#817 The Dowager of Bees- China Mieville
A story about cards. A card player, a sly slight-of-hand man at that, is discovered by a card playing legend and is invited to play in a high stakes game. He knows he is the target of cardsharks, but he his actually a good player and holds his own. This is the night he will be “inducted.”
Among serious players it is known that very rarely, or more rarely than a straight flush gets bested by a royal flush, a player loses to a hand with a “hidden suit.” When this happens you are “inducted” into the pantheon of players and part of the club. You must forfeit a special prize that any book of rules will show (only at the time of the hidden suit) and that prize will vary from suit to suit.
The player we follow travels around the world with his card playing girlfriend and occasionally witnesses other people’s “induction.” He fatefully pockets his favorite “hidden suit” and saves it to cheat sometime down the road. When he does, he may be in for a surprise.
Notable Passage: “There is no percentage thinking about the might’ves.”
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