In what starts out as a modest pot, Mike hits a full house, nines full of aces.
On a confident streak, Mike ventures to The Chesterfield, a seedy, noirish hideout run by Russian mobster Teddy KGB (John Malkovich, “Velvet Buzzsaw”).
But the reason I find it so entertaining on repeat viewings is that it actually uses poker to shape its narrative.įirst, let’s take a look at the film’s first big hand and one of its most upsetting moments. It would be one thing for “Rounders” to simply employ reasonable card game behavior. It’s a poker movie that refuses to hold a viewer’s hand, clearly constructed by screenwriters (David Levien and Brian Koppelman, “Billions”) who understand the card game and its enigmatic draw. While the previous films I discussed, “Maverick” and “Casino Royale,” missed the mark in their poker games, “Rounders” is far more reliable. For this final installment of my series on poker hands in movies, I’ll take a look at how “Rounders” takes advantage of the logic of poker to sharpen its story and characters.
