Greatest movie/TV Poker Scene of All Time. . .

[Turning Stone Pro]

The scene from "Coach", were Heyden Fox loses everything to the tall blond basketball coach Judie Watkins playing 5 card draw:

"the more you lose the more you bet, any winner will tell you that"

kinda corny, but a funny scene.

Also, Steve Urkel, when he loses all his accordian money to Carl Winslow's boss (the lueitenant) in a friendly poker game, and then Carl gives Steve's money back to him but Steve, instead of leaving, decides to "wipe the smile off that flatfoot's face":

Carl: Don't do it Steve.
Steve: Well why not?
Carl: Because now you'll be losing my money.
Steve: Well, thats a risk Im willing to take.

Corny? Yes. Funny? absolutely!

TSP

[andyfox]

The Sting is a wonderful movie. They used John Scarne's hands for a shot of Paul Newman supposedly fixing a deck. And they shot one scene in the merry-go-round on the Santa Monica pier. The movie, which started a craze for ragtime piano music by Scott Joplin and others, is an American icon. And the poker scene on the train is indeed terrific.

[andyfox]

Yes, they're definitely like that on purpose. It's Mamet. Watch Homicide or The Spanish Prisoner (a great movie) or Glengarry, Glennross and you'll see the same thing.

Crouse was Mamet's wife at the time; now he's traded her in for the younger Rebecca Pigeon, who appears in his movies.

And, of course, Ricky Jay is in most of his movies.

Joe Mantegna is the name you're looking for. He's very good in House of Games, but he's even better in Homicide.

[swami]

anyone see dead like me on showtime this week. They had two scenes of hold em' games. Including a grandmother telling her granddaugher that when you want to put all your chips in you say "all in". Not good scenes, but evidence of poker boom inspired by WPT, WSOP coverage.

[andyfox]

Not about poker, but a great movie about gambling. It came out around the same time as California Split.

The Gambler is one of the edgier and more interesting, if forgotten, films of the mid-Super70s, the kind of studio film that rarely gets made anymore. It stars James Caan as a brilliant college literature professor with the same weakness as one of Dostoevsky's characters: He can't resist a wager. Indeed, he's in so deep that even his seemingly good-hearted bookie (Paul Sorvino) is trying to kill him. So he lams out of New York and heads for Las Vegas--where he wins back everything he's lost so he can pay off his massive debts. But is he smart enough to take his winnings and walk away? Caan captures the aggressive compulsiveness of the gambling addict, the strange split between a seemingly intelligent man and an uncontrollably stupid impulse. The film includes early film performances by James Woods and Lauren Hutton. The final scene/shot is chilling. Worth renting if you can find it.

[andyfox]

A friend of mine, a screenwriter, says the scene, while enjoyable, doesn't really work. The villain used a cold deck, but Newman improved his hand by using cards that were not in the deck. So while the villain complains he couldn't accuse Newman of being a better cheat than him, he could have: had they checked the deck they would have found it contain eight jacks.

Too bad we lost Robert Shaw so early. His performance in both Jaws and The Sting were outstanding. I believe he was also a screenwriter.

[andyfox]

That movie was a lot of fun. I particularly liked Henry Fonda and the great Paul Ford.

[spamuell]

Is there a good Web site that explains the rules of 3 Card Brag?


http://www.pagat.com/vying/brag.html has pretty much all you would need to know. I'm warning you though, don't play this game with friends unless you are all prepared to lose a lot of money, pots just get huge.

And read over the rules very carefully as it takes a while to shake off the notion you'll have got from poker that all players should put the same amount of money in the pot on every round.

Again, I warn you, even at small stakes the pots can easily become massive as there cannot be a limit format and the game is not usually played with table stakes as this ruins the idea of having to call twice as much as the bettor, and stops an open man from being unable to see a blind man.

[mrbaseball]

Have you seen Owning Mahony? It's new this year (stars Philip Seymour Hoffman) about a compulsive gambler who gets in real deep. Especially interesting is how the casinos deal with him.

I enjoyed the Gambler too but thought the ending was stupid and over the top.

[swami]

This is a true story and Caesars Palace in AC was actually closed for a 24 period as stated at the end of the movie.