In Double Down, Tim Waverly is in a tighter bind than ever.  Waverly, ex-professor, ex-con, and professional poker player, is literally gambling for his life.  He has to ome up with a cool quarter of a million to repay an old debt with interest, and he has just three sessions of poker with a group of fat cats and possible sharks to do it in.

Thus the stage is set for a stunning excursion through a high-and-low-life world of multimillionaire real estate develpers, two-bit hustlers, expensive hit men, cheap crooks, and other exotic human flora and fauna (including an inscrutable Arab prince) that flourish on Florida's gold coast.  And as death comes closer to Waverly each time the double-deal goes around, his hand is further complicated by a wild card in the form of a designer-dressed, pill-popping ex-love, who offers a risk that Waverly can neither afford nor resist.