Usogui - Vol. 42 Ch. 457 - Paradigm Shift

[MangaDex]

 

[fire]

Cheers, guys! Was waiting for this one

-- Woah, didn't expect that. Another punishment to Hal, now?
And a re-raise fold? When everyone knows the law? Odd, no?

 

[nhattminhh]

WTF!?

 

[299792458]

How long will this batch be?

 

[BossCrab]

Jonui's theory from last chapter was a good call. Baku does not bet on luck; it is more in character for him to believe in Hal and fold here, continuing with the original plan. We as readers know Fukurou made an invalid hand, but no one else in the game other than Shion does. Betting everything on the chance of a miss from Fukurou wouldn't make sense, unless he had somehow intentionally made him miss.

The question now is what hand did Hal make, and where does that leave us for Round 5? I think most of us are expecting Hal to have made a junk hand here, so they can use 25 in the final round. Hal making a dumb hand would certainly be shocking to the referees as well. Do Fukurou's other cards remain in the pool, or are they all removed (I believe he loses the 4 "new" cards he chose)? If Fukurou picked the wrong suit of King, doesn't that mean there's still a King in play, since the King of Diamonds hasn't been selected and removed? Does that change either of the remaining numbers? What about Hal's cards? Does Hal have to suffer the witch pain because his partner folded, or is that purely based off the numbers?

If its the latter, I think Hal and Baku might have made Fukurou miss somehow. If the Witch Pain punishment is purely based off of the hands Fukurou and Hal make, and we know an invalid hand is considered a "loss", maybe he has to experience the Witch Pain even if Lalo wins below. Hal is insistent that another hit of the Witch Pain would break him, perhaps they made Fukurou miss so they could both lose the hand (and preserve 25) but allow Hal to escape the punishment so he can think clearly for the final hand.

 

[Ebnu]

Oh my God
This chapter is so good

Baku folding is the most optimum strategy, he also kinda count on Hal to lost on purpose and win in the next round

I kinda misread last chapter I thought Lalo already raised and Baku called. It is just Lalo's reading on what will Baku do

 

[Rooster]

So it was a bluff after all and everything is back on track with the theory of Baku believing in Hal to throw this hand.

More interesting to me is Fukurou.. Did he do that on purpose? Or did Hal do something to him to make him?

 

[Jonui]

@Ebnu Actually, Baku didn't call. He just paid the ante of 4 bios (no choice) and checked.

Also, Lalo can't fold next round.
Since Baku folded this round, the incoming result will be: 22 bios for Lalo, and 13 bios for Baku.
Then, if Lalo folds, he'll lose 5 bios (the new ante) and the final result will be: 17 bios for Lalo, and 18 for Baku.
Assuming they will consume their air at the same rate from now on, it would be Baku's win, by 1 air bios. So Lalo definitely has to win the fifth round as well.

EDIT: Oh, nevermind, I just saw you edited your post.

 

[Ebnu]

@jonui thanks for the explanation
Based on several last chapters I already know that the winner margin will be just 1 air bios
But I misread the last chapter, I thought Baku already raised (since the chapter title also called suicidal raise), so it will change the margin

 

[Clooud]

YEEEE

 

[xkcdhawk]

@Jonui
Also going to be interesting how the 'extra' bios that Baku has possibly saved up going to be factored in the last round. Because since Baku is on his 5th air bios for breathing, assuming that all his used air bios has some extra air inside them, the difference is going to be a lot bigger than Lalo might think it is.

 

[marcyvq]

My asshole is so clenched right now my shit turned to diamonds

 

[kavinh]

even though it wasn't the game changer it's still kinda weird for fukurou to make such a big mistake in basically sudden death. I wonder if it was done for a reason or something influenced it cause it seems really out of character for a superhuman poker genius to potentially cause a loss just cause he had a slip of mind.

 

[catx3]

@Sinful_egg @299792458
463+. We'll probably reach the end of Air Poker either during this batch or the next batch.

@Fire
The dialogue + paneling was a bit confusing in the last chapter. Baku didn't actually raise, it was Lalo imagining that Baku might do that. Baku only checked -> fold.

@BossCrab
One possible addition to the "junk hand theory", is that maybe it's a (partial?) bluff by Baku, and that he's trying to get Lalo to fold in the 5th round by making him believe he still has the straight flush.

Assuming the table scratching was indeed his message, maybe
1) it didn't actually reach Hal, so the strategy didn't happen
2) it did reach Hal, but Baku isn't sure of it because Hal didn't send a message back (no one has found anything that seems like it yet at least).

So he only has a "chance" of having the straight flush, so he'd prefer to get Lalo to fold instead, in order to get a more certain victory.

Since Lalo saw the table scratching before, maybe Baku will do it again to remind him of it or something, to make him recall it and become aware of the (possible) straight flush.

 

[Dunslax]

I like this development. It would leave a bad taste on my mouth if this whole thing was decided because of a random mistake by Fukurou.

 

[Rooster]

@catx3 If you haven't said that, I would have no idea. Yeah, it is clear if you keep track of how much BIOS is on the table, but I just didn't and looking at the comments from previous chapter, I wasn't the only one. That's incredibly confusing from the author for very little reason other than build artificial suspense. I hate when authors do that. At the very least, he could have colored the frame differently.

 

[BossCrab]

I got tripped up by the imagined raise as well, I think what got me was the referees talked about it as if it happened. If you look at Lalo, he doesn't move at all until he actually max bets. It makes sense considering how dramatically he called and raised in the first hand, but I was a bit confused.

 

[uncidutch]

Marco has gone missing