The Friday Night Game

Casey Valeri is a croupier working at the Red Rock Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.Valeri is assigned to man one of the roulette tables at the casino.The casino is frequented by two hardcore gamblers,Troy Carson and Ernesto Favalli.Both of them are always focused on one thing,that is winning.Both Carson and Favalli are respected underworld figures in Vegas.The winnings are used by them to finance their activities like bootlegging and drug dealing.



The dealer who mans Carson's and Favalli's poker table is Roger Sears.Sears is trusted by both the gamblers as he is very close to both of them.One usual Friday night,a new gambler entered the fold at the poker game is a mysterious man known just as Sweeper.Sweeper had to face off with the regulars that is Carson and Favalli.Carson and Favalli are confident of beating Sweeper off the track that day.



Unusually,Valeri was called to man the poker table as Sears was on medical leave.Valeri's appointment stirred uneasy feelings in Carson and Favalli.The game started with Carson and Favalli dominating from the start.As the stakes began to increase,Sweeper began to gain his winning touch.He kept on winning with just the Ace cards.Finally,after a two-hour marathon game,Sweeper defeated the regulars and won US$5.5million.Carson and Favalli were furious because they lost to an unknown gambler.



At Favalli's suite that following night,both of them talked about their disastrous outing at the poker table.Carson told that he suspected Valeri had helped Sweeper to rake all the winnings from them.He also suspected Valeri of plotting their downfall at the table and he came up with a plan.Carson planned to kidnap Valeri to reveal the truth behind their shock loss.Favalli duly agreed.



A few days later,Valeri was awakened by loud thuds on his door.When he looked through the peephole,he saw neatly-dressed hustlers .He felt something was wrong and quickly put on his clothes.Then,as he was about to jump from his balcony,the hustlers broke the door and entered his unit.They were armed with Uzis.Stunned and scared,he jumped from his balcony and landed on one of the hustlers' GMC.

He got into the GMC and drove off from his residential block.After a 15 minute nerve-wracking drive,he arrived at Roger Sears' apartment.He knocked on the door as he called out Sears' name.No one answered his calls.He realised the door's lock was picked.He opened the door and entered the unit.He was shocked with what he saw.Roger Sears was on the couch with gunshot wounds.He was dead.Valeri was panic-stricken.Moments later,LVPD arrived.Valeri ran towards a window and climbed out.He jumped down and escaped from the police.

The next day,Valeri's photographs were splashed on the dailies.He was accused of murdering Sears.Now,Valeri is in deep trouble.One side,he is pursued by the gangsters for their loss in a poker game and on the other side the cops are after him for a crime that he did not commit.Valeri received a call from his cop friend,Greg Tyler.Tyler asked Valeri to meet him at a motel on Interstate 15.

Upon meeting,Tyler explained that the gangsters had bribed the police chief,Lt.Rico Federicci.Even the police arrests Valeri,he would be turned over to the mafia andSears was actually murdered by Carson's brother,Lewis.Valeri had been at Sears' apartment at wrong time therefore he was named as the murderer as he escaped when he saw the cops arriving.Now,the duo got a mammoth task to complete.Tyler and Valeri must clear Valeri's name and expose the truth behind Sears' murder.

Tyler knew that he cannot trust his own department anymore.Hence,he acquired the help of his FBI agent ex-flame,Amanda Capaldi.He studied Carson and Favalli's past criminal records.Meanwhile,one of his informers tipped Tyler off by telling Federicci is at the MGM Hotel for a meeting with the crime lords.Tyler requested the informers help to snap a few pictures of the trio.The trio's picture was snapped and was sent to Capaldi's laptop.A few copies of the photos were forwarded to the media.

The next day,dailies in Las Vegas and across America front-paged pictures of Federicci meeting the crime lords.With the orders of the Nevada Governor,Federicci was suspended from duty and the investigations of Sears' murder was transferred to the FBI.Now,Capaldi is the chief investigating officer for the murder case.She knows that Valeri is innocent.An anonymous caller called the FBI and told that he had recorded the footage of Sears being killed.

He said he will hand over the DVD containing the footage but FBI had to pay him US$40,000.Capaldi agreed and she had other plans in store.She planned a sting operation.The venue and time for the handover of the DVD is confirmed.FBI officers are disguised as civillians around the area where the sting is being done.A neatly-dressed guy appeared with a DVD case in his hand and approached Capaldi ,who is dressed as a fast-foot outlet worker.As the guy hands over the DVD case,plainclothed FBI officers pounce on him and handcuffed him.

He was brought to the headquarters for questionning.Fingerprints were taken from him and his identity was confirmed as Lorenzo Armas,a hustler with Favalli's network.Upon questioning,its is found that Lewis murdered Sears because Sears did not want to run an errand for the crime lords.Armas tried to sell the murder footage as he planned to take revenge on Lewis.Lewis had raped and killed Armas' sister three years back.

With Armas' testimony,Valeri is virtually cleared of the murder charges but they have another task to finish-bring down the crime networks of Carson and Favalli.The FBI used Armas as a mule to gain evidences of the criminal activities of Carson and Favalli.The FBI could not press charges against the duo because of lack of proper evidences.LVPD has appointed Tyler as the interim officer-in-charge.Now,LVPD and the FBI are working together to put a full stop to Carson and Favalli's activities.

Armas informed the enforcers that the dirty duo is set to meet a Croatian mafia boss at the Caesar's Palace to finalise a drug deal on Friday.The enforcers planned a sting again.One day before the sting,FBI placed additional cameras to monitor the situation.On the day of the sting,around 70 police officers and FBI agents are disguised as casino and hotel employees are stationed in the building while 100 more are positioned outside.

The duo arrived along with their henchmen.Later,the Croatian mafia boss arrived.As they were about to exchange their merchandise at the roulette table,the enforcers sprung into action.The henchmen then opened fire,causing the patrons to take shelter while the cops anf FBI return fire.After 45 minutes of adrenaline-pumping gunfight,the henchmen lay dead as the enforcers surround Carson,Favalli and the Croatian.

The trio were then arrested and brought to the police headquarters for questioning and for charges to be pressed on them.The Tyler-Capaldi combination have brought down a crime network and saved an innocent citizen from being wrongfully charged for a crime that he did not commit.

THE END.........this action-thriller is brought to u by vinodnair