Philip was still shuffling the cards.

“Okay, I’m in,” said Bosie.

Philip looked at Ian, who was sitting on the other side of the table smoking, and smiled.

Bosie dumped the stoners’ money on his side of the table and Ian laughed.

“So we’re back to the level of playing for pocket change, are we?” the mustachioed man said.

“I’d say quit while you’re ahead, Bosie,” Philip added. “But I don’t know if you ever were.”

Bosie clasped his hands and nodded slowly in time with Philip’s shuffling. “My luck’s about to change, I can feel it.”

“Tell that to Tony Hunter.”

Ian laughed with Philip.

“Okay,” Philip said. “Shall we say ten to enter?”

Ian snorted. Bosie nodded.

Philip sighed, and began to deal. “Let’s even make it a little easier on Bosie and make both jacks and aces wild.”

Ian shrugged and nodded.

“Prolong the ordeal.” Philip winked.

Ian laughed and picked up the bottle of whisky. Bosie held out his glass. Ian poured them both a drink.

Soon they each had five down-turned cards in front of them. They all put ten pounds in the middle of the table and picked up their cards. Ian and Philip had equally large piles of notes beside them. Now he had put the two notes Rob had given him into the middle of the table, Bosie only had coins left.

He looked at his cards. He had two kings and three throwaway cards. He sipped his whisky and looked at Philip and Ian. Philip was blank-faced. Ian slowly crushed his cigarette in the ashtray.

Bosie placed two of the three throwaway cards face down before Philip. Ian put two down. Philip only put one.

Bosie’s heart was beating fast.

“Everyone satisfied?” Philip said.

Ian and Bosie nodded. Philip slipped Bosie’s cards onto the bottom of the pack then served him two more off the top. Then he did the same for Ian. He changed his last.

Bosie slid his own cards toward him but watched their faces as they checked theirs. Philip slipped his one card into his hand then glanced up to observe Ian and Bosie without reacting at all to what it was. Ian picked up both cards and blinked, then looked at Bosie too.

Bosie picked up his first card. It was a king. He now had three. He wanted to smile, but tried his hardest not to give anything away. He picked up the second card. It was a jack, a wild card. That meant it was as good as a king too. So now he had four. He could barely stop himself smiling, so he buried his face in his glass and the sharply bitter taste got the better of the urge.

“Everyone set?” said Philip.

Ian put two cards down. Bosie suspected they were the same two he had picked up. Bosie put the one throwaway card down; he felt lucky now.

“Philip?” he said.

Philip didn’t put any cards down. Either that was a sign of confidence, or a bluff. He dealt Ian two new cards and Bosie his one.

Ian picked up the cards, sighed loudly and put all of his cards down on the table. “I fold.”

Philip laughed.

Bosie picked up his card. He wasn’t so nervous now. It could be an added bonus, but it couldn’t detract from the quality of his hand even if it wasn’t.

It was an ace.

It took Bosie a few seconds to remember that aces were wild as well. Five kings. Bosie didn’t see much point in maintaining his poke face any more and grinned broadly.

Philip raised an eyebrow. “Are we playing?”

“Unless you want to fold now,” said Bosie.

Philip chuckled. “This’ll be over quickly.”

Bosie nodded. He only had twenty to play with, and was eager to increase it. “Twenty to see your cards.” He pushed all of the coins toward the middle of the table.

“I’ll see your twenty and raise you twenty,” Philip said, adding two tenners and a twenty to the pile.

Bosie smiled and played the three kings and his two wild cards one at a time.

Philip stuck out his bottom lip and nodded. He spread out his hand. He had two tens and two fours. His fifth card was an ace.

Bosie laughed and pulled all the cash in the middle of the table toward him. Now he had ninety quid, which was ten more than he’d started with.

Philip looked at Ian and smirked. Both of them still had several hundred pounds in front of them.

“I told you my luck was about to change,” Bosie said.

“If your luck can change that abruptly, then I’m not too worried it’ll be long before it goes back the other way,” said Ian, pouring himself another drink.

“Yes, it’s a long way to - how much do you owe Tony Hunter now, Bosie?” said Philip.

Bosie chuckled. “Let’s just say he’ll be grateful when I give him all your money tomorrow morning.”

Ian looked at Philip and shook his head.

It was Bosie’s turn to deal. He collected up the cards and began to shuffle. He nervously dropped a few cards and began again. Ian and Philip looked calm and bored. The stakes for them weren’t quite as high.

“This time let’s not hand it to you on a plate,” said Philip. “No wild cards.”

Ian nodded. They all put a tenner in the middle.

“Okay.” Bosie swallowed.

He began to deal. Philip and Ian waited until they got all five cards before picking up. Bosie straightened the pack in front of him, watching their faces. Neither made very revealing expressions.

Bosie picked up his cards. He had a king and a queen and a couple of sevens. He could try for the safer option, the two-pair, or try his luck and for the royal flush, or maybe a full house. He felt himself frowning and stopped.

It was nearly midnight now.

Philip put down two cards to change. So did Ian. Bosie decided to look confident and only put the one down, see whether that led him toward a royal flush, a full house or two-pair. He dealt both Philip and Ian their new cards, then dealt his own. It was a second queen.

Next time through, Philip changed two cards again and Ian one. Bosie put his king down, and after changing their cards, dealt himself a useless two.

“Let’s play,” Philip said.

Ian challenged Philip to show his cards straight away to the tune of thirty quid. Philip decided to fold instead.

Next Ian tried the same on Bosie. All of a sudden, his cards didn’t look so strong. If he saw Ian’s bet and raised him and lost, he’d be almost wiped out again. But if he simply met the bet and lost, he’d still have enough for one more round, and one was enough to fight back.

“I’ll see you,” Bosie said. He put thirty down and Ian smiled. Bosie spread out his cards.

Ian chuckled. He laid his hand on the table. He only had three of a kind, even if they were queens.

Bosie had won. Philip laughed.

Bosie now had £140. He grinned as he raked the profits in. Philip and Ian didn’t look too bothered. £140 was more than enough for Bosie to keep going with, but to them it was mere collateral they were losing. They still had well over a grand between them. As Ian dealt the next round, Bosie tried to calculate how much more he had to win to pay off Tony Hunter. It was less than £800.

In the next round, Bosie folded after the last change of cards. He had a pair of twos, and one of those was an eight - Ian’s lucky number, which he’d made a wild card. Ian went on to win with a straight that included two eights.

Bosie poured himself another whisky and lit a cigarette. Finally the cards returned to Philip.

Bosie looked at the cards dealt and saw a royal flush in the making. After putting a tenner down to enter, he had £120 left to play this round.

At the first change Bosie put down his two and his four and got back a seven and a jack. He already had a seven, and now he had a jack, queen, king, all diamonds. His heart began to beat fast again. At the second change, he didn’t change anything at all.

“Fold,” said Ian promptly.

Philip turned his attention to Bosie. “I’ll put down fifty. Match or raise, my Scottish friend.”

Bosie swallowed and looked at his pile. It wouldn’t knock him out, but he didn’t want to be back where he started. Though that was only if he lost. Fifty pounds was a lot. It reeked of confidence. But if Bosie had had several hundred pounds, then it was small change. If he had a sure-fire winning hand, and that much cash to stake, he would have betted enough to wipe someone with as much as Bosie out. Fifty pounds only seemed a lot to someone who didn’t have much more than that at their disposal.

“You’re bluffing,” Bosie said.

“Am I?” Philip said flatly.

Bosie answered by pushing fifty into the middle of the table. And then another fifty.

Philip shrugged and laid out his cards one by one. It was the first royal flush Bosie had ever seen accomplished without recourse to wildcards.

Ian couldn’t help himself but applaud.

Philip smiled as he pulled Bosie’s winnings away. It was a large amount of cash. It left Bosie with only twenty quid in coins and a five pound note.

“You’re dealing,” said Philip, thumbing through the notes as if he really needed to count them.

Bosie took a large sip from his whisky and began dealing. He thought about calling Robert and Terry back. He couldn’t lose another round.

The three of them looked at their cards. Bosie added half his kitty to the pile in the middle of the table. He had a king, a three, a seven, a jack and a nine. He had completely forgotten to declare any cards wild.

Both Ian and Philip changed two cards with him. Bosie swapped the three and the seven. He got another jack and an eight. At the second change, Philip and Ian both changed two cards again. So did Bosie. He got rid of the eight and the nine and picked up a pair of twos.

Philip challenged them a mere five pounds to show him their cards. Ian capitulated. It turned out he only had a pair of fives.

Philip’s challenge was deliberately set up so that Bosie would see him five and raise him five, thereby wiping himself out. It was a bluff in reverse; he was only betting five pounds not because he wasn’t confident, but because he wanted Bosie to be.

“Fold,” Bosie decided.

It left him with enough to at least enter into one more round. His luck had to return sometime. The next round he could be dealt a winning hand.

Philip roared with laughter and tossed his cards face up on the table. They skidded into the money pile. He had nothing, not a thing, not even a single pair, and he had won everything in the middle of the table.

“Good play,” said Ian, looking and sounding impressed.

Bosie covered his face with his hand.

“Want to cut your losses now?” said Philip.

Bosie looked up and shook his head.

“Good lad.” Philip smirked.

The pack moved onto Ian again, who declared jacks were wild. Bosie pushed his last ten pounds into the middle of the table again. He hesitated before picking up his cards.

It seemed like luck was shining on him again.

Ian and Philip both changed two cards. Bosie had a king, a jack, a ten, a nine and a four. He changed the four. He got a six. Second time round Ian changed two cards and Philip one. Bosie put the four down.

He got a second jack. He had two wildcards but that didn’t mean the jack wasn’t also a jack. He couldn’t quite believe it. He eyed the money accumulating in the middle of the table as Ian challenged Philip to see his cards to the tune of fifty quid and Philip folded. Philip rarely folded and Ian rarely won.

“Well, I’m not going to get anymore out of you, so let’s just see your cards,” said Ian to Bosie.

Smile pressed against his top teeth, Bosie placed the cards out one at a time in a straight line.

Ian nodded slowly. “Not bad.”

Then in one swift move he slammed three aces and two jacks down on the table.

The blood drained from Bosie’s face. He felt paralysed.

Philip burst out laughing.

Ian reached under the table and rubbed his crotch. “Victory makes me so horny.”

Philip’s laughing increased in intensity.

Bosie watched, unable to do anything, as the last of his money was pulled out of his reach.

NOTES:
The original idea with this character was to have someone who owes a lot of money having to go on the run, taking the pound coin with him. I was going to have him catch an overnight coach back to London or somewhere as far away from Scotland as possible. However, that would just trap the coin with one person for the rest of the story, so I conceived of ways he'd lose the pound coin. In the end, beyond the poker game, I didn't think there was much to do with the Bosie character anyway. I'm not sure if the rules of poker are adhered to in this game. It's been a long time since I played it. I might have characters beating other characters with losing hands for all I know. Tony Hunter is supposed to be some sort of gangster type, and it was only after I wrote the name did I notice the similarity with an identical character in "Eastenders", Andy Hunter.