Game of Luck and Skill

Solacy had just visited some friends at their booth and talked with them for a while before deciding to check out same games. They would all meet for food later but for now the booth was busy and Solacy didn't want to be in the way. She walked leisurely through the festival, eyes roaming and trying to take it all in. There were so many colors, so many games and music playing, noise from cans being toppled over or children screaming in victory. It seemed impossible to decide for a game and where to go first so Solacy just looked for a stall that didn't have a large crowd gathered around it. Part of that was so she didn't have to wait too long but also so there weren't many spectator. Solacy always felt nervous when she thought that she had to perform for others and was under the scrutiny of strangers.

She went over to the booth and was greeted by a smiling Stelciar.
"Hello there! Care to play? Only one Silver Salmon for a game!"
Solacy tried not to react too much. Only? That seemed pretty expensive. Maybe that was the reason why this stall was so empty...
"Uhmm, what's the game?"
The Stelciars eyes glistened and he grinned even further.
"Easy! I have a deck of cards and we will play a round of poker. You get five darts as your betting. I will also get five darts. Depending on if you win or lose the poker round you can have zero darts or the full ten! With those you can then throw at these water balloons. You need to destroy five balloons to win one of my amazing prices!"
Solacy looked around the walls of the booth where those prices were displayed. They did look pretty good. But this game....
"So if I lose the poker round I don't even get to toss the darts and just wasted my Silver Salmon?"
The Stelciar looked at her in fake shock.
"Well you still got to play a game in that case! And if you don't want to play poker you can just use the five darts you get. But you would need to hit with every throw."
Solacy didn't know wether to walk away or not. That Buddy Bear price *did* look really good and she wanted to have it.

"Can I see those darts to see how sharp they are? And what if you marked the poker deck?"
The Stelciar gave her a dart but was not happy about the second comment.
"I would never do that... Unbelievable..."
The darts did seem pretty sharp. And the balloons looked to be inflated enough to have a thin skin. And being filled with water would make them heavier and not be able to move around too much. Hmm...
"How about instead of poker we play a quick round of Mau Mau? If I have cards left on my hand at the end I lose that number of darts. And if I win I get the extra darts."
"You know what? Let's do it!"
The game went quick and Solacy was relieved to win it and get all ten darts. Now the difficult part... A few people did look on but she tried to concentrate. She had always been pretty good at precision.
The first dart didn't hit anything. Getting used to this throwing would take a bit.
The next dart almost hit!
Solacy tried to calm her nerves and ignore everything around her. She got in the zone and when she realized her darts were empty she blinked a few times. Was the game already over?
"Wow! 6 hits! What an amzing game! Great work! Now you can have your choice of any of my fabulous prices!"
The Stelciar spoke extra loud to lure in more potential customers and Solacy pointed towards the Buddy Bear.
"Here you go! Have a great night!"
Solacy stepped aside with her price as the next Stelciar stepped up to the booth and gently hugged her Bear. Worth it.