🍁Nine Ancient Obelisks

—The butterfly effect in action! —the southerner commented with a businesslike and ironic tone, accepting the miraculous drink. —Thank you. Mmm! —He thanked the hosts again and turned his attention to the card deck. —I dare to suggest that the suits are not named after the basic elements for no reason?

—Unfortunately, I don't know that either, so let it be an additional topic for you to discuss with its creator.

After that, Thiozar explains the rules of the game to Asmidul.

—At the beginning of the round, three cards are dealt face up on the table.
—Each player is dealt a hand of three cards.
—Once per round, a player can exchange any number of their cards for others from the deck.
—The goal: to assemble a combination of five cards on the table and in hand that is better than the opponent's.
—If neither player has any combination, they can discard one card in exchange for a new one from the deck or a random one from the list of cards already discarded by both players.

—At the beginning of each round, a player must make a bet in the form of two chips.
—The chips are assigned a certain value (usually money), and in case of victory, the player takes the opponent's chips and the value assigned to them.
—The match continues until one of the players runs out of chips.
—If a player has at least one chip left, they can borrow two more.

During each round, before the hands are revealed, a player can:
—Fold. In this case, he will lose only 1 chip and its assigned value.
—Raise the bet (+1 chip). In this case, he forces the opponent to do the same or automatically lose without the possibility of folding.

List of combinations from best to worst:
—Elemental Progress: five cards of the same suit, in sequence.
—Quartet: four cards of the same rank.
—Shelter: a three-of-a-kind and a pair.
—Elemental Storm: five cards of the same suit.
—Progress: five cards of different suits, in sequence.
—Three-of-a-kind: three cards of the same rank.
—Two pairs: two cards of one rank and two cards of another.
—Pair: two cards of the same rank.
In case of identical combinations, the hand with the lower total rank value wins.