A young, reformed gambler must return to playing high stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks, while balancing his relationship with his girlfriend and his commitments to law schoo... Read allA young, reformed gambler must return to playing high stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks, while balancing his relationship with his girlfriend and his commitments to law school.A young, reformed gambler must return to playing high stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks, while balancing his relationship with his girlfriend and his commitments to law school.
- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMatt Damon and Edward Norton played the $10,000 buy-in Texas Hold 'Em (No Limit) championship event at the 1998 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. During the first of four days, Matt Damon had pocket Kings and was knocked out by former world champion and poker legend Doyle Brunson who held pocket Aces.
- GoofsMike goes to a check cashing place with a personal check for $10,000 from his professor. Check cashing businesses never cash personal checks on the same day; they require a 3-5 day waiting period so the check can clear. And even if it was a payroll check, the business would have taken a percentage to cash it, so Mike would not have had the full $10,000 to bring to the game. The filmmakers have stated (in interview with ESPN.com's Bill Simmons) that the cash checking location is run by a friend of his professor's, but the scene was cut to bring the film's running time down.
- Quotes
Mike McDermott: [Narrating first lines, first getting dressed in their apartment, kissed his girlfriend as she sleeps, then going through belongings to find "three stacks of society", hidden inside a cigar box on top of his desk, inside the top left hand drawer of the same desk, hidden inside an empty VHS box entitled Caro's Pro poker Tells by Mike Caro, behind hidden inside the bottom and back left hand corner of a picture frame, and hidden inside a book entitled Super System by Doyle Brunson] Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.
- SoundtracksBaby, I'm A Big Star Now
Written by Adam Duritz (as Adam F. Duritz)
Performed by Counting Crows
Courtesy of Geffen Records, Inc.
The story is about a young "rounder" who is trying to go straight by going to law school (although our first glimpse of him shows him losing all his money in a high-stakes poker game with a Russian gangster). He quits gambling for a while until a old friend (played by Norton) returns to his life and lands him in deep trouble. What I especially like about the movie is that is starts off as if this plot line is the main subject, when in fact the movie is about this person learning important things about himself. And there is a lot of information about poker...
Damon is especially impressive among a uniformly good cast.
- hbs
- Dec 29, 2001
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Chơi Bài
- Filming locations
- 15 Washington Street, Newark, New Jersey, USA("City Law School" scenes)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $12,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $22,912,409
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $8,459,126
- Sep 13, 1998
- Gross worldwide
- $22,912,409
- Runtime2 hours 1 minute
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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