Stone Cold // No Limit — Pete Hautman

"All I want is to play cards, to run my fingers over those slick, hard surfaces, to feel that cold power flowing in and out though my hands and eyes."

Dennis Doyle is feeling lucky. His landscaping business is thriving, his girlfriend loves him, he's got money in the bank, and the city bus that ran into him that morning left him alive and well. Soon he'll turn sixteen and buy himself a car. Everything is going his way. So when his buddies ask him to play poker, Denn says yes. The cards are dealt, the money is bet . . . and the worst possible thing happens. Denn wins.

And he likes it.