All-In (The Gamblers Book 1) Read online

  Copyright © 2017 by Jeanine Grasso. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any form without the prior written consent of the author/publisher or the terms relayed to you herein.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarities to real persons, alive or dead and events are coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Cover Image © choreograph and © sandy-che.yandex.ru

  Cover Design Redbird Designs/Red-birddesigns.net

  Dedications

  This one is for my mom—who's not allowed to read my books so better not be reading this—for giving me my love of poker.

  And as always, for my hubby, my inspiration.

  Books by Sarah Curtis

  The Alluring Series

  Alluring

  Engaging

  Pursuing

  Enchanting

  Freight Trained

  Little Black Dress (An Anthology)

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Poker Hand Rankings

  Glossary of Poker Terms

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Epilogue

  Author's Note

  Where To Find Me

  Poker Hand Rankings

  From highest to lowest

  Royal Flush:

  A royal flush is an ace high straight flush. For example, A-K-Q-J-10 all of diamonds.

  Straight Flush:

  A straight flush is a five-card straight, all in the same suit. For example, 7-6-5-4-3 all of clubs.

  Four of a Kind:

  Four of a kind, or quads, are four cards of equal value. For example, four jacks.

  Full House:

  A full house contains a set (3) of cards of one value and a pair of another value. For example, Q-Q-Q-2-2.

  Flush:

  A flush is any 5 cards, all of the same suit. For example, K-Q-9-6-3 all of diamonds.

  Straight:

  Five cards of sequential value. Every possible straight will contain either a 5 or a 10. For example, 7-6-5-4-3 with different suits.

  Three of a kind:

  Three cards of the same value. For example, three aces. Also called trips or set.

  Two Pair:

  This is two cards of one value and another two cards of another value. For example, two jacks and two 8s.

  Pair:

  One pair is two cards of the same rank. For example, two queens.

  High Card:

  The hand with the highest card.

  Glossary of Poker Terms

  Act: To make a play (check, bet, call, raise, or fold) at the required time.

  All-in: When a player bets all of their chips in the current hand.

  Ante: A forced bet required, in some types of poker, of all players before the hand begins.

  At risk: The term used for the player with the least amount of chips in an all-in situation and at risk of being knocked out of the game.

  Bad beat: To lose a hand where one hand is considerably ahead of the eventual winning hand.

  Bet: Any money wagered during the play of a hand.

  Blinds: Big blind: The larger of two forced bets in certain types of poker. Small blind: The smaller of two forced bets in certain types of poker.

  Burn card: A card that is dealt from the top of a deck, and discarded ("burned"), unused by the players. Burn cards are almost always placed face down next to the discard pile without being revealed to the players.

  Call: To match a bet or match a raise.

  Check: When it's a player's turn to act and there has been no action in front of them and he opts not to bet, he "checks."

  Chop or Chopped pot: To split a pot because of a tie, split-pot game, or player agreement.

  First to act: First player to make a play (check, bet, call, raise, or fold) at the required time.

  Flop: The dealing of the first three face-up cards to the board, refers also to those three cards themselves.

  Fold: To discard one's hand and forfeit interest in the current pot.

  Free card: A card dealt to the board of community cards (flop, turn, river) after a betting round in which no player opened. One is thereby being given a chance to improve one's hand without having to pay anything.

  Heads up: Playing against a single opponent.

  Hollywooding: The term is used as a criticism, referring to "overacting" or taking too much time to act when a decision doesn’t necessarily require it.

  Limp, Limp in: To enter a pot by simply calling a bet instead of raising.

  Muck: To fold (discard) one's hand without revealing the cards.

  No limit: Rules designating that players are allowed to wager any or all of their chips in a single bet.

  Outs: Any unseen cards that, if drawn, will improve a player's hand to one that is likely to win. The number of outs can be converted to the probability of making the hand on the next card by dividing the number of outs by the number of unseen cards.

  Pre-flop: The time when players already have their pocket cards but no flop has been dealt yet.

  Raise: When a player increases the size of an existing bet in the same betting round.

  River: The fifth and last card to be dealt to the community card board, after the flop and turn.

  Tell: A tell in poker is a detectable change in a player's behavior or demeanor that gives clues to that player's assessment of their hand.

  Trips, Set: Three of a kind.

  Turn: the fourth of five cards dealt to a community card board, after the flop but before the river.

  Prologue

  River sat completely still, her face devoid of all expression—afraid to give away a clue to her thoughts—as she carefully watched the man sitting at the table across from her. With her back straight, and her spine perfectly aligned with the center of her chair, she barely breathed as her heart beat thunderously in her chest. She was all-in, and everyone else had folded except the man sitting directly across from her.

  Alec Throne. AKA, The Prince of Poker.

  He was sizing her
up, deciding whether to make the call.

  She eyed his chips stacked before him, mentally calculating how much money he had. He had her beat by a mile. If he called her bet and won, she'd be out of the game.

  She had pocket aces—the best hand you can start with in No Limit Texas Hold 'em. And while it wasn't a sure win, taking risks when the opportunities arose and hoping for some Lady Luck to go with them was the only way to make it to the final table of a tournament.

  He still studied her. His face was expressionless but no less beautiful. He was elegantly dressed in a suit. Not the norm for the usual poker player. Sitting long hours, one would want to be comfortable, which is why so many players dressed casually. Alec's only nod to casual was his open suit jacket, lack of tie, and the top two buttons of his crisp, white shirt unbuttoned. And yes, she noticed and took count.

  His hair was still perfectly styled even after long hours at the poker table, attesting to his rigid restraint to not run his fingers through it. And his eyes were sharp and calculating, but not a crinkle nor twitch gave away his thoughts. He was the epitome of poker face.

  The fingers of his right hand deftly shuffled two small stacks of chips. The slight tinkling sound they made, a lullaby to Rivers ears. The repetitious action not a distraction but a soothing reminder of where she was.

  Drawn to his hand, her eyes took in its masculinity. The tan skin covered muscles and veins that flexed and bulged as his long, dexterous fingers flawlessly played with his chips. The same skilled fingers that had played with her the night before.

  Movement caught her eye. His other hand reaching for and pushing forward a tall stack of chips.

  "I call." He waited for the other two men at the table to reach a decision, each folding before he tossed his cards face up on the center of the table.

  River let out the breath she'd been holding on a soft sigh. She needed this win, badly. Her brother was counting on her, and she couldn't let him down.

  "All-in called," the dealer announced.

  Heart pounding, River watched as the dealer tapped the table with the flat of her palm before dealing the next three cards.

  Chapter One

  Two weeks earlier...

  "Please tell me you're joking."

  "Wish I was, sis." River heard her brother's sigh through the phone.

  Royal was almost three years her elder, having turned twenty-seven this past March, while she turned twenty-four in April, but by his actions, one would never know it. She had always been more mature, and with the death of their parents, as his only sibling, it had fallen on her shoulders to help Royal out of his scrapes. But this one was definitely the worst of the lot.

  "How could you have possibly let yourself get into so much debt? Especially with them."

  "Listen, I don't need another lecture. Are you gonna help me or not?"

  There was a bite to his tone. Royal always got defensive when he knew he was in the wrong. She mimicked his sigh. Of course, she would help him. She always did. She knew it enabled his bad habits, but he was her only family. The only person she had left in this world. To hell with the know-it-all shrinks and self-help books, thinking they knew best. They didn't know what it was like growing up the way they did, homeschooled because they were constantly traveling from place to place, never setting down roots or making friends. They were all each other had. She would do anything for him.

  Which was why her next words were, "What do I need to do?"

  The flight from McCarran to Miami International had been almost five hours. Then after a two-hour layover, she'd boarded the forty-minute flight to Eden Island. It had been eight days since the fateful call from her brother. With the vague excuse of a family emergency, she'd wheedled undue vacation time from her boss then spent the rest of the week working long hours in the office finishing her open reports. Her whole weekend had been devoted to the mall. She'd spent a small fortune on sundresses, bikinis, shoes, and accessories, upgrading her "Finance Chic" wardrobe for a weeks stay at the ritzy Bahama destination, Eden Island, home of the most elite American poker tournament, the Omega One.

  Only the best poker players would be in attendance. How her brother had secured her a spot, she didn't know, and he wouldn't say. Maybe being the daughter of Frank "King" Kingston still held some merit even though he'd been gone for five years.

  River had never played professionally, unlike her father, and now her brother who made his living at the poker tables. But her brother had chosen her for this endeavor for a reason. With a head for numbers and the uncanny ability to read people, she was their best choice if they wanted to win. And boy did they want to. No, scratch that, they needed to. Royal's life, or at the very least his limbs, depended on it. He'd gotten into bed with dirt and dug himself into a hundred grand hole. In a field of two hundred players, she needed to place at least third to cover Royal's debts, the tournament buy-in fee, plus her unexpected vacation expenses, which included her new wardrobe purchases.

  With a father who was one of the most beloved poker players of his time, she had learned poker hand rankings before the alphabet. But other than the few on-line tournaments she'd played to support herself through college, she'd stayed away from the game. Instead, she chose a sensible career in personal finance, affording herself a stable lifestyle with a permanent home and a fixed income well away from the limelight and the intrusively prying media.

  When the plane landed, River waited patiently in her seat for the foot traffic to die down before grabbing her carry-on bag from the overhead compartment. As she stepped into the busy terminal, her eyes scanned for signs that would point her toward baggage claim.

  Traversing a path through the airport was a challenge, dodging and weaving through small and large clusters of commuters. Most were families and twenty-somethings vacationing for summer break. Then there were the lone people, like herself, and she wondered about their stories. Were they waiting on friends to join them? Were they jilted at the last minute by their significant other? A romantic tropical island was not usually a place someone traveled alone.

  Lost in her perusal of everything around her, she failed to notice the flow of traffic in front of her had come to a dead stop until she crashed into the solid wall of a male back. Her cheek landed forcefully between a pair of wide-set shoulder blades encased in a butter-soft suit jacket, and her stomach collided powerfully against a very firm ass. Instinctively, her arms quickly hugged the man around the waist to prevent her suddenly halted forward momentum from bouncing her back in what would sure to be a very unladylike sprawl onto the hard airport floor. It didn't take long for her hands to discover the front of him was just as solid as the back.

  A pair of large, warm hands encased hers, prying her arms from his middle as he turned and took a step back. River looked up. Ice blue eyes stared down a long, arrogant nose, pinning her in place. His dark brows furrowed as he took in her features. She knew what he was seeing. Thick blonde hair currently up in a messy bun, green eyes, clear, smooth skin. She knew she was cute but a raving beauty she was not, and after getting up at dawn followed by a long day of travel, not to mention a three-hour time change, she was sure even her cute was put to the test.

  He was classically handsome, if a bit rough around the edges. The dark scruff covering a strong jaw and slightly disheveled black hair in need of a trim belied his expensive suit, crisp white shirt, and dark-print silk tie. He looked familiar, and it took less than a second for River to put a name with the face. But when she did, her whole body stiffened and her hands, still held by his, tightly squeezed.

  Alec Throne, The Prince of Poker.

  She shouldn't be surprised to see him here, it would be stranger if he weren't attending the Omega One, but what were the odds of running into him? Literally.

>   She did a quick calculation in her head. The number was staggering.

  Alec Throne was famous in the poker world, and even people who didn't follow the sport would have heard of him. Grossing half a billion in lifetime earnings had made him the most moneyed player in anyone's lifetime. Certainly more than her father ever achieved, and he was considered the King. River was reluctant to admit it, but at one point she'd even considered Alec her idol. When he'd been new on the scene at the age of twenty-one, she'd been but thirteen. For three years, she'd followed his rise to fame. Her intrigue turning into infatuation before succumbing to adoration. Until money and fame attracted the women and going through them like water, he'd broken her teenage-girl heart.

  As she'd grown older, she'd become numb to his exploits. Maturity and a couple of college exploits of her own, killing any lingering puppy love. It was impossible for her to follow poker and not learn some things about Throne, only now, he was like all other players—just a statistical figure.

  Lowering her eyes to the floor, not wanting to give away any of her thoughts, she tried to pull from his grip while mumbling an apology for not watching where she'd been going, but he refused to let her go, gripping her hands tighter. Her heart increased in speed the longer he held on. She didn't understand her reaction as she was normally at ease around new people. It came from learning to read them so well. The subtle nuances that others might miss—a slight hardening of the eyes, a minute pinch of their lips. But his face was stone, completely unreadable, and that shook her in more ways than she cared to admit.

  Her father's words floated through her mind. Life is a game of poker. Never let them know what you're thinking, and you'll always come out on top. She steeled her features, looking back up. She could be stone, too.

  She aggressively pulled her hands from his, the unexpected maneuver gaining her freedom, and took a step back. "Please, excuse me. My fault for not paying attention," she apologized once more for good measure. Then with a curt nod, she stepped around him and walked away at a brisk pace, giving herself a mental high-five for not looking back.