Chapter 53: Gambler’s Psychology

 “Alright, I’ll reluctantly play one round with you guys, but let’s be clear, I’m not in the mood to play cards, we’ll just draw one card and then we’re done.”

Actually, he said this to appease the two men, but only Su Peng knew that he was actually quite curious.

People are always curious about things with a gambling element.

Besides, he wasn’t really committing to it.

He was just testing his luck.

The two men in front of him neither agreed nor disagreed, simply gesturing for Su Peng to draw first: “Brother, you draw first.”

Su Peng casually drew a card.

Upon revealing it, Su Peng’s heart sank; he drew a 7, which was hardly a big card.

The chances of losing were incredibly high.

What terrible luck.

Su Peng felt his heart sink.

The two men glanced at the card in Su Peng’s hand and secretly curled their lips.  What bad luck! If they hadn’t wanted to let him win, this bad hand would have been disastrous.

These cards were marked by them.

Therefore, they could tell the number of the card from the back.

So the two men, one drew a 5, and the other drew an Ace.

After drawing the cards, they had to act.

“Damn!”

“Shit!”

The two men flipped their cards with a look of displeasure, grumbling and staring at Su Peng.

“Damn, what bad luck today, it’s an Ace, the lowest!”

“Damn, I got a 5.”

“Damn, it seems like today is really terribly unlucky.”

Earlier, Su Peng thought he had no chance of winning, so he felt numb and wanted to reveal his card. But after seeing the two men’s cards, Su Peng’s adrenaline surged, instantly rising from hell to heaven. 7!

Seven actually won?

Su Peng jumped up from his seat, revealing his card: “Damn, hahaha, your luck is even worse than mine, damn, I got a 7!”

“I thought 7 was already small enough, but yours are even smaller.”

Su Peng laughed heartily.

His face flushed with excitement.

“Pay up, pay up.”

“Two yuan each.”

At this moment, Su Peng hadn’t realized it yet; he was already acting like those people in casinos.

The two men continued their act, looking unhappy and reluctantly taking out two yuan from their pockets and handing it to Su Peng.

Two yuan each.

That’s four yuan.

For someone with a job in the city, four yuan might not be much, but for a country kid, four yuan is a pretty good amount.

It wasn’t something to be indifferent about.

The two men pretended to hang their heads, quickly putting away the cards: “Wow, we didn’t expect our luck to be so bad today.  It’s a good thing you didn’t want to play mahjong with us, otherwise we would have been completely wiped out by you.”

“You might have won thousands of yuan from us in one night.”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t play.”

“Forget it, our luck is so bad today, so unlucky, we’re not playing today.”

What is gambling?

Do you think gamblers are most obsessed with the money they earn?

Actually, nine out of ten times in card games, people lose money.  Since everyone is losing money, why are so many people addicted to it?

It’s because of the psychological stimulation of gambling.

When Su Peng saw his card earlier, the feeling of giving up and numbness when he thought he couldn’t win, and then the feeling of superiority when he suddenly found out that others were even more unlucky than him.

That exhilarating feeling of soaring to the top.

The mockery of a strong person towards a weak person, taking money from others.

Each emotional thrill was incredibly exhilarating.

Finally, there was this sudden windfall.

It gave Su Peng, a small-time hoodlum who usually accomplished nothing and was often looked down upon, a sense of presence.

He found this feeling quite wonderful.

A moment ago, the two guys had been eagerly inviting him, and he had been somewhat disdainful.

Now, the two wanted to run away, but Su Peng became interested.

Seeing the growing amusement in Su Peng’s eyes, the two exchanged a glance, knowing that the matter was almost settled.

Don’t think that what they were doing seemed to have no technical content.  In fact, they did this every time, and this set of procedures had enormous destructive power.

Basically, out of ten times, they succeeded eight or nine times.

The two brothers sighed.

“Let’s go, let’s go.”

“What bad luck today.”

Of course, the two couldn’t leave.

Su Peng grabbed the two men, a smile on his face.

“Brothers, this is a bit unfair. Who said we were short one person and should play mahjong together?”

“And who said that if we lose, it’s on you, and if we win, it’s mine?”

“You’re going back on your word?”

The two brothers were immediately reluctant.

“Didn’t you not want to play just now?”

“Besides, we didn’t expect our luck to be this bad today.”

“Brother, how about we just forget it today and play mahjong together another day?”

“Yes, yes, yes, our luck is bad today, we really don’t want to play.”

If the two had continued to eagerly drag Su Peng into the gambling den, Su Peng might have hesitated. But the more reluctant the two were, the more Su Peng went against them.

Doing this made him feel like he had gotten a huge advantage.

People are like that, quite cheap.

Now it was Su Peng’s turn to drag the two men towards the card room.

“Brothers, as grown men, you can’t go back on your word.”

“Besides, it was just one round, what does that mean? Maybe the feng shui at the entrance was bad, let’s go inside, maybe you’ll win.”

“And I’m a newbie.”

“You have a great chance of winning.”

“Come on, come on, let’s play for a while.”

The two were reluctantly dragged in by Su Peng.  Su Peng was still immersed in the novelty of it all and didn’t notice the playful looks many people gave him after entering the card room.

After the two were “reluctantly” dragged in by Su Peng, they said dejectedly: “Fine, fine, fine.”

“As men, we keep our word.  It’s our fault, we apologize.”

“We’ll play with our brother today.”

“If we lose, it’s on us, if you win, it’s yours, brother, let’s go.”

Not long after the three entered, the boss greeted the two familiarly: “Your usual seats?”

The two winked at the boss with a smile: “Usual seats.”

“Boss, a pack of good cigarettes today, treat our brother.”

“What kind of cigarettes?”

Su Peng quickly raised his hand and shouted: “A pack of Dàqiánmén.”

“I’m treating the two big brothers.”

“We’re not stingy.”

The boss’s face also blossomed into a smile. He took the cigarettes and walked over to hand them to Su Peng.

Ten-yuan Dàqiánmén cigarettes were rarely affordable these days.

“Brother, you’re so generous.”

“You guys play.” He patted the two brothers on their shoulders, extremely pleased. Where did these two find such a wealthy patron?

It seems he’s going to make a fortune these next few days.