Alice showed Helena the paper and her eyes just lit up with delight, but quickly the excitement vanished and worry took over.

“What’s wrong?” Alice asked.

“Do you really think I could win?”

“Yes, Helena!” Alice exclaimed, while grabbing a hold of her friend in a firm shoulder grip, “Just think when you win you get rid of Catherine plus get her 1 Million plus the 200 grand. Then you can invest in our chart and you can also do the right thing and put the story forward for Dylan. You will feel a lot better because you did the right thing and you did it all on your own.” Helena grinned.

“Ok I am in. Let sign up.”

Helena and Alice go down to the local casino where the contest was held and sign up for the poker game. The poker game that we signed up for was the Five Card draw and Helena had little experience playing this type of poker game but, she was determined see it through. The ante was steep, 10 grand, but, what the heck; Helena thought. You only live once and she wanted to get a little payback.

The game started promptly at 9pm and there were five other people at the table. Helena anted up her 10 grand and the first hand was under way. Helena was dealt five cards face down and when the dealer was done she picked her cards up one by one. The first card was a ten, second card was a seven, third card was an eight, fourth card a nine and last card was a jack. Helena had a jack high straight.

She looked around the table and found the other players looking around as well. On the inside, she knew she had to keep a poker face and showed no emotion so the other players could not read her face and know of her success. Her stake was much higher than everyone else; she had much more to lose than just her money.

Somebody opened the hand for 50 grand and two players folded right away. Then
it was Helena’s turn, she called the 50 grand and raised it 50 grand. One player called her bet and the one that opened also called. The remaining players dropped out. There was now over 200 grand on the table and only three players remaining.