Ok so this movie is getting a little long in the tooth. It’s closing in on 10 years old. Never the less this is probably one of the greatest poker movies of all-time. If you like to play poker, if you like to watch poker, this movie is for you. The plot is somewhat predictable, but that isn’t why most of us watched it (some of us several times… err several dozen times). Matt Damon plays the lead character Mike McDermott, a poker playing law student whose girlfriend makes him give up the game he loves after an especially bad loss (very stereotypical). His knucklehead friend Worm, gets out of prison (go figure!) and drags him back over to the dark side at which point all sorts of bad things happen to the pair until Mike can redeem himself. I won’t ruin the big ending in case there actually is anyone reading this site who has not seen the movie but, it is really good.

Mike’s loss is administered by a shady ex-KGB agent named Teddy who runs a back alley poker room. Teddy KGB is played by John Malkovich, whose awful Russian accent makes his character even more memorable than it would have been otherwise. He actually delivers my favorite line in the whole movie, “Pay that man his money.” Which is a truly forgettable line unless, it’s delivered over-dramatically in a bad Russian accent by John Malkovich. Two of my favorite things in the world are poker and baseball so my other favorite quote is when Matt Damon says “I feel like Buckner walking back into Shea.” There were lots of other good lines too so feel free to post your favorite ones below.

Ok, so much for a cinematic discussion of the movie. Let’s talk about what we’re all really interested in, the quality of the poker being played. For the most part I enjoyed it. The poker was obviously much more real than in other movies. We’ve all seen those movies with a poker scene in them, And there’s the big showdown at the end where the villain has an awesome hand but he is handily outwitted by the main character who just happens to have the nut. Which while cinematically riveting, big deal. Its not hard to win a hand if you have a straight flush to the ace. In my opinion, the tells are a little overdone, but that can be written off as necessary to make sure all of the non-poker players watching the film can follow the story.

I thought this movie did a good job showing all of the amateurs out there who have dreams of making a living playing poker (yeh, me included) something of the grind required to do that. Just like in golf, for most pros it isn’t all big tournaments and television shows. You just sit and play, protect your bankroll, just win a little at a time, and pay your rent.

If want to get yourself psyched up for a big game, watch this movie the night before. I also tend to watch this movie when I feel like playing poker, but I can’t find a game, and I’m sick of online poker, and poker is not on TV, and I can’t possibly watch any of the poker shows I’ve Tivo’ed again. In any case, watch it.

Oh yes, and what did we all learn from this movie? That’s right, never eat Oreos at the poker table.