Free Red Queen by Christopher Pike

thirty.
    â€œSince there’s only two of us and you don’t know all the rules, I’ll play the part of the dealer,” he said.
    â€œWhat do you mean, all the rules? I don’t know any of the rules.”
    â€œI told you, they’re almost identical to blackjack. The big difference is the winning hand is twenty-two, not twenty-one. And the value of two cards is slightly different. In twenty-two, the queen of diamonds and the queen of hearts are worth eleven points rather than ten. In this game, if you get both those cards at the start, you have the equivalent of blackjack, or a natural. You immediately get paid twice your bet.”
    â€œNot one and a half times your bet?”
    â€œNo. The reason is it’s a harder hand to get than twenty-one.”
    â€œBecause all the picture cards aren’t worth eleven?”
    â€œExactly. In blackjack, the best card to get at the start is an ace—that’s how you get blackjack. But in twenty-two, an ace is no longer an important card.”
    â€œIs an ace still worth one or eleven?”
    â€œAn ace is only worth one point, nothing else.” Russ paused. “By the way, twenty-two isn’t called blackjack. It’s known as the red queen.”
    â€œBecause the queen of diamonds and the queen of hearts are the easiest way to get winning hands?”
    â€œYes. And if you get two of each it pays double.”
    â€œWith that kind of payout, the game seems to favor the player over the dealer.”
    â€œIt only seems that way on the surface. Besides the fact that the ace is no longer helpful to the player, the dealer only has to hit up to sixteen, even though we’ve raised the winning number to twenty-two. That gives him an edge.”
    â€œHe busts less often.”
    â€œYou got it. I knew you’d catch on fast.” He slipped the six decks into a shoe he had taken from a nearby drawer. It looked as if he’d come ready to play. “Place your bet.”
    I put down a hundred dollar bill. All I had were hundreds.
    Russ dealt a card facedown, to himself, then dealt me a card faceup. The next two cards he dealt faceup, one to me and one to himself. I got a ten and a queen of hearts. I had twenty-one, by the new rules. He was showing a queen of diamonds. Naturally, I couldn’t see his hole card.
    â€œDo you wish to stand?” he asked.
    â€œYes, Mr. Dealer.”
    He flipped over his hole card. He had a nine, twenty altogether, which meant I had won. He paid me a hundred and we continued to play. Frankly, I was feeling my fatigue but I strained to focus. Yet I saw no point in playing a game that was virtually identical to blackjack, especially after such a long night at the casino tables.
    While we played, my curiosity over how he had won so much money continued to plague me. How had he done it? Once again, I tried prodding him gently.
    â€œI know you weren’t counting at the casino because I have a friend who explained how it works. The shoe gets favorable only when there are plenty of tens and aces left in it. But even when it swings in favor of the player, the advantage is only two or three percent. Five percent if the counter is real lucky.”
    â€œI can’t argue with your friend,” Russ said.
    â€œSo you weren’t counting. And I have to assume you’re not psychic, because I don’t believe in that crap. So all I’m left with is that you’re another Rain Man .”
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œIt’s an old movie that starred Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. In the film, Tom and Dustin are brothers, but Dustin’s a lot older and really messed up. He’s mentally retarded and needs constant care. Only toward the end of the film does Tom discover that he’s a savant. I assume you know what that is?”
    â€œIt’s a rare condition found in mentally disabled people. Their mental disabilities allow them to use parts of the brain that