Poker Film Rounders celebrate its 20th Anniversary
If you are a poker player or a fan of the game then for sure you have already seen the movie Rounders starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton. Guess what, the movie turns 20 years old this week! Time sure flies by so fast!
According to Wikipedia, the total budget back then to make the movie was $12 million. However, it did not make a first good impression at all as it made just $8.4 million on a wide release in its opening weekend, but fortunately it grossed $22.9 million in the end.
Despite the low turnout of its movie theater run, once it was distributed in its home video version, the John Dahl-directed film instantly developed a cult following, mainly fueled by the "poker boom" 5 years later when Chris Moneymaker took home the WSOP Main Event in 2003.
The video below shows the historical win of Chris Moneymaker vs Sam Farha:
Actually, in an effort to promote the movie, both the leading characters Matt Damon and Edward Norton competed in the $10,000 WSOP Main Event in 1998. Damon was distinctively eliminated by 10-time WSOP bracelet holder Doyle Brunson after running kings into aces.
In the IMDb site, the description of the film says, "A young, reformed gambler must return to playing big stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks, while balancing his relationship with his girlfriend and his commitments to law school."
Here's some trivia about the Rounders movie according to IMDb:
- Early on, Mike is seen taking money out of a poker book called "Super System", which was written by poker legend Doyle Brunson. He later pulls quotes from the book with the lines "Texas Hold 'em is the Cadillac of poker games" and "The trick to no limit is to put a man to a decision for all his chips."
- Rounders was set in New York City but all of the law school scenes were filmed in and around Rutgers Law School in Newark, NJ.
- In the original version of the script, Mike McDermott was going to make a move on Phil Hellmuth in the Atlantic City big-money game, not Johnny Chan.
- Scream movie series main character Neve Campbell turned down the role of Jo, who was replaced by Gretchen Mol.
- Despite the rise in No Limit Texas Hold'em interest in conjunction with this film's release, the characters play a wide variety of poker variants: No Limit Hold'em is played with Teddy KGB at the beginning and end of the film, the Judge's game is a 7 card Stud game, the College Boys are playing Stud variants (notably Chicago), when Worm and Mike go the Chesterfield the first time the game is Forced Rotation (alternating hands of Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Stud usually), Worm plays 7 card Stud later at the Chesterfield, the Taj Mahal game is Limit Hold'em, the Union game is a Draw or Stud game, Mike plays Draw or Stud (it appears in the short scene)with the Greeks, the Cigar Club game is 7 card Stud Hi-Lo, the Golf pro game is a Pot Limit Omaha/Stud game, and the State police game is 7 card Stud. All the games played are part of the World Series of Poker competition (though the main event is No Limit Texas Hold'em)
Pro poker players who admitted the film had gotten them into playing the game include the likes of Brian Rast, Dutch Boyd, Gavin Griffin and Hevad Khan.
American poker pro and TV personality Vanessa Rousso said, "There have been lots of movies that have 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."
Haven't watched the movie yet? Here's the official trailer of Rounders:
from BankrollMob News - Poker / Casino / Betting
Post a Comment