Playing cards were an ancient gambling tool. Their origins had long since become impossible to trace, but even today, they remained one of the most popular forms of gambling—sometimes without equal.
Compared to dice, they required more skill and offered more ways to play; compared to other card games, they were especially convenient. If there was no alternative, you did not even need a table—you could squat on the ground and play. They were also extremely easy to carry.
Johnny had played many kinds of poker games in his life, but he was not very good at shuffling or dealing. He was always clumsy at it, something his card-playing friends at the publishing house found deeply baffling and often teased him about.
One of them had once said, "Johnny, you've actually been on a battlefield. You're also good at fighting, you can draw, you can write... By all rights, you shouldn't be incapable of learning how to shuffle cards, should you?"
I just fucking can't learn it. So what? Johnny thought as he sat in a broad black armchair. I can't shuffle, but I get to watch the famous Saul Tarvitz shuffle. Can any of you do that?
He watched silver-white and gilded cards flicker and weave between Saul Tarvitz's fingers, leaving him dazzled. Tarvitz did not keep it up for long, however. He swiftly finished shuffling and began to deal. With impeccable precision, the cards flew out one by one, landing before himself and the other three people at the table: Ahzek Ahriman, Sigismund, and Jago Sevatarion. Johnny, watching from the sidelines, no longer knew whom he ought to be looking at, so he simply kept quiet and focused on the game.
Four minutes later, the winner of the first round emerged: Sigismund. He seemed to have won with