he’d told Ethan as they debriefed in the bar when Randy had called a halt to their part in the game at 2:00 a.m. “A lot of green players do that, but you’re better than most green players, so stop. If your hand is bad, you fold. I know, sometimes you fold and then find out you would have had a damn full house,” he’d said before Ethan could even frame the objection. “Hell, look at that straight I had. But you have to play the odds, Slick, and you have to play the players. Don’t go chasing fate in a card game, ever.” “You let Kevin,” Ethan had reminded him. Randy had shrugged and become more focused on his beer. “Kevin’s not you.” Then he’d gone on to critique eight other aspects of Ethan’s failures, but he’d peppered them with some praise too. In short, it was clear that Randy thought Ethan had something of a talent for this. “You need to keep your purse in mind,” Randy had said, the conversation spilling over as they left the Golden Nugget and hailed a cab to head for the Strip.
