[pshrynk]

Biggles was having a hard time of it. His new friend Wallbanger had graciously gotten him into a poker game in the back of a little cantina and then had slipped out to the front to quietly drink himself under a table. Biggles had relished the chance to try out his system. He had blinked at the $500 buy in, but had decided that it was small change compared to the $25,000 buy in for the tournament coming up. And he was on an expense account.

The other players were capital lads. One, named Filthy Pierre, was especially attentive to his needs. "No, monsieur! You cannot draw four cards. Sacre! No one can be this incompetent!"

Biggles took that as a complement, not knowing what "sack rub" meant, he filled in the blanks for it to be Spanish for "I am lacking in ability to meet the steely eyed onslaught of the genius of this, my new friend, I am a failure!"

Another player had been quietly weeping for the last three minutes. Biggles couldn't understand what the fuss was over. He had just asked if his three twos were better than the two pairs the weeping man had held. He had fully accepted the answer as all the chips were swept to the weeping man's pile.

A third man was just sitting and staring at him. This was beginning to make him a tad uncomfortable. Why in blue blazes wouldn't the man stop that? Now he was beginning to mutter in Spanish.

The men were all staring at him, now. With a start, he realized that this was that part of the game where they all turned over their cards and Biggles asked what they meant. He took one more look at his hand, Two twos "showing", a Jack, a Queen, and an ace. He turned his hand face up and said, "How did I do, Old Boys?" The weeeping man's head lowered to the table top, the staring man slowly pulled out his knife and made a show of putting it on the table before him, and Filthy Pierre started saying somehting about quitting poker altogether and taking up cribbage.

The fifth player, who was inexplicably a squid laid out a Kings over sevens full house and gave Biggles a look that seemed to say, "Hi! I've been noting that you are quite likely the world's most incompetent poker player and I have no understand why you would have raised on that hand, since all you had down was crap. But, I'll glady take the last of your chips and thank you for it. By the way, these gentlemen, being of a suspicious nature and not truly believing that anyone could be that bad at poker, have reached the conclusion that you are a card shark and are quite willing at this point to remove your shoes without giving you the luxury of taking your feet out of them. I suggest you walk away whlie you still have the ability.*"



*Squid are very emotive creatures. You just have to be able to read them.