Pluto certainly wasn't planning to be a dealer today. But with one worker, Dust, out doing bouncer work, well, he supposed he could cover. It wasn't that big a deal, plus gave him a break from the dances. Less people oogling him and being touchy.

So he was happy to deal out cards. Dressed up in a nice suit with his hair slicked back. Eyes rose to the new player joining the game, smiling and waving at him. Wait, Josh Devlin? "Oh!" He said, looking cheerful. "I'm actually one of the owners, we're helping sponsor your race!"

Josh Devlin

Josh's smile grew when he remembered that this was indeed one of the sponsors for the big Silph Cup race in a couple days. "Oh, you are! I remember!" he replied in a voice loud enough for one of the players at the table to hush him. "Sorry..." he apologized as he threw his cards into the muck. He couldn't quite see the dealer's name tag in the low light. "Sorry, can't quite read it," Josh pointed at the name tag as he was dealt into the next hand. "It's dim in here." More rags, and he was in the small blind, too. With each orbit only being five hands, he was going to lose 3 PD from his stack every time the button went around. "Night or Pluto? I know it's one of you two."

"Really looking forward to it - it's just in a couple days. I imagine there will be a lot of people here betting on the race," he mused as he caught a pair of suited connectors. That was worth sticking around to a flop, at least. The dealer put out Ace-King-Ace. Josh check-folded his hand faster than a speeding Jolteon and watched the action unfold, his jaw dropping farther as both players who were left in the hand kept going over the top of one another. The action ended with a 5-bet All In followed by a snap call. The cards were turned over, both players standing up.

"Jack or running Spades, one time dealer!" the young man to Josh's left called out. It was even more uphill than normal for the poor guy; the racer had folded a Jack away. The turn card was a meaningless Three of Hearts, meaning the table would be four-handed soon, unless a Jack or another King came on the river. The river card was a second King, giving them both a Full House.

Josh's jaw hit the felt; that hand was something like one would expect to see out of a movie. The two ended the hand roughly where they started. "What a hand..." Josh gasped as he prepared to be dealt in. This next hand was heating up, too; he got into a scuffle with a very aggressive opponent that made him question whether bottom two pair was good enough.

"Pluto."

He went to dealing out the cards, watching each player carefully. More so, his eyes was locked on the one with all the chips he was racking up. Though his attention went back to the hands, brows raised. Looking quite impressed, they sure did get the luck of the draw..

Until she finally caught what he had been looking for- the man with all the chips was pulling a card out of his sleeve. Pluto reached over, grabbing his wrist and bending it back. Staring at him with a cold expression. "Dust!" He called, as a strange man appeared. He was clothed rather... oddly.

A skeleton git-up and a even worse menacing grin over his face. "Yes, boss?"

"Please escort them out. They've been cheating." His tone was flat, watching as the man was dragged kicking and screaming out. Pluto's expression changed back to look happy after it was done. "Oh? Yes! We will be broadcasting it live over the screens. Several people have already placed some bets, believe it or not."

Some motions, as he waited for the plays to go by, before dealing again, glancing at Josh. "My husband seems to think nicodemus unken or Julia Davis have a good chance."

Josh Devlin

The hand was another unfortunate runout for Josh, reluctantly laying down his hand after it got counterfeited by two pair on the board. With only a Jack for a kicker, he could not justify calling a big river bet. He was down almost 200 PD after just ten hands, and a Double Board Bomb Pot was coming, which would bleed more of his money if he didn't catch good cards. "Great to meet you, Pluto," he offered a handshake to the dealer after looking at his hole cards for the all-important hand. "I've only been Mauville's Gym Leader for about a month." While the cheater was escorted out of the casino, that wasn't going to get Josh his chips back, sadly.

It was unsurprising that the casino would be taking bets for the Pokémon race happening soon. "There are so many networks that are going to be providing race coverage. Several racers are even linking coverage on social media. It's gonna be big. Now hopefully this damn pain dies down before the race..." he muttered that last sentence as chips started to fly toward the center of the table, particularly since two more people had joined. Playing six-handed required a more conservative betting approach.

Josh's stack dwindled after running cold for several more orbits, until he got a hand he wasn't too embarrassed to try to take a stab with. "Pluto, my bet would be on Eva Morales . I got to race with her in her very first event. There was a field of twenty, and she took it all." As a third heart was placed onto the board, Josh's pair of deuces in the hole wasn't looking great, but he saw it as an opportunity to represent a flush. "Raise. Gonna raise it to 75." His opponent went into the tank for a long time before ultimately folding. Josh breathed a big sigh of relief, getting a huge bluff through and rebuilding his stack some. "Julia's really good, too," he said as he stacked the medium-sized pot.

Josh's cards went cold for a few more hands, giving him plenty of time to socialize with the other players and the dealer. "Matt is really good. A hothead, but he's got a lot of talent. And I don't blame bettors for not wanting to go against an Arcanine. The Extreme Speed of an Arcanine is the fastest experience you can get riding a Pokémon on land." Not entirely true, but a casino was not the place to start spouting nonsense about Raikou. There were way too many people here. And all it took was the information getting into one wrong person's hands for someone in Team Rocket, or worse, the Drk Triad, to put Bullet Seeds in his head.

"Julia is quite good too. I'm looking forward to meeting them both at my Gym." They were both registered to battle, but Josh still had the racing challenge of his Gym closed after the assassination attempt; he wasn't quite ready to start taking challengers on again. He had delegated battling responsibilities to his top Gym Trainer until he could make a full recover. "Dodrio's another Pokémon you just can't bet against. They wells of stamina as deep as Gordy's stack over there," he pointed toward the table's chip leader, who had just won a brutal All-In that forced its loser to re-buy.

Three orbits later, Josh had at last picked up a premium hand. The timing couldn't have been worse; there were now seven players at the table, and it was a Double Board Bomb Pot. The chances of his hand being counterfeited were quite high. While the top board was innocuous, the bottom board was three connected cards, and all Clubs at that. To protect his hand, Josh put out a big bet, his heart sinking when he got not one, but two callers. There had to be some big hands out there.

Josh still felt ahead on the top board, but the bottom board became even scarier when a fourth club came on the turn. He checked his hole cards one more time, and he indeed had the Queen of Clubs, giving him the fourth nuts on the bottom board. With not a single over card on the top board, he made his stand here. He cupped his hands behind his stack and shoved toward the center of the table.

"All in."

The first player to act behind him immediately mucked his cards. The second one spent several minutes in the tank. "Can I get a clock, please?" Once the pressure of time was requested, it took mere seconds for the decision to come out.

"Call."

Josh stood up as the cards were turned over. He was way ahead on both boards; his Queens were good on the first board, and he had the higher flush on the second board. He just needed to fade an Ace on the top board, and the ten or five of clubs on the bottom board, which would give his caller a straight flush. With bated breath, he awaited both of Pluto's river cards. Both run-outs were clean, the racer making a big fist pump as the enormous pot was sent his way. More than doubling up, he was now over 200 PD in the black.

"Nice hand," the young man complimented. At least he was a good sport about it; it probably had to do with him having Josh's former stack covered. That wasn't the case anymore!

"Mmm, I'd consider Julia a friend of mine, me and her spent a night up in the mountains watching a meteor shower." He wasn't going to say they were looking for Minior up there.

Though he paused, glancing towards Josh. Studying his face for several moments, before his attention was caught by- a huge bulking mass of a man that walked up to Pluto. Looking up at him, Pluto blinked several times at him. "Yes, Axe?" He asked, the man simply grunted at him, picking him up with ease and placing him out of the dealer circle.

"Guess that means my shift is over." Shrugging, he allowed the bigger man to take over, going to sit next to Josh now. "If you hold any other events at your gym, always feel free to reach out. We're wanting to get more involved with events."

Josh Devlin

The image of watching a meteor shower with Julia was romantic-sounding. While Josh wasn't much into romance, it sounded like a wonderful sight, at least. "Had to be gorgeous to watch," he replied, looking at his hole cards for the hand. Another premium hand, Ace-King suited, just a few hands after the last one! "Raise to 10," he announced a very quick three-bet. He thought the size of the raise would scare more people away, but he got two callers. He felt there were some scary hands out there, and mentally noted to proceed with caution.

Axe put a flop to the table, and it was a scary one: an Ace and two Queens gave him top two pair with top kicker, but strong hands containing queens could easily have called a raise. Action was taking a while to get to him, so he turned back to Pluto. "It really depends on how this one goes. If we get the green light for a league next year, you'll be one of the first to know. Depends on how much the League wants to subsidize us."

At last, action came back to him; one of his preflop raisers raised again. Josh felt he had to act now, but what was the size of the raise? There was no way he was getting away from this hand. The initial bettor got out of the way immediately after the racer announced, "All in." He groaned at the his opponent's immediate call, and stood up in disgust as the cards came over.

"Called a raise with a $&%#ing Queen and a Jack?!" Josh snapped before the last two cards even came. He was extremely far behind in the hand; only an Ace or running Broadway cards would save him now. At the very least, he had his opponent covered; he wasn't going to go broke, but he would be at the low point of the session if he didn't take down this pot that reached four figures.

This runout was clean, as well, and not in Josh's favor. "He called a raise with a Queen and a Jack! How do these players even last this long?! It's so sick!"

"It was an aggressive call."

"Aggressive call?! #&%$." The young man's emotions were starting to flare as he tilted his head toward the dealer that had just sat down. "These people have no concept of poker," his tirades continued as he let himself fall into his seat. "Nice dealing there, buddy." Even Janus was getting in on trying to calm Josh down, imparting calm, gentle thoughts toward his trainer.

Pluto listened to Josh, nodding. Well that made sense. If there was a next year to get too, that was... He didn't want to think about that right now. He was just enjoying watching people play. People watching was always a thing he enoyed.

But seeing how annoyed Josh was becoming made him frown. Glancing towards Axe, the huge brute of a man giving Pluto a look. Asking with his eyes if he should escort him out, a wave of the hand dismissed the thought.

"Just the way the game works." Came the calm reaction from Pluto, going to give Josh a gentle pat on the shoulder. "How about I get you a drink?" Maybe help take his mind off it.

Josh Devlin

Pluto was right. Poker was a game about a little risk and reward, a lot of psychology, and an incredible amount of luck. "That's poker," Josh answered, though he was still rather irritated by what he perceived was a loose call. "Doesn't make it hurt any less when you lose a big hand because another person made an objectively wrong play." The offer of a drink helped the Leader calm down. "A large lemonade's good," he added, handing the casino operator a 5 PD bill. "Change's yours."

A few orbits later, Josh found himself playing tight with his short stack, as was expected. After getting raised pre-flop, the Mauville Leader announced, "All in." Figuring the young man would shove with any hand, he gave Josh a quick call. "Cowboys, buddy!" the racer clapped, Janus perking up, his red forehead gem glowing with excitement for his Trainer. All he had to do was fade an Ace, and he would get a sweet double up and some breathing room to work with.

"Hey Josh, how many times we running it?" the older gentleman asked him.

"Let's run it four times, Scott," the Leader answered. "No hard feelings." Josh was a pretty good favorite to win the hand; there would need to be four to a flush or an Ace for his pair of Kings to be no good. Three runouts ended up in Josh's favor, and the fourth in Scott's favor. It was still a big win for him, winning some pre-flop bets and half the size of his stack on top of it. He was still down to about half his initial stack, but at least he had some breathing room now.

"No problem!"

He departed quickly, going to the bar and getting the lemonade. Leaving the change as a tip, he brought the drink back and set it next to Josh. Pluto had his own beverage on some unknown liquid. But he slid that over to Axe, who took it without a second glance.

Pluto went back to watching the game, humming to himself as he drummed his fingers. A trained ear got him to look over towards a doorway- a flaunt of sexily clad girls and men exited with a crowd, singing happy birthday.

"Oh boy."

Josh Devlin

"Thanks, Pluto," Josh answered a few hands later when the owner returned with his lemonade. He placed the non-alcoholic beverage into the drink holder built into the poker table. He let out a small gasp when his eyes peered toward the time in the corner of his Ranger HoloWear. "Almost ten already? Where has the night gone?" he asked, looking down at a mighty fine hand: suited Broadway cards. Both of his opponents called pre-flop and post-flop raises.

Even with top pair and a combo draw, Josh was scared his King-Queen of Hearts wouldn't be good enough. Despite his fear, he kept up the aggression with a pot-sized bet, then got snap raised All-In. His other opponent mucked his cards just as quickly. Josh was really in a tight spot, Shortly after a clock was called on him, he did indeed make the call.

When the cards turned over, Josh stood up. crying "No Jack! No Jack!" There was indeed no Jack on either the turn or the river, letting him more than double up and turn a profit for the session for the first time in hours. He turned around to see scantily-clad females celebrating a patron's birthday, and that was all he needed to see. He was here to speak with one of his sponsors over a game of poker, not to gawk at a #%&%toy.

Plutp was watching the girls- a stern eye on them. But then he turned back to hear Josh getting all excited. Smiling at him, he gave a nod. "Well, wait to go. Gonna bring you home a nice sum tonight!" he smiled, as he sipped on his drink.

He spotted another bouncer escorting someone out, giving a small huff. "Seems Scar got someone... Why can't people just behave?" The slow head shake. "Will never understand."

Josh Devlin