History Recap / TalesFromTheCryptS2E3CuttingCards

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!!This episode provides examples of:

* LifeOrLimbDecision: Chop Poker allows for the player with the losing hand to have a body part chopped off. Thanks to Reno and Sam's unending pride and continous deadlocking, they keep playing until all their limbs are gone.

* AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: The gamblers' games start off with a simple roll of the dice. When they come out even, they abruptly switch to RussianRoulette. When the last round doesn't fire, they then switch to a gace called Chop Poker, where the person with the winning hand gets to chop off a part of the loser's body with a meat cleaver.

[[caption-width-right:350: A poker night you'll never forget.]]

->'''Crypt Keeper:''' ''(sitting at a makeshift poker table, wearing a visor, and looking over his hand)'' You know, kiddies, after a night of slithering through the sickening ''slime'' of my crawly crypt, I take a tip from the Marquis de Sade. He likes to unwind with a little ''red-hot poker!'' ''(cackles)'' Tonight's tale, from my collection of terror tomes, is about a couple of ''real'' sharpies who'll do anything for a ''stab'' at the jackpot. So ante up, fellas: '''The game's about to begin.'''

Hotshot gambler Reno Crevice (Creator/LanceHenriksen) enters a casino looking for his bitter rival, Sam Forney (Creator/KevinTighe). The two have won and lost enormous amounts of money to each other over the years, and Reno wants to settle the score permanently. He is down to his last $100, but Sam offers to play a game against him in which the loser has to leave town for good. Reno rolls dice and gets a double-six, but Sam gets the same roll for a draw.

Next, Reno suggests that they play RussianRoulette, using the revolver Sam keeps in his car. Reno loads one chamber, spins the cylinder, and allows Sam to go first. Neither man backs down as they hit one empty chamber after another, and Reno prepares to die on the sixth and final turn - but the gun fails to fire. Sam protests that the round may have been too old or wet to fire correctly, but Reno accuses him of rigging the game.

They then move on to Chop Poker, a five-card draw game with no chips or betting. The winner of each hand gets to chop off one part of the loser's body with a meat cleaver, starting with the fingers. Sam loses the first two hands, then wins one and ignores Reno's desperate offer to let a doctor reattach a lost finger as he gleefully hacks off one of Reno's.

The scene cuts to a hospital ward some time later. Reno and Sam are now patients here, their arms and legs reduced to stumps - they have come out even once again. They continue to bicker as they play checkers, using their noses to push the pieces and passing a piece of chewing gum back and forth.

* AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: The gamblers' games start off with a simple roll of the dice. When they come out even, they abruptly switch to RussianRoulette. When the last round doesn't fire, they then switch to Chop Poker, where the person with the winning hand gets to chop off a part of the loser's body with a meat cleaver. This results in...
* AllForNothing: By the end, despite hacking off all their limbs, Reno and Sam haven't let up one bit. The last we see of them, they're ''still'' trying to best each other, this time in a game of checkers in their hospital room.
* AnArmAndALeg: The episode ends with Reno and Sam in hospital, their arms and legs reduced to stumps as the result of having chopped off each other's limbs during the Chop Poker game.
* TheBet: After years of winning and losing huge bets to each other, Reno and Sam decide to play one more game, with the loser leaving town for good (either alive or dead). Unfortunately for the gamblers, both of them keep ending up deadlocked, and they're ''still'' at it as the episode ends.
* CreepySouvenir: When his luck in Chop Poker gets good, Reno considers pickling Sam's severed fingers in a jar and showing them off to his buddies.
* EverybodyLives: A rarity in this series. Reno and Sam are both alive right up to the end of the events, albeit with [[AnArmAndALeg their limbs cut off]].
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Thinking his luck's run out in Russian Roulette, Reno brings the gun to his head and pulls the trigger, but not before monologuing about how he doesn't want people talking about how he was a coward. As it turns out, the shot was a dud.
* {{Fingore}}: Reno and Sam engage in a game of "Chop Poker", where [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame the player with the losing hand gets a finger hacked off with a meat cleaver]]. [[AnArmAndALeg And the stakes only get bigger as the game drags on.]]
* FreezeFrameBonus: During Sam's third turn in the game of Russian roulette, he cocks the hammer and points the gun at a couple who have just driven in. After they speed away, he cocks the hammer again and pulls the trigger, hitting nothing. This gives an alternative explanation for the outcome of the game: that second hammer-cock allowed Sam to skip the loaded chamber altogether. (Neither man thinks of opening the cylinder to see if the round has a firing pin indentation, which would show that it had been hit and was a dud.)
* TheGamblingAddict: Reno and Sam, again. As each has won and lost large sums of money to the other over the years, they decided, upon their present-time meeting, to settle the score once and for all, each of them unwilling to call it quits on the other.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Reno and Sam have this mentality, only focusing on their own egos and getting the other out of town and out of their lives permanently.
* LifeOrLimbDecision: Chop Poker allows for the player with the losing hand to have a body part chopped off. Thanks to Reno and Sam's unending pride, they keep playing until all their limbs are gone.

* LoserLeavesTown: The non-lethal result of the original bet between Reno and Sam is that the loser has to get out of town for good, but they keep coming out even and raising the stakes.
* MistakenForServant: The tourist who tries to drive into the parking lot where Reno and Sam are staging their RussianRoulette showdown thinks Reno is a valet. The gamblers pressuring him to drive away is the only time that they agree on anything in the whole episode, with Sam even calling Reno his friend.
* MutualDisadvantage: Reno and Sam show themselves to be equally matched at gambling. They keep coming to a draw during every game they play, and the end of the episode still sees that neither of them have won.
* NoEnding: When we last see them, Reno and Sam are playing checkers in the hospital, reduced to quadruple amputees through their game of Chop Poker. And yes, they're ''still'' trying to outdo one another.
* OnlyAFleshWound: In real life, the gamblers' [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame games]] wouldn't have gotten as far as "chopping off all limbs", and they would have been lucky to make it as far as a single hand before going into shock from blood loss.
* {{Pride}}: Reno and Sam live and breathe pride, to the point where they refuse to settle for a draw, and engage one another in a series of increasingly dangerous games to satisfy their ego-fueled competition.

* TheRival: Reno and Sam see each other as archenemies, resulting in neither of them being willing to settle for a draw.
* RussianRoulette: Reno and Sam play a game using Sam's gun after they both roll a double-six on the dice. To the shock of both, the final shot is a dud.

* TooMuchAlike: Have you noticed how similar Reno and Sam are to each other? They're both {{Professional Gambler}}s and [[TheGamblingAddict gambling addicts]] with too much pride to settle for a draw and see each other as rivals that must be defeated in a bet no matter how much it costs each of them, after years of winning and losing to the other and gradually having their rivalry drive their lives down the drain. They both seem to have failed to spot such similarities between them throughout the whole episode, resulting in [[AnArmAndALeg both losing their own limbs]] in an AbsurdlyHighStakesGame -- and they're ''still'' trying to outdo the other.

->'''Crypt Keeper:''' ''(cooking Reno and Sam's severed fingers in a frying pan)'' I've heard of giving someone the finger, but this is ''ridiculous!'' But at the risk of going out on a ''limb'', I've got to ''hand'' it to Crevice and Forney. They'd do anything to ''elbow'' their way to the top! ''(shows off the cooking body parts)'' Dinnertime! ''(he cackles)''

* SkewedPriorities: Reno ''just'' survived a game of RussianRoulette, and his concern is over the fact that the bullet didn't work.

* FreezeFrameBonus: During Sam's third turn in the game of Russian roulette, he cocks the hammer and points the gun at a couple who have just driven in. After they speed away, he cocks the hammer again and pulls the trigger, hitting nothing. This gives an alternative explanation for the outcome of the game: that second hammer-cock allowed Sam to skip the loaded chamber altogether.

* AllForNothing: By the end, despite hacking off all their limbs, Crevice and Forney haven't gotten rid of each other. The last we see them, they're ''still'' trying to best each other, this time in a game of checkers in their hospital room.

* {{Fingore}}: Reno and Sam engage in a game of "Chop Poker", where [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame the player with the losing hand gets a finger chopped off by a meat cleaver]]. [[AnArmAndALeg And the stakes only get bigger as the game drags on.]]

* LifeOrLimbDecision: Chop Poker allows for the player with the losing hand to have a body part chopped off. Thanks to Reno and Sam's unending pride, they got far enough to have all their limbs hacked off.

* LoserLeavesTown: The non-lethal result of Crevice and Forney's bet is meant for the loser to leave the winner's town forever, but it doesn't happen since Sam and Reno keep coming out even with each other.