Page 75 of Ideal Life

Please, Sam, please… Talia’s heart was in her throat. He needed to fold. He would be fine if he did. He’d still be in the tournament.

But Sam took a deep breath and said, “Call,” while pushing all his chips forward.

Louise turned over two aces.

“Shit!” Talia punched her mattress.

Sam had lost everything. His $5,000 buy-in was gone, which he really couldn’t afford to lose, and at 734th place, he was going to have to walk away with nothing.

Talia watched as he stood from the table.

“Seat open at table twenty-three,” the tournament director announced, making Sam’s exit official.

“No,” Talia said. “This is not okay.”

She got up to retrieve the watch from her nightstand.

But halfway across the room, she stopped. Last night, she had stashed the watch away because she’d made the decision to finally stop this madness of constantly turning back time.

True emergencies only, she’d told herself.

This was Sam, though. His future was more important to her than almost anyone else’s.

He would hate me using this on him.

But he won’t know… He never does.

All of her muscles felt too tight, her insides too tangled, but Talia got the watch out of the drawer and rewound anyway.

Back to the beginning of level 6. She had gone back slightly more than thirty minutes before the live stream, since that was on delay.

While she waited to watch, Talia brushed the nasty old-sock taste from her mouth, took a quick shower, and brewed some coffee.

Summer Million update: Level 6 live stream starts now!

“You got it this time, Sam.”

Table 23. He had the same cards as before. Louise Enger also had her original starting hand.

Sam put in 1,200 chips.

Louise pushed in 3,600.

Talia sat at the edge of her couch as she watched. Everything so far was the same. She gulped down her coffee and willed the dealer’s cards to change.

Ace of clubs. Seven of spades. Two of diamonds. Just like last time.

“Oh no,” Talia said.

The rest of the hand happened exactly the same, too. Sam kept calling, and Louise kept escalating.

All in.

Sam pushed all his chips forward.

“Seat open at table twenty-three.”

“I refuse to accept this,” Talia said and rewound again.