The Poker in Rounders

Rounders is to poker players what Passion of the Christ is to Chrsitians. The thing I love about the movie is that all of the major plot points turn around poker. I'm a screenwriting student and a poker player so the combination of plot and poker is very enjoyable.

There are many hands of poker played in Rounders. The first one we see is the infamous Aces full vs. Nines full that busts Mike McDermott out of his entire bankroll.

The game is a $25,000 minimum no-limit hold em game. The blinds are probably somewhere around $50 and $100, perhaps higher. When The Hand occurs, the game is down to 4 players. Mike McDermott has Ace-9 suited on the button after the player under the gun folds.

McDermott raises to $500, which makes sense. He has a suited Ace on the button, which is a monster. Teddy KGB smooth calls with pocket Aces.

The flop is the 8 of clubs, 9 of spades, and Ace of spades. KGB checks the nuts, and McDermott bets $2,000. He claims it is an overbet, but it is only twice the size of the pot. KGB slyly and slowly calls. The pot is now somewhere in the $3,000 neighborhood. McDermott puts KGB on a flush draw. Why? Who knows.

The turn is the 9 of hearts, which gives both players a full boat. Teddy KGB's is higher and McDermott is drawing to one out, the 9 of diamonds. They both check.

The river is the 6 of spades, apparently giving Teddy KGB a flush. Teddy bets $15,000, or 5 times the pot. Now THAT is an overbet. McDermott thinks he has the best hand, acts weakly, then pushes all in for $33,000 more. KGB, of course, calls with Aces full and destroys Mike McDermott.

Now, asking McDermott to be good enough to fold 9s full is a bit much. I don't think too many players could do that. However, the entire hand, KGB seems to be acting weak but is actually strong. He smooth calls McDermott's preflop raise, and flop bet, then he bets 5 times the pot on the river. Either he's bluffing or he's got a fucking monstrous hand. It isn't totally out of the question for McDermott to just call the $15,000 on the river. If he just calls it and wins, he still makes $17,500 in the hand, which would make his stack $66,000. If he just calls and loses, he's at $33,000. Either way, he's up on his night.

The main problem with McDermott's gameplay at KGB's place is that he put his entire bankroll into play. You simply don't do that. Not even if you were a perfect poker player and always knew what the cards were should you do that. What if you have Aces against Kings, both go all-in and you lose? With hands like AA vs. KK, you lose about 17% of the time. Is it worth your entire bankroll (in Mike's case, also his tuition)? NO!!!!

The two biggest card games in the movie are No Limit Hold Em games, but most games are stud games. On the commentary by Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, Chris Ferguson, and Chris Moneymaker, they remark how stud seems to be a bigger game on the East Coast when Rounders was made compared to Texas Hold Em. This is confirmed by Wikipedia, and by some of the old time dealers I've talked to at Turning Stone who have worked in Vegas. Stud is definitely not a big west coast game, but once was THE game in the East. Nowadays, finding large stud games is difficult outside of Foxwoods and Atlantic City. Typically, Turning Stone only has a meek 1-5 stud game going. Online, Party Poker has $30/$60 for its biggest stud game, whereas Hold Em can be as high as $5000 max buy-in NL hold em, or $100/$200 limit hold em. Even Omaha has eclipsed 7 card stud.

The scene at the Taj in which the New York rounders take down tourists is one of my favorite scenes. It's funny, and it rings true. I typically go to Turning Stone by myself, but a good number of regular players there know me and a few are about the closest thing you can get to a friend at the poker table. We don't collude, and we will take each other down if the situation occurs, but we will often stay out of each other's way. The smart players there know I'm tight and to stay out of my way, and I know some players there are tight and I should stay out of their way. The Taj scene also includes one of my favorite lines "Down here for a good time, why not give poker a try?" and of course: "It's like the nature channel, you don't see piranhas eating each other."

In the golf club game, there is an obvious string bet. String betting is something that needs to be wiped off the face of the earth at all costs. Since all bets are verbally binding, saying the words "call" and then "raise" is a contradiction. The first bet is binding and it is completed then. The same can be said if a player pushes out a bet, raise, or call, then decides to put more into the pot. McDermott should have called a string bet on the player. Even if he loses the pot, he has an infinitely higher chance to win if the pot is called as opposed to him folding.

The Johnny Chan hand always bugged me. The situation is that McDermott is sitting at $300/$600 in Atlantic City with Johnny Chan. McDermott foolishly only puts $6,000 in front of him to play the game. For some reason he decides in a hand to outplay Chan.

McDermott says he played tight for an hour and folded, then with rags he made a score on Chan. In 300/600, the blinds are 150/300. In the hand in question, Chan raises to 600, McDermott re-raises 300 on top to 900. Chan re-raises to 1200. McDermott re-raises to 1500. Then Chan folds.

My problem is, why the fuck did Chan fold? For $300, Chan could have called McDermott and seen a flop. By the time Chan folds, the pot is already $3,150. Chan is getting laid 10.5 to 1 on his money. Furthermore, the implied odds are very good. With McDermott's minimal chip stack, he's committed himself almost entirely to this one hand. He's already put $1500 in there and will probably put in the remaining $4500. Unless Chan has something like King-2, and thinks McDermott has Kings, Chan should at least see a flop. And besides, what is $300 to Johnny fucking Chan?

The last hand of the movie, McDermott has 9-8 of spades and flops the nut straight. He checks it, pretending to be on a draw. Eventually, KGB goes broke on the hand.

McDermott could slow play because there were no other big draws out there. About the only hand drawing against him is 2 pair or a set. He could be up against a higher straight draw, but it would have to be a gutshot one with the 6-7-T flop. He also has an out for any gutshot straight draw higher than his. This is the perfect time to slow play. The turn is a blank, and it also ensures that no flush will come out. This means McDermott is 100% safe unless the board pairs or an 8 or 9 comes out. He has the nuts the entire time and slow plays it.

Slow playing, even with the nuts, is dangerous. You have to do it sometimes in order to make money. However, you are risking the outdraw, even if it is a freak outdraw like runner runner flush or someone hitting a full boat on you. Slow playing needs to be done with caution. Remember, the more you can win also means the more you can lose.

Finally, the biggest mistake made in the movie wasn't Chan folding when he's getting 20 to 1 implied odds, or McDermott putting his entire $30,000 bankroll on the line in one game, it was Mike McDermott refusing Petra's sexual advances. What the fuck was he thinking? I don't care if your girlfriend just left you and your best friend is borrowing money in your name, HOW THE FUCK COULD YOU TURN DOWN PETRA, PLAYED BY FAMKE JANSSEN?



How could Mike McDermott not want to go all-in there?