo could still get three or four items, all of them B-class items.
Everyone had a chance to call in the first round, and anyone who'd called before and lost their base stake had to replace it. So by the time it was Xu Huo's turn to call, the pot already held eight Mermaid players.
That's right. Everyone else at the table had brought more than one Mermaid player.
Since the caller could only put up their base stake, Xu Huo said before calling the round to a halt, "I'd like to change my base stake."
The fair croupier floated over from the round table to his screen and said with lowered eyes, "Base stakes cannot be changed in the first round. If you brought only one base stake, you may replace it with another item starting in the second round."
"Of course, honored guest, you may also leave the game. But this Mermaid must stay. No one can leave the gambling table without leaving something behind or taking something away."
"Someone has to lose for someone else to win."
The puppet circled Hua Sisi, then produced a scanner and quickly scanned her. "Based on this Mermaid's data, I rate her as C-class: C-class appearance, C-class physical fitness, multiple old injuries