Snippet #2270745

Viktor took a potato, cut it open and slipped in a slice of butter. He let it close so the butter would melt quickly. He also accepted a drink that looked like champagne but tasted like applecider. He was less reserved when it came to his cutlery; the potato was eaten by hand. He'd always considered baked potatoes a finger-food.
Theo ate slowly because the sudden anger had flooded his stomach, killing his appetite. He also did not wish to look rude in front of Anna, who he had already offended once this evening. "Someone pass the salt, please?" One of the robots shook some out of an appendage in its arm.

When Callen posed his question, Viktor looked up. "Texas hold'em? Blackjack? Strip poker?" He shrugged. "Bones? Dice? Craps? Mintopry? Gin? Gui?" He listed the various gambling pasttimes that came to mind. "Roulette? Vian? Bullshit?" Those were some of the few ways he had tried making money as a kid. None of them were particularly lucrative against life-long gamblers, and most included debts to less-than-nice cardsharks.
Theo looked at Viktor. "Why roullete?"
"Because one dollar can make me fifty-two?"
"Yeah, but a one-fity-some-ought chance is... Slim, isn't it?"
"Math's never been my strong suit, if you'll excuse the pun."
"Betting black doesn't even give you a twenty-five odd, though. There's always two green slots, zero and one-hundred."
"Bet on one of them for one-twent-six, though. Take some risks, Theo."
"I'd rather not waste money like that. I'd stick to cards; their odds are constant."
"How so?"
"Well, you see, with roulette, you can play the same number fifty-two times, right? If you lose every single time, don't you expect the fifty-third to be the winner? Well, statistics don't play like that; every spin there is a new one-to-fifty-two chance of winning. With cards, the cards don't get shuffled back into the deck until a hand is over, right? So you know, with increasing clarity, the chances of every outcome. Which is why you always call Dealer on-"
"Texas Hold'em and Blackjack, I know. The house always wins."*

*Viktor said the last line in Russian, however this PC can't handle multi-tab, copy-pasting so... :(