THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS 2

Continuation from

HOUSE ALWAYS WINS 1

 

Something snapped inside me, I came at him quick, a kick at the groins to buy me ample time to calculate my next attack, some quick attacks here and there, while trying to evade his blows and kicks.

Some kicks and blows from him found their way to me, blinding me for a moment, other times forcing me to connect with solid ground eating dust. It was now between me and him, adrenaline pumping, fists flying, dust swirling. 

Right there and then, I was certain that was how I was going to go.

 

The next moment I decided to have a taste of gambling was one year after legally turning into an adult. I had one clear cut objective with gambling, to use it as a means to chase the bag, gunia or mtungi. 

I wanda!

Like all things in life or in a game, we moved to the next level, gambling at casinos. Movies and films make gambling in casinos look easy. 

I could have gone to Hades happy, swing by and said hello to Dedan Kimathi, showed him my battle scars and told him I went out fighting. Maybe he would have been pleased with me, maybe not. 

That fight ended because both of us were in pain, exhausted, and out of our wits end. The older kid had underestimated me because he was bigger, but he did not know that I would fight like a beaten cornered cat.

I tried my hand at pool, it did not work out, left me with a bigger hole in my pocket than I would have wanted, so I dropped it quick fast. I then delved in analyzing sports games with my Gs. 

We made betting look easy, there was stuff to make sure you minimize the chances of your money not flying away, like looking at the patterns, the probability of the team which we placed our bet on if it could win or not.

There were times it worked out for us, way better than we had anticipated and boy did the money flow like water from a river that had burst it’s banks but there were other times, dark and miserable we lost. 

Not once or twice but many times consecutively till the capacity to feel any shame or remorse was squashed and all you said was,

It is not. 

Lady luck decides to be on your side the entire time you are in the casino, the casino starts to monitor you closely, suspecting you of cheating. There is also something with casino’s environment, it is very intoxicating, plus addicting like powder drugs you all know, it’s like the saying when you are traveling down to the coast, 

“Kuingia ni rahisi, kutoka ni balaa.”

The plot we formulated when we went to gamble at Casinos throughout the city was so slick, it would have made the professor in Money heist shed a tear. 

For the plan to go smoothly, 

it needed five men 

executing five roles flawlessly.

One you needed is a skilled and crazy driver, the one who when he turns on the ignition you say a prayer, you needed a quick exit seeing as things could get real messy inside the casino in an instant.

Two, you needed a good distraction, someone who could flirt with anyone, attract a couple of females to your table and pulling attention away from the one who will attempt to bring the spoils home.

Three, was someone who looked like a mix of old and new money, this was and is still important as when you are in the casino, perception is everything plus it would enable keeping an eye out on the games without arousing unwarranted suspicion and scrutiny.

Four is the muscle, like I said things could get messy, you needed someone in your corner to get you all out with all your teeth and bones intact just incase someone causes a fracas refusing to come to terms that they have been beaten, that they have lost a gamble. 

The other reason is that the casino might unleash security on you when they notice your luck has dealt a massive dent in their finances. This might cause them to suspect you of cheating because there is no other reason they might think of on why your luck has held out for as long as it has against the casino’s odds. 

Lastly there was the player, the main star of the show. This is the person who knew his way around, how to play, to bluff, when to go all in, or to hold, or to call it quits.