Andrew Perry of PokerJunkie gives us his insight on the classic Matt Damon film Rounders.
When you ask fans of poker what the best poker themed movie of all time is, the answer you hear most frequently is Rounders. Starring Matt Damon as Mike McDermott and Ed Norton as “Worm,” this is one of the first movies to give a realistic look at the underground world of poker and gave many their first glimpse of the game that dominated the game, Texas Holdem poker.
The movie starts with Mike contemplating taking a shot at the high roller game in an underground club in New York run by “KGB”, played by John Malkovich. Against his friends suggestion, Mike plays in the game and loses his entire bankroll on one hand. After this, Mike gives up the game of poker forever and focuses full time on his law degree.
This changes once Worm is released from prison. Worm is a rounder who plays every angle that there is, and many of them involve cheating. Mike initially refuses to play, but Worm finally convinces him to do so. The two have a successful night and Mike begins to play again.
Mike’s return to the game affects his studies and his relationship with his girlfriend Jo, played by Gretchen Mol. Jo eventually breaks up with him after catching him in a lie about playing. Instead of moping about his lost girl, he decides to go to Atlantic City and play some live poker.
It is about this time things start going bad for Mike. Worm ran up several thousand in debt in Mike’s name at another underground room and that is just the first of his troubles. He owes $15,000 and has only five days to pay the debt off. Mike agrees to help him and the two set off on a marathon rounding spree to pay off the debt.
Things take a bad turn when against Mike’s advice, Worm inserts himself into a game with some local cops. Worm starts cheating and is caught. Mike and Worm get the hell beat out of them and their money stolen. It is at this point Mike finds out that KGB is the one holding Worm’s debt and Worm skips town.
With less than a day left to pay off the debt, Mike talks to one of his professors and get a loan for $5,000 and heads over to play KGB in a heads-up match. Mike winds up turning $5,000 into $20,000 and starts to leave with $5,000 in the bank. However, KGB goads Mike over his original loss to him and Mike decides to put the money at risk and play once again.
This time, things go downhill and Mike is down to his last $5,000. He looks close to being busted, but picks up a massive tell on KGB at a key moment to avoid going broke. From this point, Mike knows he has his man made and proceeds to win the match with KGB. He wins enough to pay off KGB, his professor, the underground room, and still have his original $30,000. He then takes off for the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas to try and win $1 Million in hard cash.
As you can tell from the payoff at the WSOP, this movie was made before the poker boom in 2004. However, many poker players and fans enjoy this movie as overall, it depicts the underground world realistically. If you are a poker fan and haven’t watched this movie, you really aren’t a fan of the game. Even for those that maybe aren’t fans of poker, the story is still compelling and you can still learn some ways to win at poker from watching the movie.