‘Stop! Wait, I have this.’ Everyone watched as the estate agent took out a set of keys with a brown label attached to them. ‘It’s a large mansion house by the sea, in Essex, around ten bedrooms; will you take that?’

‘Easy, fellas,’ said one of the other men at the table, who could see this was going too far. It had nothing to do with the cards each man was holding, it was a matter of reputation and who could hold their nerve under all this pressure. ‘That house is worth a lot more than what is on the table. I know it. It used to belong to a lord or something; it must be worth a couple of million.’

‘With what I’m holding in my hand,’ said the estate agent with a satisfied grin, ‘I won’t be losing. I won’t be losing anything. Will you take the keys?’ He looked across the table at Tony.

‘A lord, you say. Well, I haven’t seen the place so I suppose I have to take your word for it, but okay, I’ll accept the keys. Do you have the deeds?’ The man nodded at Tony and took the deeds out of the inside pocket of his jacket.

‘It’s been empty a while and is up for sale; my firm’s in charge of selling it. I have all the paperwork.’ The man put the deeds and the keys on the table. ‘Show me your cards, Mr Lambrianu, I’m about to take your money.’ The atmosphere was tense and even though the man seemed cocky, he was sweating and his hands were trembling as he waited for Tony to show his hand of cards.

Tony fanned out his cards, teasing the other men and stringing out the big moment. Finally, he displayed his cards on the table. Each man gave an intake of breath. Tony had a full house. He saw the look on the estate agent’s face. He was crushed; all he had was two pairs. The tears started to roll down his face and he was shaking. He stood up so quickly he nearly knocked the table over, then he ran to the bathroom.

‘Well done, Tony.’ The other men gave him a round of applause. ‘You had a great hand and you held your nerve. That man was a bloody fool; how is he going to explain he has just given away a house?’ They all started mumbling together about how foolish the man had been.

Eventually, he came out of the bathroom, wiping his mouth. It was blatantly obvious that he had been sick.

Tony wanted to appear friendly and decent in front of these businessmen. ‘I tell you what,’ he said, ‘we’re all friends here; how much is the house worth, seriously?’ Tony waited; he saw the colour start to appear in the man’s cheeks again.

‘Two point five million,’ the estate agent said.

‘I’ll take your credit note, instead, but I want all the money by this afternoon. Send it to my casino. Is that fair?’ Tony looked around at the other men at the table with a questioning look.