t must have been a good act, for three of them
stayed with me all the way. None of them had much showing, and
regardless of what their hole cards were, by the time we had our
fifth cards, I had them all beaten.

It was raise against raise, but somebody finally called, and I
turned over my ace in the hole. "Aces and sevens, gamblers," I
grinned, reaching for the pot.

"I see the sevens," a fat-faced man across the table said around
his cigar. "But what's this jazz about aces?"

So help me Hannah, my hole card was a two! I tried to cover it
up. "You'll have to admit I bet them like aces," I said.

Somebody laughed, but not very hard.

I paid mighty close attention to what I was dealt the next hand, and turned
down a drink to make sure I was cold sober. Unfortunately, I got all
screwed up over what one of the _other_ gamblers had. It had been a bunch
of spinach when I'd been betting my pair against it, but it was one
good-looking straight when he flipped the card in the hole.

The third hand I dropped out before the fourth card. After a
gambler raked in that pot, my kibitzer asked me: "How much do you
have to have on the first three cards to stay in the pot?"

"Any pair would convince me," I said. "Why?"

"What was the matter with the kings you had showing?" he asked.
They were still on the table in front of me, king of hearts and
king of clubs.

I scarcely dared bet the fourth hand. We had switched to
three-card draw. I discarded two small diamonds, keeping a pair
of nines and an ace for a kicker. On the draw I got one card
that claimed to be the fourteen of eagles and one on which there
was a message reading: "These hallucinations are sent to you with
the courtesy of the Manhattan Chapter of the Lodge. Are you
finding it practical?"

I threw the hand in and stood up, shaking. "Since when don't you
bet a full house?" my kibitzer demanded, after the hand was won.
He picked up what I had thrown in. The fourteen of eagles turned
out to be a nine, and the card with the hallucination message the
other ace.

"Got to confuse the other bettors," I said. "One of the
fundamentals of poker."

There really weren't enough chips left in front of me to bother
cashing in. I just left them lying there and wandered down to the
street, flat broke.

* * * * *

Wally Bupp was right. I hadn't found it practical. All of a
sudden I saw that it really didn't matter whether I were a psi or
not. T