King Of A Small World

The Story

In Prince George's County, and across the country, there's a game going on. The curtains are drawn and the doors are locked and the smoke is as thick as yesterday's coffee. Chips fly, cards and players come and go, and the music and tension and caffeine have your heart beating and your fingers drumming. This is poker. Real poker, where playing on your opponents' hopes and fears is as important as tracking their cards, and where the sun may set and rise again before a game is done. Joey Moore is a great poker player: ruthless, sharp, and hugely aware, alert to his adversaries' every twitch and wiggle. He's been drifting from one game to another for years, winning more often than losing, lending money to his sweet, rough-and-tumble friends when he's flush, and seeing his off-and-on girlfriend, Laura, when the urge strikes. When a gig as a poker-boss lands in his lap, Joey starts to pull in some real money. He's got ten grand stashed in the floor of his car and another ten in his mom's heater, and all he has to do for it is show up. But twenty-five years of self-reliance have taught him that there's no such thing as good luck; good luck is a momentary fluke, a get-out-of-jail-free card that lasts only until your luck starts to change. And when it does, you'd better be able to fold and walk away.