McRiley was a professional gambler , or that was what he liked to portray himself as to other. But internally and among his cloest friends and family , he was a loser. Aside from odd winnings here and there , his whole life , he had been a loser. A failure in school , rejected by countless , 30 actually , number of women and didn’t even get past the first stage of the interviews till 30s. Even then , he had to settle for the lowest possible position available. But there was one thing he was proud of and it was blackjack. He regularly patronised a game palour behind the school almost every day after the class had ended and by 20s , he was addicted to gambling.

Although he had been a life-long gambler , there was one game that he would never forget. It happened in winter of 99 , the year the snow storm blasted the whole of Northwest , when he was gambling his pay in the game of blackjack. His opponent was someone out of town , new to him and the gambling den but not to blackjack. He had already won a few hundreds and looked unbeatable when McRiley came to the table.

“Deal , ” whispered McRiley calmly while looking into his opponent’s eyes. He wasn’ planning to abandon his reputation to the new man in town. He was smartly dressed , sat straight and hands on the table , ready for the cards from the dealer.

First card came and McRiley smiled after lifting at the top corner with his thumb. But then , so did the newcomer. The crowd looked on silently at the two men. The noise in the gambling den was drawn into the events that were happening at that moment. So the two men kept smiling and stared at each other while keeping the card under the palm. It was a while before the newcomer spoke.

“Deal”

So the second round of the game began and two cards were drawn for each of the two men at the table. McRiley drawn the ace of spade and newcomer drawn ace of heart! The game was on. The all important question around the table was what were the cards dealt to them initially. Both the men kept smiling a while before the newcomer made his move. A third card was drawn for him before he stopped.

It was a long time before the game was settled by both men. Both men simply walked away from the table , taking the cards with them. To this day , McRiley would not speak of what were the cards drawn that night in the gambling den.