Dealer's Choice (The Twilight Zone)

"**Dealer's Choice**"
"Dealer's Choice"
The Twilight Zone episode
	Scene from "Dealer's Choice"
Episode no.	Season 1; Episode 8с
Directed by	Wes Craven
Written by	Donald Todd
Original air date	November 15, 1985
Guest appearances
	Morgan Freeman: Tony ; Dan Hedaya: Nick/The Devil ; Barney Martin: Marty ; Garrett Morris: Jake ; M. Emmet Walsh: Peter
Episode chronology
← Previous; "The Burning Man"	Next →; "Dead Woman's Shoes"
	List of episodes

"Dealer's Choice" is the third segment of the eighth episode of the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone. Featuring an ensemble cast composed largely of veteran character actors, 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 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 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, 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 his 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, he 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, 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.^[1]

References[]

^ Craven, Wes; DeGuere, Philip (2020). The Twilight Zone: The Complete '80s Series: Audio Commentary - "Dealer's Choice" (DVD). CBS DVD.

External links[]

"Dealer's Choice" at IMDb

[1] Craven, Wes; DeGuere, Philip (2020). The Twilight Zone: The Complete '80s Series: Audio Commentary - "Dealer's Choice" (DVD). CBS DVD.

[1]

v t The Twilight Zone (1985) episodes
Season 1	"Shatterday" "A Little Peace and Quiet" "Wordplay" "Dreams for Sale" "Chameleon" "Healer" "Children's Zoo" "Kentucky Rye" "Little Boy Lost" "Wish Bank" "Nightcrawlers" "If She Dies" "Ye Gods" "Examination Day" "A Message from Charity" "Teacher's Aide" "Paladin of the Lost Hour" "Act Break" "The Burning Man" "Dealer's Choice" "Dead Woman's Shoes" "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium" "The Shadow Man" "The Uncle Devil Show" "Opening Day" "The Beacon" "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" "Her Pilgrim Soul" "I of Newton" "Night of the Meek" "But Can She Type?" "The Star" "Still Life" "The Little People of Killany Woods" "The Misfortune Cookie" "Monsters!" "A Small Talent for War" "A Matter of Minutes" "The Elevator" "To See the Invisible Man" "Tooth and Consequences" "Welcome to Winfield" "Quarantine" "Gramma" "Personal Demons" "Cold Reading" "The Leprechaun-Artist" "Dead Run" "Profile in Silver" "Button, Button" "Need to Know" "Red Snow" "Take My Life...Please!" "Devil's Alphabet" "The Library" "Shadow Play" "Grace Note" "A Day in Beaumont" "The Last Defender of Camelot"
Season 2	"The Once and Future King" "A Saucer of Loneliness" "What Are Friends For?" "Aqua Vita" "The Storyteller" "Nightsong" "The After Hours" "Lost and Found" "The World Next Door" "The Toys of Caliban" "The Convict's Piano" "The Road Less Traveled" "The Card" "The Junction" "Joy Ride" "Shelter Skelter" "Private Channel" "Time and Teresa Golowitz" "Voices in the Earth" "Song of the Younger World" "The Girl I Married"
Season 3	"The Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon" "Extra Innings" "The Crossing" "The Hunters" "Dream Me a Life" "Memories" "The Hellgramite Method" "Our Selena Is Dying" "The Call" "The Trance" "Acts of Terror" "20/20 Vision" "There Was an Old Woman" "The Trunk" "Appointment on Route 17" "The Cold Equations" "Stranger in Possum Meadows" "Street of Shadows" "Something in the Walls" "A Game of Pool" "Room 2426" "The Mind of Simon Foster" "The Wall" "Cat and Mouse" "Rendezvous in a Dark Place" "Many, Many Monkeys" "Love Is Blind" "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich" "Special Service" "Father and Son Game"