The title of Patrick Marber's terrific, award-winning play, here receiving its Northern Irish premiere courtesy of Prime Cut Productions, refers to the crucial choice made by the dealer in a poker game - not whether to play, but what to play, for the highest stakes, the loudest adrenalin buzz and the ultimate risk of ruin.
The six men who gather in the basement of a London restaurant are also engaged in a make-or-break battle of life choices. At the heart of all the bluff and double-dealing is the complex relationship between a wealthy father and a spoilt son, who secretly yearns to make his own way in the world but lacks the mental grit and character to do so.
Dan Gordon is the softly-spoken control freak Stephen, the successful restaurateur; Alan McKee is the chef Sweeney, consumed by the gambling bug; Vincent Higgins's Frankie is his Kray-lookalike flatmate, always on the make; Frankie McCafferty's Mugsy may be semantically challenged, but gets the best lines as well as the sympathy vote; Derek Halligan is a chilling Ash, the professional card sharp; but Michael Liebman needs to do more than look the part of the spoilt son, swaggering in like a young Mac the Knife but downplaying the denouement of his ambiguous relationships with Ash and his father, Stephen.
That apart, this show is the business, a really big deal.
Continues until Saturday, March 18th. To book, phone: 08 01232 381081. Then tours to the Riverside, Coleraine (March 22nd-23rd); the Market Theatre, Armagh, (March 29th-30th); and the Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen, March 31st-April 1st.