Protagonist is a "casper-milk-toast" character married to a rich woman who does not respect him. Though a talented mathematician and college professor she constantly harangues him about his failure to make as much money as her father made in business.He invents a strategy for winning at poker and decides to leave her and his whole life behind in an attempt to win big in Las Vegas. While there, he wins lots of money but draws unwanted attention from a journalist who demands to be told the secret strategy. The journalist sets up a private game with mobsters to both collect lots of cash and also prove that the strategy works. The police eventually raid the game but the journalist and mathematician escape down the fire stairs with 1/2 million dollars of ill gotten gains.The mathematician explains that his strategy is extremely trivial and the journalist decides to try it himself.