Peter Serf looked directly at Dimitar, who shuffled on his feet. He looked like he was holding onto a secret that was too hot to remain in his grasp. ‘You want to tell them, or shall I!?’ said Peter, his gun pointing at Dimitar’s chest. Both Ivan and Sofia looked utterly perplexed. ‘Your friend here, […]

Both of them stopped and stared at their phone screens. Below the creepy message was a link, presumably to download an app. Sofia went to flick it open.  ‘Wait, is that safe?’  ‘Dad, this is hardly the time to worry about Malware.’  Sofia clicked the app and a spinning wheel of doom loomed into view, […]

‘It’s never easy to win a game of heads-up poker.’ Ivan Angelov slurred. He had way more chips than Dimitar, but the bouncer and barman seemed to grow in the jacket he had been wearing since the sixth level of play. At his side, Elena smiled encouragingly at him. She had only been dancing at […]

The players who had been sitting at the poker table jumped out of their seats as the explosion of gunfire filled the large room with a deafening noise. Sofia looked up in the direction of the blast to see one of the waitresses from Glitter in the doorway holding a long black rifle, the smoke […]

The dealer counted out the chips as Miguel kicked his chair away in disgust, looking angry as Carlos had been. Sam was sure he had the most chips, even if it was just by a few thousand, but he sat motionless, waiting patiently to be declared the winner of the €3,400 top prize. Miguel strode […]

Carlos remained on his feet, but the three policemen moving in his direction took the wind out of his sails. Everyone was watching to see where they would end up. As it happened, they weren’t bound for Carlos, but veered right to Sam’s table. They walked past Sam arriving at the table where Mo and […]

They woke mid-afternoon, having earned the kind of sleep only lovers do. “Sammy, why do we meet like this?” Sofia asked as she sat at the gilt-edged make-up desk, blinking slowly into the mirror as she reapplied mascara. “In Barcelona or in bed? I think we both know the reason we end up in bed […]

Touching down in Bulgaria was always a routine that Sofia enjoyed. For one thing, she was landing in Sofia, the city after which she was named. When she was a child, it was all anyone talked about; her father’s relentless business drive and how he named his daughter after the city he hoped to one […]

“Let’s go over what happened one more time, just so we’re clear.” It was three in the morning and Sam was exhausted. He’d slept well into the evening before heading to the poker game, preparing for a night where sleep would need to be staved off as he battled to win millions. In Antonio’s dining […]

My Introduction to Poker I was introduced to poker much the same way many people my age did back in the early 2000s, the same combination of things that led to the poker boom at the time: TV, movies, and Moneymaker. The 1998 movie Rounders with it’s fantastic storytelling and characters introduced us to the […]