It is unlikely that Felix Stroganov, a gambler by profession and an adventurer by vocation, imagined that a broken bank would put him on the brink of life and death, and a golden thing won on the occasion would open the way for him, if not to hell, then to its threshold. But the bets are made, and it’s too late to leave the table, even if the terrible hour has struck for the player - the Hour of Bad Luck.