He's back on shipboard, maybe the Magda, maybe not.

"The game is seven card stud," intones the dealer, handing Finch the deck to cut. The four other players are North, South, East and West. Oddly, the dealer doesn't seem to be playing. Finch is watching his money, so he doesn't get a good look at anybody else.

The dealer takes the deck from Finch and deals everybody two cards face down. Then it's one round, face up.

"And North gets the Ace of Cups, great joy! South gets the Eight of Coins, reversed, beautiful, eh? Another Eight, this one of Swords, to the East. West gets a wise lady -- the Queen of Cups! Mister Finch gets her junior, the Knight of Cups. North? The bet is to you."

Finch looks at his hole cards. One is The Star, and the other is the Two of Cups. Finch isn't sure about the first, but at least he might have a flush going. North bets a penny and everybody joins in. No raises. The deal resumes.

"North gets The Magician, but reversed. Weakens the Ace? We'll see. South gets the Three of Wands, also reversed. East continues the reversal with the Queen of Swords -- looks like a Sword thing going on there, and that lady's best known for her manipulations. Oh, we're still backwards with the Five of Wands for West and, yes, the Four of Wands for Finch. The Ace still bets."

North puts in another penny, and everybody follows quietly.

"And a reversed Two of Swords goes to North, but we turn away and give The World to South, perfectly right side up! East gets The Chariot. Teamed up with all those Swords? Ouch! And it's the Wheel of Fortune to West. Stop twitching. Finally, a Three of Coins to Finch, reversed. Mediocre addition to a lacklustre hand. The Ace still bets."

With that Two as a hole card, Finch has a three card straight.

Everybody passes on betting.

"North gets Temperance, South gets Strength. The Fool travels East-ward. I throw Two Coins to the West and Finch takes the Ace of Coins. Do I detect a passion for the cash-in?"

Again the compass directions pass, but Finch notes the growth of his straight. He throws in two pennies and everybody follows.

"Last one is down and dirty."

Finch gets the Nine of Wands. Not very useful. But then, all the other players have all those majorly arcane cards that don't have any use in poker, do they?

Everybody has their three hole cards in hand and their others arrayed in a line, left to right. Nobody bets.

South speaks after stifling a yawn. "You might think that with my front ending in The World and Strength, I'd have hidden might as well. Not so. See? I begin with only Seven Coins and then I'm clouded by the reversed Sun. I finish with Six more Coins."

East speaks mournfully. "It looked like my Swords and my Chariot could mobilize my strengths, but then I played The Fool. Well, I started out honest, as you can see by the Justice card, here. It's then that The Lovers turned my path. I also ended up with small change, in the form of Five Coins."

West speaks dryly. "I started with Nine Coins, reversed, and Three Cups. You see my fortune from there to the penultimate. At the very last," he flips the card, "Judgment was mine!"

North doesn't speak. North has left, but her hole cards are on the table. Finch leans over to flip them. Unlike the moderating story of her four public cards, her hand had started with The High Priestess, followed with Death. The hand culminates in The Tower. "That's a battle, and a BIG one," somebody says.

But for the moment, in poker terms, Finch has won. His Ace/Knight combination beat North's Ace/Two. He rakes in the pot and counts it. Twenty three pennies.