March to the Sea by David Weber & John Ringo (Empire of Man Series, Book 2)

   The purely Mardukan variant of poker, which would have made the professionals of New Vegas choke if they ever saw it, said that any player could call a check of all the cards once per game. The rule also required that all the Mardukans at the table throw all of their cards on the table and raise their hands above their heads. ...

Card check!

   ...Roger kicked back and laughed silently while he watched. The locals had the oddest approach to cheating he'd ever heard of. If you weren't cheating, they considered you stupid. But if you got caught, they considered you a gross incompetent. As soon as they'd figured out the ways they could cheat at cards, they'd leapt in with abandon. Spades and the other whist derivative games were the only ones where they couldn't hide cards, but even then they bottom-dealt, cross-dealt, and stacked decks so cold they froze. And yet they still played for money. 

~~~~~ 

<---  The last of the barbarian horde, trapped on the Great Bridge, pressed on one side by 'demons' and the other by a terrible killbox full of smoke and fire. They are broken. Even those who survive will clearly never be the same. Their chieftain clutches his ancient, ceremonial battleax, and steps up onto the wall.

He will not be taken alive. He will not allow the great ax to fall into enemy hands...