Resources - Poker
Movies:
1.
The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
It's New Orleans and a new kid has come to town to beat the
notorious Lacey Howard (Edward Robinson), the best poker player
in the country. With the help of an old friend and card dealer,
Eric Stoner (Steve McQueen) manages to get in on the highest
stakes game of his life. The Cincinnati Kid is all about the
poker scene at the end, which is one of the best on film for
certain. However, you must sit through some reasonably flat
performances revolving around revenge and romance to get there.
There are a couple of good moments of sexual tension between
McQueen and Ann-Margret (playing Melba) in between Steve truly
wanting to be with Christian (Tuesday Weld).
2.
Rounders (1998)
Likely the most popular poker movie in a while, Matt Damon's
character is forced back into the world of poker to help pay off
a friends (Ed Norton) gambling dept. It's more of a card
marathon near the end as they attempt to get the cash they need.
Great flick, and great actors/actresses.
3. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Four regular guys from London put all their cash together to
back their friend in an insanely high stakes game of poker with
a local gangster. When they lose they have to get deep into the
world of crime in order to get out again. Not as poker based as
the other picks, but such a fantastic movie overall that it had
to get high rank.
4.
Luckytown (2000)
Kirsten Dunst is on a quest to find her father who is a
notorious gambler. She picks up a video store clerk with a dream
of being 'the' poker player and heads off to Las Vegas to find
happiness, her father, or ruin. Lots of good action, great
gambling scenes, Kirsten looks particularly sweet and she pole
dances. Can you think of a better one ?
5.
Big Hand for a Little Lady (1966)
A
family moves into a new town and the husband decides to get in
on a high stakes game of poker. He loses almost everything until
his last hand when he conveniently has a heart attack. His wife,
who has never played poker before, has to finish the game and
try to win back her life savings. Quite a nice little comedic
western.
6.
Sunset Trail (1939)
A
good guys versus bad guys movie with Hopalong Cassidy as the
hero. Keller, the bad guy buys up a farmer's cattle then kills
him and steals the money. Hopalong finds out that this is the
case by posing as a newbie poker player and getting the farmers
daughter to check the serial numbers on the cash (yeah, I know).
I won't go into too many details, but poker is used to triumph
over evil in the end and that is why this movie is so fantastic.
7. Kaleidoscope (1966)
Usually, I can't take Warren Beatty movies, but the card playing
in this film was more realistic than most. Barney is a sly,
cheating, debonair poker player who has to play in a really high
profile game to defend his title as the 'luckiest poker player
ever' and win the killer pot.
8.
Loaded Pistols (1948)
Gene Autry and Barbara Britton star in this classic poker murder
mystery. Mary Evans' (Barbara) younger brother is wrongly
accused of murder during a poker game when someone is shot after
the lights go out. Gene hides the boy and ends up having to
recreate the poker game to find out who the real murderer is.
Love this for the murder mystery aspect, you'll get nervous the
next time you're at the table wondering who has the gun.
9.
Maverick (1994)
Set in the old South, Mel Gibson
(Maverick) needs 3000 extra dollars to enter a winner takes all
poker tournament that is scheduled in a couple of days. After he
meets a feisty female gambler, played by Jody Foster, they fall into
lots of funny situations trying to get enough money to play. The
movie is good, the accents are bad... so bad.
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