"Dealer's Choice" is the third segment of the eighth episode of the first season of the

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, su ...

''. Featuring an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

composed largely of veteran

character actor A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to b ...

s, it follows the events of a poker night in which one of the players is secretly the Devil.

Plot

A group of friends are having a poker night. Regulars Tony, Marty, Jake, and Peter are joined by Nick, who is subbing for their friend Norman. After many hands won by Nick, Jake begins to ponder why he is dealt so many sixes. While Nick and Marty are away from the table, Jake confirms that Nick's current hand has three sixes. The guys become convinced that Nick is the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

when they call Norman and discover he isn't sick. When Nick rejoins the table, he admits that they are right and apologizes for the deception. He also informs them that one of them is to die and go to

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

tonight. The three friends debate who it is to be collected. At Nick's suggestion, they draw to determine who it is, and Pete "wins". Tony argues that in order to be fair, Pete should get to play Nick for the fate of his soul. Nick puts up nineteen dollars against Pete's soul. After being allowed the right of

dealer's choice Dealer's choice is a style of poker where each player may deal a different variant. As the deal passes clockwise around the table, each player occupying the dealer position chooses a variant which is either played just for the current hand or ...

, Pete chooses lowball, where the worst hand wins, anticipating that Nick's tendency to draw sixes will practically guarantee he gets three of a kind or higher. Marty rejoins the group. Nick indeed draws three sixes, but Pete draws four fives, leaving Nick drawing a fourth six as Pete's only path to victory. Nick turns over his last card. It is a Death Tarot card. Before the Devil can take Pete, however, Marty touches the Death card, failing to understand what it signifies. Because of Marty's innocence, the card reveals itself to be a fourth six, which Nick had concealed under an illusion to avoid losing. To make amends for this cheating, Nick leaves them a grand feast along with a refrigerator filled with beer. The Devil leaves, thanking Pete for his hospitality and says he hopes to host the next game, insinuating that he plans for all of them to end up in Hell. As the friends start another poker hand, they resolve to be better husbands to their wives and start going to church regularly.

Production

The director,

Wes Craven Wesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and editor. Craven has commonly been recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre due to the cultural imp ...

, found "Dealer's Choice" very difficult to make, since the poker table setting made figuring out the right angle to shoot the action from an ongoing challenge, and he had no experience in working with that sort of setting.

References

External links

* {{The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series) episodes 1985 American television episodes The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series season 1) episodes Fiction about the Devil