There are many people out there who can say that they were introduced to the world of no-limit Texas Hold’em through the 1998 movie Rounders, starring Matt Damon and Ed Norton. There is no other movie out there today that covers modern-day poker games like this one. With a marathon poker session, a cameo by Johnny Chan and some great quotable lines, this poker film is a must-see.
Exposing the underground world of high-stakes poker, Rounders 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.
Poker player and law student Mike McDermott (Damon) loses his entire bankroll of $30,000 in a hand of Texas Hold’em against Teddy “KGB”, a Russian mobster who runs illegal underground poker games. After this hit, McDermott retires from cards to focus on his law studies, promising his girlfriend Jo (Gretchen Mol) that he will not gamble again.
But then McDermott’s childhood friend Worm (Norton) gets out of jail and must pay back an enormous debt that has been accumulating interest while he was inside. In order to help Worm out, McDermott starts rounding again, causing all sorts of problems in his life.
Throughout the action, the audience watches McDermott return to the game he loves, even though it leads him into a dangerous underworld of unpaid debts, violence and the Russian mob. He realizes that perhaps Texas Hold’em is his calling, as he recounts sitting down at a table with Johnny Chan and bluffing the poker pro out of the pot.
While the film got mixed reviews and opened to modest box office sales in 1998, it has picked up a cult following thanks to the growing popularity of Texas Hold’em. One reviewer said: “The card playing is well-stages, and even those who don’t know a Texas Hold’em from a Texas hoedown will get a vicarious charge out of the action.”
There are many poker pros who credit the film for getting them into the game. The poker film drew in recent successfully players such as Hevad Khan, Gavin Griffin and Dutch Boyd. Poker pro Vanessa Rousso said: “There have been lots of movies that included poker, but only Rounders really captures the energy and tension in the game. And that’s why it stands as the best poker movie ever made.”
