You don’t gamble – you grind it out… Get your money in when you have the best of it, protect it when you don’t – don’t give anything away. ‘You play for a living,’ says Mike in the opening voiceover.
Let’s take a closer look at the pearls of wisdom the main character Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) spouts throughout the film… Mike makes his way to an underground poker den run by Teddy KGB (John Malkovich) Time: 1m 28s And with an essential facet of winning poker – game selection – revealed right at the outset, is it any surprise? In fact, there’s so much strategy packed into the film’s two hours running time that it’s more like an instructional video, which teaches you how to play good poker, think about the game, and act around the table. Released in 1998, just before the poker boom hit, Rounders almost certainly inspired many of today’s superstars to take up the game. If you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker.’ These are the opening words to the most iconic poker film ever. Rounders is the best poker film ever made, but can it teach you any genuine poker strategy? We hit play to find out…
