Poker Movies You Can Learn From
In Phil Gordon’s book, Poker: The Real Deal, he suggests all aspiring and established poker players watch the top 8 poker movies of all times, which are listed and reviewed below. We’ve also added Casino Royale as #9. You can purchase or download any or all of these movies, new or used, at the bottom of this post from Amazon. Gordon suggests every poker player will “repeatedly be faced with critical decisions that will forever alter an outcome, whether of a hand, a tournament, or your poker career” (18). These movies exemplify some instances of defining moments for the poker characters in these movies.
#1. Starting from most recent, but not rated in that order, the first movie on our list is Casino Royale (2007), the most recent Bond movie, starring Daniel Craig, as James Bond. In this movie, Bond is up agains bad guy, LeChiffre, while the defeat of worldwide terror rests in the hands of Bond-in his poker hands to be more specific. In the first poker scene, Bond goes heads-up against LeChiffre. Bond hints that he knows LeChiffre’s tell, but then mucks on the river.
In the second poker scene, LeChiffre knows Bond is on to his tell, so he uses this information to bluff and beat Bond, once again. By this point, Bond has lost $14 million, but in Hollywood, another $5 mill is easy to come by, and Bond re-buys. Eventually, Bond wins $120 million on one of the rarest poker hands to ever be played, and saves both Britain and the US, as well as the rest of the world. This movie shows how in poker, anything is possible!
#2. Next on the list is Rounders, from 1998, in which Matt Damon’s girlfriend has reformed him from his gambling ways. His old friend and poker buddy, Ed Norton, is trying to bring him back to the tables. Ultimately, Norton gets Damon into a heads-up with Russian poker man with an addiction to Oreos, Teddy KGB, played by John Malkovich. This movie is packed with poker scenes, and the good guys don’t always come out on top.
#3. Robert Redford stars in Havana, a movie from 1990, set in the 50′s. Robert Redford stars as Jack Weil, who goes to Havana to set up a poker game, but inevitably falls in love and ends up smack dab in the middle of the Cuban Revolution.
#4. House of Games (1987) is a twisted thriller that follows a female psychiatrist and a professional con artist, which leads to a great poker scene.
#5. California Split (1974) follows to LA gambling men, George Segal and Elliot Gould, who can’t figure out whether they are in for the action or in for the score. There is lots of great poker action in this film, including a cameo by Amarillo Slim Preston.
#6. Cool Hand Luke (1967) is an American Classic, more specifically, a Southern classic. Paul Newman plays a tough convict who won’t be broken. His nickname, Cool Hand Luke, is given to him in the poker game, due to his bluffing skills. This movie is where the famous quote, “What we have here is a failure to communicate,” came from.
#7. A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1967) stars Henry Fonda and Joanne Woodward as husband and wife. Husband loses all their money in a poker game, has a heart attack, and it’s up to the wife to learn to play poker and win their money back.
#8. The Cincinnati Kid (1965) puts Steve McQueen, an amateur poker player, against Edward G. Robinson, a poker pro. This movie serves as the archetype for all movie poker scenes that follow and depicts the greatest bad beat story in all of poker cinema history.
#9. My Little Chickadee (1940) is the oldest poker movie staring W.C. Fields as Cuthbert J. Twillie, who is a con-man/poker player, who gets mixed up with Mae West.
There is a lot to learn in these movies, if nothing else, that poker has been around a long time. It’s not a new game, though modern-day culture has re-invented the hype surrounding the game and its players. Hollywood recognized this American pastime we call poker long ago, which is so much more than a fad.
Find any of these movies, plus Phil Gordon’s book, below!
Resources
1. Gordon,Phil. Poker: The Real Deal. New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2004.
2. Bondmovies.com
3. Amazon.com
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