Rounders (film)
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| Rounders | |
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 Rounders Movie Poster |
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| Directed by | John Dahl |
| Produced by | Ted Demme Joel Stillerman |
| Written by | David Levien Brian Koppelman |
| Starring | Matt Damon Edward Norton |
| Music by | Christopher Young |
| Cinematography | Jean-Yves Escoffier |
| Editing by | Scott Chestnut |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films |
| Release date(s) | September 11, 1998 |
| Running time | 121 minutes |
| Language | English French |
| Budget | $12,000,000 USD |
| IMDb profile | |
Rounders is a 1998 film about the underground world of high-stakes poker. Directed by John Dahl and starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton, the movie follows two friends who need to quickly earn enough cash playing poker to pay off a huge debt. The term “rounder” refers to a person whose sole means of earning a living is by playing cards.
The movie was originally to be titled Juice,[citation needed] but there was already another movie in production named Juiced.
The movie opened to mixed reviews and only made a modest amount of money. However, with the growing popularity of Texas hold 'em and other poker games, Rounders has become a cult hit.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Rounders is about a former rounder Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) who is torn between his commitment to his girlfriend Jo (Gretchen Mol) to stop gambling, and his loyalty to his best friend “Worm” (Edward Norton). Worm has a large gambling debt and slowly convinces Mike to use his card playing skills to help him make the money to pay off the debt.
The movie opens with a confident Mike gathering his entire bankroll ($30,000) with the intention of doubling it at a high-stakes poker game with crime boss Teddy KGB (John Malkovich). However, Mike's nines full of aces are soundly beaten by KGB's aces full of nines and he loses everything. Devastated by the loss, Mike retreats from poker and swears to his girlfriend Jo to never gamble again.
Several months later, Mike is dividing his time between law school and a night job driving a truck for his former poker mentor Joey Knish (John Turturro). Mike has so far kept his promise to stop gambling, however his poker skills are as sharp as ever. One scene shows Mike making a delivery to his professor, Abe Petrovsky (Martin Landau), during a late night poker game and instantly reads every player's hand, impressing everyone at the table.
Mike's friend, Lester "Worm" Murphy (Edward Norton), enters the picture after being released from prison. Through Mike's commentary it becomes clear that Worm, a deft poker cheater before he was even sent up, has only honed his skills more while in the joint. Mike picks up Worm after his release and Worm quickly convinces Mike to join him in a night of poker playing. Mike rationalizes that it is only one night and there is not much risk as the pair plan to just cheat a few rich kids out of their money.
Worm owes $15,000 to various people and needs to make that money before they start to come looking for payment. When Mike and Worm return to New York City, Mike introduces Worm to a local high-stakes game, warns him to play straight, then leaves.
Mike returns home to his girlfriend who is suspicious of his activities. Her fears are confirmed when she discovers a wad of cash in Mike's pocket when he is taking a shower. She leaves him there but he quickly catches up with her and their law school partners to start preparing for a mock trial. However, just as Mike sits down, Knish shows up and tells Mike that Worm is cheating and ruining Mike's reputation since Mike vouched for Worm. Mike finds Worm up $8,000 and cheating two members of the Russian Mafia. He tells Worm to stop cheating and lose the money back to them before he gets hurt. Worm agrees and Mike leaves him again.
Worm, however, has other plans. He cashes out and takes a break from playing poker by going to a strip club. Worm is found by his old partner Gramma (Michael Rispoli), who tells Worm that he has consolidated his debts with the help of his new partner, Teddy KGB, and now Worm owes him $25,000 with only 5 days to pay it off. Gramma then assaults Worm and takes the $10,000 he has made so far.
As Mike is returning home, he meets Worm in front of his apartment building. After they go upstairs, they find that Jo has left Mike and taken most of their furniture. Worm tells Mike that when he is feeling down, poker is the only cure. Mike agrees and they both leave for Atlantic City. While there, Worm comes clean and tells Mike about his debt. When they return to the city, Mike and Worm meet with Gramma to try to buy more time. Worm ends up angering Gramma and Mike vouches for the debt to prevent Gramma from attacking Worm. When they leave Mike tells Worm that he will help, but it has to be on Mike's terms: straight games, no cheating.
After a couple of days and several games, Mike and Worm have about half the money they need. Worm gets impatient and tells Mike of a high-stakes game in Binghamton, which is about three hours away from NYC, although Mike mentions it being "five hours each way". Mike agrees and they make the trip, only to find the game is held by a collection of state troopers. Mike tells Worm to go bowling and proceeds to play poker and increase his stake. After some time Worm shows up, sits at the table and immediately begins to cheat, much to Mike's dismay. Mike pretends to be a stranger to Worm, and tries to continue to play straight, but Worm repeatedly deals Mike cheating hands. It's not long before they are caught and are severely beaten by the off-duty policemen, who take all the money they have made. With nothing left Worm decides it is time to run, but Mike tells his friend he cannot do it and they part ways.
Mike first tries to borrow the money from Knish who turns him down, offering to help any way he can but not by giving him any money. It is at this point that Mike reveals why he risked everything at KGB's place at the beginning of the story: because he had earlier gone to the casino and won a hand against the legendary Johnny Chan (who played himself in the film). Mike then tries Professor Petrovsky, who sympathizes with Mike, but can only lend him $10,000. With only hours left to pay off the debt, Mike decides the only one thing left to do is to face Teddy KGB again.
Mike returns to KGB's club, who is more than happy to accommodate Mike with a game. It is not long before Mike doubles his money. With enough to pay off the debt and be half way back to paying back the professor, Mike starts to leave the club. KGB says he feels "unsatisfied" and goads Mike into staying by saying that he's only paying Mike with his own money.
Mike continues to play masterfully, and discovers KGB's tell. This advantage helps Mike win the game, ultimately taking KGB for a little over $60,000. Mike's final hand is 89 (an eight and a nine), and the flop is 67T (a six, a seven and a ten), giving Mike a straight (five cards in order, a strong hand). Mike slow-plays it (i.e. he bluffs that his hand is not as strong as it actually is), goading KGB into eventually pushing all-in. He accomplishes this partly because KGB is on tilt from discovering Mike found out his tell. Mike notes to himself that he would normally never inform another player about their tell as Mike could have used it to slowly bleed money away from KGB and eventually bust him. However, the short timeframe he has to repay Teddy forces him to try to make KGB tilt by informing him of the tell.
Earlier in the film, Mike is seen watching a video of the 1988 World Series of Poker final in which Johnny Chan pulls the same play to bust out Erik Seidel. KGB is infuriated and Mike prods him: "Are you satisfied now, Teddy? Because I can keep busting you up all night if you like." His underlings are about to rush upon him, but KGB orders them not to hurt Mike, making the admission, "He beat me. Straight up. Pay him. Pay that man his money." (Note that "straight up" means "honestly.") After Mike pays back everyone he owes, Mike is left with his original $30,000. He makes peace with his ex-girlfriend, entrusts her to repay the professor, and the movie ends with him heading off to Las Vegas to try his skills at the World Series of Poker.
[edit] Production
Rounders began filming in December of 1997 and was set mostly in New York City, with the notable exception being that the law school scenes were filmed at Rutgers Law School in Newark, New Jersey.
[edit] Reception
Despite an unremarkable theatrical release, Rounders has gone on to become somewhat of a cult classic, particularly amongst poker enthusiasts. In an interesting chicken or the egg situation, some speculate the film is directly responsible for the recent increase in the popularity of Texas hold 'em, while others believe that the substantial increase in the popularity of poker has nothing to do with the film, but that same increase does have everything to do with the come-lately increase in the popularity of the film.
The 2003 champion Chris Moneymaker has said he became interested in poker after watching Rounders with a friend. The movie is widely quoted by poker players at physical and online poker rooms.
Rounders earned $8,459,126 during its opening weekend and closed with a domestic gross of $22,912,409.
[edit] Featured cast
- Matt Damon as Mike McDermott
- Edward Norton as Lester 'Worm' Murphy
- John Turturro as Joey Knish
- Gretchen Mol as Jo (Mike's Girlfriend)
- John Malkovich as Teddy KGB
- Famke Janssen as Petra
- Michael Rispoli as Gramma
- Martin Landau as Abe Petrovsky
[edit] Trivia
- Matt Damon and Edward Norton were both sponsored by Binion's Horseshoe Casino in the 1998 World Series of Poker tournament. Damon was seated at a table with poker legend Doyle Brunson. Norton was beat holding a full house by Surinder Sunar holding four tens. Damon was beat about an hour later by Brunson. Damon went all-in with pocket kings, Brunson called with pocket aces. When asked if they would ever play in the tournament again, Norton said "Anytime they want to stake us $10,000..."
- Johnny Chan agreed to be in the movie because his daughter wanted to meet Matt Damon.
- The infamous "Judges Game" scene where Mike McDermott reads the hands of five players with complete accuracy is often cited as being the most substantial Hollywood embellishment in the entire film, as it pertains to poker. While talented pro players can often put their opponents on a range of starting or drawing hands with some degree of accuracy, and occasionally, read a specific opponent for a specific hand, the hand-reading ability suggested in the "Judges Game" scene is well beyond the scope of reality for even the most skilled players.
- Professional poker player Chris Ferguson has been quoted as saying that Joey Knish is the true hero of Rounders.
- Mike is seen taking money out of a book called "Super/System", a poker book written by the legendary Doyle Brunson. Mike himself pulls multiple quotes from the book, namely calling Texas Hold'em the "Cadillac" of poker games.
- Mike states that Worm employs the "Double Duke", a technique where the dealer intentionally gives the mark a strong hand, and then deals an even stronger hand to a cohort to encourage betting.
- Judge Kaplan is named after long time actor turned poker pro Gabe Kaplan
- The movie's depictions of New York City's underground poker clubs were based upon several of its then-existing clubs. The "Chesterfield" club shown in the movie was a thinly-veiled homage to New York's "Mayfair Club", which at the time the movie was released was the largest and longest-running such club. Indeed, several of the characters in the movie had real-life counterparts as well. Joey Knish was based on New York rounder, Joel Bagels. Petra, who was depicted as the manager of the club, was modelled on a woman with similar responsibilities at the Mayfair, named Ingrid. And the real-life Teddy KGB was actually Eddie KGB, an old man who played relatively low-limit games, and had none of the mob connections of his fictitious analogue.
- The writing team behind the movie went on to co-create a poker-themed television dramatic series for ESPN in 2005, named Tilt, which only lasted one season.
- American Punk Rock Band Public Uproar wrote a song entitled "Rounders" after the film.
- Edward Norton wears an Irish Claddagh ring.
- It is unclear what Teddy KGB (John Malkovich) is holding during the final heads up hand against Mike (Matt Damon), when Mike flops the nut straight. The general consensus is that KGB was holding pocket Aces. This is evidenced by the way he is betting, his dialogue when the Ace of Spades hits on the river ("That ace could not have helped you."), his decision to push all of his chips in when the ace appears on the river, and his reaction when he loses. On the DVD commentary track, where four poker pros do the commentary (Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson and Chris Moneymaker), they speculate that perhaps KGB was holding Aces because of these facts.
