When Josie Rivers told her husband Rob that she would leave him if he ever gambled again, she meant it. This was after the intervention, after Rob had surreptitiously drained their bank account during a particularly tilted online bender. With some belt tightening and lots of hard work, their savings would return in time, but Josie made it clear to Rob that if he squandered this final chance, her trust never would. 

Rob knew he'd messed up. He knew that Josie was a woman of her word, and he knew that if he slipped up again, she would walk out and take their son Andrew with her. But he also knew, deep down in his gut, that his luck was about to change, which is why he waited until Josie left town for her girlfriends getaway in Palm Springs to enter the grandaddy of all online poker tournaments.

It was Sunday morning, 6 am. 

Rob sat bleary eyed in front of his laptop, watching the sun come up.

The tourney had gone all night, and for the last hour Rob had been clinging on, slowly bleeding chips. Thousands of players had entered. Thirty-seven remained. Rob was so close to winning some real cash, so close to secretly redeeming himself by replenishing all the money that he'd lost and then some, but his shift at the plant started in twenty minutes, and the ante continued to rise. After outsmarting all the scrubs, dodging all the traps and bad beats, not to mention the fifth street bandits waiting for the final card to drop, fishing for their lucky hand, it couldn't end like this. Rob rubbed his drooping lids and listened as cartoons hummed quietly from the living room. Andrew and the neighbor kid Jonathan had crashed in front of the TV after a night of pizza and video games. Oh, to be eleven Rob mused with no small amount of resentment. 

He tiptoed into the kitchen and started brewing a big pot of coffee, glancing at the boys snoring softly on the couch. It seemed for the past couple months that Jonathan was always over, always spending the night, at least since the start of his parents' bitter divorce. He was an awkward kid, freckled and squirrely but nice enough, and Rob knew that all he really needed was refuge from the roaring arguments that kept the whole neighborhood up.

Returning to his laptop, Rob found that another player had just been eliminated. One step closer to the real winnings — the money that changes lives — but there was just no time. He was going to be late for his shift as it was, and it looked like there was no other option than to bow out in thirty fifth place and forever dream about what could have been. 

Unless...

            The boys could help. Well, not Andrew, as he might tell his mother and forever destroy the family. But Jonathan. Jonathan had no skin in the game. Even if he didn't know how to play poker, someone — anyone sitting in was better than forfeiting his position. And what if? Jonathan seemed like sharp kid. Rob could tell there was a shrewd mind behind those meek and troubled eyes. It was his best and only option.

            "Hey buddy." he whispered, tapping Jonathan on the shoulder. 

            Jonathan's lids opened slowly. 

            "Got a mission for you. Top secret."

            The boy sat up in drowsy confusion. Rob nodded towards his son Andrew who was out cold, brought a finger to his lips in a shushing motion, and waved for Jonathan to follow him to his laptop.  

            "Here's some coffee." Said Rob, placing an enormous mug on the desk. "The game is no limit Texas Hold‘em. I need you to hit this check button as many times as you can. Just get as far as you..."

            "I know how to play." Jonathan yawned. "My dad and uncles have a weekly game."

            Rob beamed inside. What luck.

            "Ok, well I've come pretty far, but I need to go to work now, so you need to get as much father as you possibly can. Do this and I'll give you... how does five hundred bucks sound?"

             Jonathan's eyes widened at the mention of such a sum, and after a curt nod, he set his sights on the game with a laser focus. 

            "Atta boy. Just remember, this is between you and me. Andrew is gonna be asleep until noon most likely. Just do the best you can, but don't let him know what you've been up to."

With a pat on the boy's back, Rob grabbed his car keys and walked out the door. 

 

The Sunday morning shift was the slog of the century. Rob stumbled his way through it, envisioning his hard-earned poker winnings and the glory that accompanied them. Twelve brutal hours elapsed, and Rob, exhausted, was finally free to return home, where he found Jonathan skateboarding in the street in front of his driveway. Rob got out of the car and huffed his way over in excitement. 

"So? How'd we do?" he said, checking to see if anyone was watching.

Jonathan didn't look up from the kickflip he was attempting.

"Fourth."

Rob was ecstatic. Fourth place in a tournament of thousands. The prize was undoubtedly huge. The first order of business would be to open a new bank account so Josie wouldn't find out, and then siphon the winnings slowly as a "raise" from work. Maybe add in a fictitious bonus while he was at it, take Josie on a nice trip to Maui or...

"I want half." The boy said. 

Rob stood for a moment, watching Jonathan attempting the same trick again and again.  

"What?"

"Half of the money. You wouldn't even have it if it weren't for me."

Rob smiled knowingly.

"Very funny my guy. Let's just stick to our original deal."

Jonathan fished his phone from his pocket and pulled up Josie's number, who he'd saved as Mrs. Rivers. His thumb hovered over the dial button. 

"Maybe we should we ask her what we should do?"

Rob felt his heart sink into his shoes, but kept his cool. He was not about to be shaken down by a kid with braces.

"Sure. Why wouldn't we?" he chuckled.
            Jonathan gave Rob an incredulous look and reached back into his pocket, producing Rob's six-month Gambler's Anonymous medallion. He raised his phone up once again, his thumb perilously close...

            "Ok! Wait. Kid, you got me by the balls here, but half is too much. How are you going to explain that kind of money to your parents?"

            "Like they care. They are too busy trying to kill each other to notice. Just pay me in $500 chunks, cash. They will assume that the other one gave me the money I'll spend, and I'll hide the rest." 

            Rob realized the mistake that he had made. For months, this kid had been eavesdropping on his parents' divorce attorney consultations, studying the not-so-subtle art of turning the screws on someone. His mind raced but could find no solution, his mouth opened, but there were no words. Jonathan reached out his hand. 

            "So, we have a deal then?"

            Rob glanced at his house, the home he'd built with Josie. To lose it all over some punk's ultimatum. Damn these kids and their phones. 

            "What choice do I have?" Rob said, shaking the boy's hand. 

            "None." Smiled Jonathan, who skated away to play his Nintendo. It was then and there, standing alone on his quiet suburban street that Rob, through such a costly miscalculation, became that much better of a poker player. He'd forgotten the cardinal rule of Texas Hold'em, a mistake that cost him dearly, but a mistake he would never make again; always watch out for the fifth street bandit.