Zhou Lin

The first game of mahjong (generally refers to Japanese mahjong in this article, because mahjong is pronounced as "sparrow" in Japanese, so mahjong players are also called "queshi") is called the "Eastern Game". After the game is over, as long as the dealer plays , that is, entering the "East 2nd Game", and so on, until the "East 4th Game", these four games are called the "East Game"; after the East Game ends, the "South Game" begins, starting with the "South 1st Game" , until the "Southern Fourth Bureau".

These eight rounds in the southeast game are called "half banker war", also called "southeast war"; the so-called "playing a half banker" means playing through the eight games in the southeast, and it is also a very common way of playing.

The point stick, which is a prop used to record "holding points" in mahjong, can also be regarded as a unique "chip" of mahjong.

The usual approach is to allocate 25,000 point sticks to each player at the beginning - 1 stick for 10,000 points, 1 stick for 5,000 points, 9 sticks for 1,000 points, and 10 sticks for 100 points.

Of course, sometimes there are other ways to divide the points based on the total points; for example, the card game in front of you uses the 20,000-point rule, so each person has 2 cards for 5,000 points, 9 cards for 1,000 points, and 10 cards for 100 points. .

According to Sakaki's request, each point of the stick will be converted into 1,000 RMB. In other words, at the beginning of this mahjong game, the four people have each bet a full 20 million.

Although these four are all well-known professional gamblers and more or less have some savings to save their lives, 20 million... is by no means something that can be easily obtained.

For ordinary federal citizens, this is a huge amount of money that is enough to live a stable life; even for gamblers, this is already an amount that can be used as a "retirement pension."

There is no doubt that none of the four people here, including Sakaki Wuhuan himself, can afford so much money.

But that’s okay, because they don’t necessarily have to pay that much.

Before the end of this half-bank, the bets are just bets. Only those who have less than 20,000 bets at the time of settlement need to pay the difference.

For example, at the end of the fourth game in the south, one person's point stick became 36,000, while the other three points were 20,000, 15,000 and 9,000 points respectively. Then, the person holding 36,000 points not only did not contribute any money, but also made a net profit. Those with 20,000 points lost no more than 16 million; those with only 15,000 points and 9,000 points lost 5 million and 11 million respectively.

From this point of view, even if you can't win, as long as you minimize the loss as much as possible, you won't lose 20 million.

But...such thoughts are dangerous for gamblers.

In the world of gambling, people who think "I want to survive" and people who think "I want to win" naturally make different choices.

High stakes are like a magic mirror, in front of which most people will show their true intention of "I want to survive"; only real gamblers, scoundrels, villains...those who understand the true meaning of gambling can Stay calm and guard your inner defenses.

…………

Banzhuang, worth 20 million, is destined to be anything but ordinary.

Since the mahjong table is not an automatic one, the shuffling, cutting and numbering of the cards are all done by humans. For the four "experts", the game has already started during the shuffling stage.

East 1st round, 3rd patrol.

Dahechi has already heard the cards.

The reputation of "The Master of Listening Cards" is by no means wasted. After only three rounds, he already had the card type "Three North Winds, One, Two, Thirty, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Seven, and Seven Pies" in his hand, that is, "Two and Five". Eight or thirty-six loaves of bread”, a very ideal situation.

At this moment, Sakaki casually punched out a piece of cake.

When Ohuchi saw this, he just grinned, ready to call Hu and mock Sakaki, but he didn't expect...

"Hu (for the convenience of understanding, the following will be expressed as 'Hu Pai' instead of 'He Pai')." Takagi from the previous family was the first to cut off the Hu, "Cut off the unitary nine, one thousand points."

"Tch..." When he saw the opponent opening the cards, Dahei spat unhappily, "To think that he was playing such a small card..."

"Hehehe..." Takagi replied nonchalantly, "Even if it's a small card, it's worth a million rounds...and...looking at your multi-faceted attitude, I have to guard against you. Touch yourself."

That's true, but Takagi didn't make the real point clear.

Experts like them know that in gambling, there is such a thing as "luck"... it does exist.

Unlike games such as dice, Hanafuda, and Pai Gow, where the winner can be determined instantly, Mahjong is a protracted game. During the process, the "luck" will shift many times; and how to destroy or take away other people's "luck" is A very important skill.

For ordinary people, it may be difficult to do this. Even if they are aware of whose "luck" is at the moment, they don't have many means to interfere. But for "experts", there are many ways.

This little trick played by Takagi Hu in front of him is to destroy Okouchi's "luck", and the results are immediate...

…………

East Second Bureau, also on the third circuit.

The cards in Takagi's hand are already three colors in a row, four cakes in a single draw, and...

"Richichi." Takagi decisively took out a thousand-point stick to report.

It stands to reason that in a game of this level, the chance of hanging alone and expecting your opponent to fire a shot is very slim.

And Riichi (refers to announcing the draw when "clear in front of the door", that is, without eating, touching, or revealing the Kong, and all the cards in the hand are touched by oneself). At this time, a Riichi point stick is placed as a declaration card. In the following game, whatever card the Riichi player draws must be played directly until someone loses the card; if the Riichi player ends up losing the card himself, the bonus can be doubled. If it is after the Riichi player, someone immediately clicks a cannon or If you touch it yourself, it is a "Li Zhi Yifa" (you can add more)) The risk is very high. If one of the three people here happens to be making a big deal, the Li Zhi player is likely to destroy himself.

However... Takagi doesn't care about this.

The man known as the "Paishan Ghost" has his own special skill that he relies on to survive, and that is - grafting flowers and grafting trees on trees.

The effect of this trick is: when he touches the card, he can exchange the card he picked up with any of the seventeen cards on the top of the card mountain in front of him.

As for the changing method, it is very simple... when you touch the tiles, hold the mahjong vertically with four fingers. When you bring the tiles towards you and pass the mountain of tiles, keep the touched tile one millimeter above the mountain of tiles. Then, quickly and silently use the card you touched to "top" the card out of the mountain of cards, and then use the same card Hold the pushed card vertically, keep the card you picked up on the card mountain, and finally collect the card you swapped out as if nothing had happened.

If you look at it in slow motion, this is not a particularly complicated or difficult move, but you need to practice the speed of this move to the point where "even if you use it in public, no one can see it" and "even if someone does see it, It’s too late to catch the current state...that is something that even thousands or tens of thousands of times of practice may not be able to achieve.

In addition, there is another prerequisite for performing "Transfer", that is, you must clearly know what the top card on the card mountain in front of you is in the card processing stage. If you don't even know where the card you want to change is, just practice the skill. It's all in vain.

There is no doubt that Takagi knows.

Although he could not remember all 136 cards on the table, he could remember at least 90% of the cards on the top of the four-way card mountain correctly, especially the mountain of cards in front of him. He could remember all of them.

In the imagination of ordinary people, "thousand skills" are very mysterious and complicated things, but in fact... in the eyes of real "experts", high-level skills are often "simple violence" and "blatant".

Ordinary people think that "miracles" must be achieved through some kind of trick. In fact, most of them are the inevitable "results" of hard practice. This is the truth of most thousand arts; the legendary magic combination Payne and Teller He once said - "In table magic, the ultimate trick is the magician's dexterous hands." This sentence is the same for Thousand Magicians.

A magician can only perform an action with the help of props, a thousand magicians can do it with his bare hands. A magician can perform a performance only after practicing a thousand times, and a thousand magicians must practice it at least ten thousand times before they can actually perform it... The difference in cost and risk determines The latter leaves no room for error.

Takagi's ability to stand out in the world of gambling cannot rely solely on luck; "luck" can only help you win those "gambles under the sun". If you want to survive in the dark world, you must rely on "strength."

"Haha..." The tour was not over yet. As soon as Okawachi played a card, Igarashi chuckled twice, "What a 'risachi'..." As he said this, he put on his already long pair of With his age spots removed, he reached for the card played by Okouchi, "Kong..." After saying that, he turned over the Kong card and grabbed the Lingshang card. Almost at the same time he flipped his hand over and patted down the Lingshang card, he Already recited, "Blooming flowers on the mountain..."

"What..." Takagi's sinister smile froze on his face, because at this moment, he seemed to have discovered the truth about Igarashi's "hard luck".

"Don't blame me, Takagi-kun. After all, it wouldn't be good to be stood upright by you in a place like this." Igarashi said in a deep voice.

"You..." A few seconds later, a few strands of cold sweat flowed down Takagi's pale face.

Although Okawachi, Takagi and Igarashi have played many games of mahjong since coming to Ryunosuke, in those "casual" card games, as veterans, they naturally have reservations; therefore, They don't know where each other's upper limit is and what their specific "unique skills" are.

However, at this moment, Takagi was surprised to find that the old man who was usually the most inconspicuous... actually mastered a technique that was unsolvable in the world of knights - silent pai.

Strictly speaking, "Silent Pai" cannot be called "Thousand Skills"; unless you are a first-class "expert", even if someone uses this trick in front of you, even if you use ultra-high-speed cameras to record all his actions Slow it down hundreds or thousands of times, and you won't be able to tell the slightest clue.

The origin of this technique can be traced back to the Showa era. Most of the mahjongs at that time were made of bamboo, and every small piece of bamboo has a unique "texture" on its surface. So, some people came up with the idea... by memorizing the texture of the bamboo on the back of the mahjong. Keep track of cards.

But... is that easier said than done? Don't just memorize the 136 cards during the card game. It means randomly taking out 10 cards and putting them in front of you and letting you memorize them slowly. You must distinguish and remember the subtle bamboo textures that look almost the same. , is also extremely difficult.

Moreover, it is no use just memorizing a deck of cards and being blinded by changing one; the real "silent cards" must be "being able to quickly memorize a completely unfamiliar pair of mahjong cards" ” skills.

Most people will not practice this extremely difficult, difficult to learn and master thing. Among those who have practiced it, there are very few who can master the whole deck to more than 100 cards in a short period of time.

But... there are very few experts who are good at this, and without exception they are close to invincible; these masters can "silently" play the entire mahjong set before the third game in the East. For these people, the cards are in their hands. His eyes seemed to be transparent. Even if someone shows a thousand cards in front of them, they can know it immediately. As long as they ask for inspection at the right time, they can catch it accurately.

Unfortunately, with the changes of the times, bamboo mahjong is gradually replaced by new products made of resin, plastic and other materials. In the face of those materials with almost no texture, the "silent playing" technique becomes impossible to perform, and eventually it is gradually lost. .

However, legend has it... that there are some extremely skilled silent players who can play "silent cards" even on mahjong with no texture on the back; but the principle of this skill is still a mystery.

Some people said that they used the fingerprints left on the back of the mahjong to guess the cards; others said that they used props such as contact lenses; and some even said that the rumor itself was false and that a con man was trying to cover up other con men. It was blown out by magic...

In short, there is no conclusion.

After all, this kind of legendary "Silent Bird Master" is really rare. Even if such a person does exist, it is difficult to detect.

And today, Takagi was lucky enough to meet someone...

Igarashi's "silent cards" are fundamentally different from Takagi's method of roughly mastering the mountain of cards by relying on "short-term memory" and "shuffling and coding the cards."

The flowers in his hand and the prediction of Takagi's next move before Takagi opened the cards showed that he knew every card in the entire mahjong set.

It's not based on guessing or counting, it's just "seeing through the cards".

Obviously, forced by the huge chips, the players have no reservations... In this kind of gambling that may be burdened with huge debts at any time, there is no room for mercy or mercy.

…………

In this way, the difference in strength is gradually reflected in the difference between points and sticks.

By the third round to the south, Igarashi already had 43,000 points; Takagi was holding around 18,000 points, while Ohuchi had an expression of "It's over" and was sweating profusely as he held 12,000 points. Click left and right to support.

But the worst thing is that Sakaki is dead. He only has less than 7,000 yuan left. In other words, he has been saddled with a debt of 13 million RMB.

After the fifth round, Igarashi already had three cards in his hand and two directions.

Being able to "tackle" cards naturally, he naturally knows that his Hu cards will be touched within two rounds, and no one will play cards suitable for "eating" or "touching" to change the order of drawing cards within two rounds.

Victory... is close at hand.

But at this moment...

"Is that all?" Sakaki suddenly spoke and asked a question.

Hearing this question, the other three people all turned their attention to Sakaki. After a brief silence, Ohuchi was the first to answer: "The guy at the end of the queue who ordered the stick suddenly asked what did he think about? By the way... Don’t you feel ashamed that the guy who proposed such a random bet ended up losing the worst?"

Faced with such ridicule, Sakaki didn't care at all and continued to speak in a slightly decadent tone: "I'm asking, is this all your 'skills'... is that all?"

"Hmph..." Takagi snorted coldly, not even bothering to pay attention to him.

Igarashi said sincerely: "Sakaki-kun, I understand your mood, haha... But when it comes to things at the gambling table, if you lose, you lose. Provoking can't save any face, it will only make you look defeated. Even harder..."

Before the last word "look" came out of his mouth, Sakaki interrupted: "The so-called 'master of listening to cards' turns out to be a second-rate trickster who needs the help of a ring to use the 'left hand card changing skill'." He After a slight pause for half a second, "The Ghost of Pai Shan's juggling is also very good. Not to mention that the automatic mahjong machine will immediately lose 90% of its power. Even if you meet an upright old man who can remember cards, you can still make it." I was so scared that I tried my best to attack Hu Xiaopai..."

In just a few words, he criticized and ridiculed all the skills of the three people at the same table; the words were extremely arrogant.

Before the three people could reply, Sakaki continued: "This is the third round of Nannan, and you haven't shown more skills yet, which shows that you really have nothing else to show... Then I, too You're welcome." He rolled up his sleeves as he spoke, "Since you all like to play this kind of 'smart mahjong', let me show you some 'more direct methods'."