Listen up students. Class is in session. Welcome to Poe’s class on how to fuck over six people and a little girl in a card game. First, let’s talk math. I hate math. I’m annoyed at math; I’m generally not very good at math. This changes when I get interested. Generally, when I’m interested in something, I become very knowledgeable about it. The internet is a wonderful tool for that.

When I happen to be a pretty lucky guy with a pretty decent head on my shoulders, games that can be won with relatively simple arithmetic tend to be very easy for me. Hilariously easy, actually! Judging from the expressions on the other crewmembers’ faces, they were not expecting me to win. Indeed, I even lost the first two games.

Then, politely, I turned to Analay and asked her a question that would completely change the game. “How much money do you have?” Confusedly, she showed me her four copper pieces. I didn’t know how much they were actually worth, but it didn’t look like much at all. It was enough. I regarded the other players at the table, “Does anyone want to make this into a real game?”

“That’s a bit of a risk you’re taking there,” a crew member noted, “You sure you want to start betting?”

My grin just widened. “I am.” I moved the four copper pieces towards the center of the table, “So?”

Silver pieces were put at the center of the table, chinking against the other coins there. I noticed that they all had different symbols on them, but they were universal shapes and sizes. That made things easier for international currency conversion, thankfully.

“Well?” one of them asked, “What’ve you got?”

I turned over an Ace and a King. Internally, I mused over how fortunate I was that they were using a French deck and that the symbols were similar enough to my world’s that there wouldn’t be any confusion. Externally, I exuded the calmest possible façade I could as the crew started suffering conniptions. My arms reached out and I swept back the silver pieces.

“…Beginner’s luck.” One of them said to me.

I resisted the urge to cackle.

-x-

“How?!” one of them asked me. There wasn’t just one deck we were using, but two. Even so, the math wasn’t that hard to work out. When it came to counting cards, in my immediate family I was second only to my father and third to my mother. I had intelligent parents, you see.

I wasn’t able to count with three or four decks, not yet. But two? I could do two. And with how fast the deck was being shown with how many people were sitting around the table, it was insulting how easy it was to rob these shmucks blind. “Wow, Poe!” Analay exclaimed, “You’re really good at this!”

“Why, thank you, little girl!” I stood up from the table and patted her head. It wasn’t every day I was complimented for something.