D'Arby the Gambler, Part 2

Before the cards are dealt, Jotaro shows off Star Platinum's flawless eyesight, naming every card's place after a quick shuffle as a warning against cheating. D'Arby counters that he only needs to keep the cards out of the Stand's view, and reveals that his own heightened sense of touch lets him memorize a deck. The gambler earns the first deal and immediately attempts a false shuffle, palming a card, which costs him a broken finger from Star Platinum. Declaring he now plays purely for his pride rather than for DIO, he splits Polnareff's and Joseph's souls into six chips apiece and gives Jotaro six blanks to represent his own, while a local boy in his employ deals for the challenger.

Jotaro drops three chips on his opening hand, feeding the gambler's confidence. Dealt four kings next, D'Arby is unsettled to see Jotaro betting heavily without even glancing at his cards. As the stakes climb to include Avdol's soul and then Kakyoin's, D'Arby, sure the rigged deal left Jotaro with garbage, keeps raising, yet the student stays maddeningly calm. Then he glimpses Star Platinum lighting Jotaro's cigarette at blinding speed, and the fear that his opponent could have swapped cards unseen takes hold. Noticing Jotaro now sipping a cocktail he never saw ordered, the gambler grows frantic.

When Jotaro proposes wagering his mother Holy's soul in exchange for the secret of DIO's Stand, D'Arby, who truly knows that answer but fears execution for revealing it, buckles completely. He subconsciously folds and releases both captured souls. Avdol then sees that Jotaro's hand was worthless all along; the young man admits he never looked at his cards precisely to stay unreadable, lamenting only that the now-broken D'Arby can no longer be questioned about DIO. His terrified accomplice flees, and the group leaves the cafe intact yet no closer to their target.

Jotaro warns against cheating by demonstrating Star Platinum's perfect memory and speed, then breaks D'Arby's finger for a false shuffle. The souls of Polnareff and Joseph are staked as chips while Jotaro bets with blanks. Jotaro wins the psychological duel by never viewing his own hand, letting D'Arby's imagination convince him he has been outplayed. Facing a wager for both Holy's soul and DIO's secret, D'Arby mentally collapses and frees the captured souls, though the Crusaders gain no clue about DIO's whereabouts.

The thirty-fifth episode of Stardust Crusaders and eleventh of the Egypt Arc adapts the final pages of chapter 213 through chapter 216. The adaptation lengthens D'Arby's breakdown and defeat. Director Naokatsu Tsuda highlighted chief animation director Masahiko Komino personally overseeing the episode, and noted that the entire installment received substantial reworking for the Blu-ray release, including uncensored smoking and reanimated scenes. A trivia point observes that D'Arby's internal calculation overstates how many cards Jotaro would have needed to swap for a winning hand.