| Is there illegal gambling involved? | Yes, in dank, uninviting underground poker clubs. | Yes, in swanky hotel suites. Also, occasionally, at the house of the guy from the Paris Hilton sex tape.
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| Is Matt Damon involved? | Yes, as Mike McDermott, a law-school student conflicted by his poker skill. | Yes, as himself, a movie star. |
| Is there cool terminology involved? |
So much: “Rolled up aces,” “lays down a monster,” “kid’s got alligator blood,” etc. | Most likely, because if Matt Damon wasn’t taking every opportunity he could to quote his own movie — well, then, what the hell kind of high-stakes celebrity poker is this? |
| Are there people losing money they can’t afford to lose? | Yes. Damon’s character loses $30,000 at the beginning of the movie and ends up having to drive a delivery truck to make ends meet. | The real one’s actually more dramatic: Ruderman apparently got a Ponzi scheme going to attempt to cover his losses. A pending lawsuit is trying to get Maguire to pay back $311,300 of his winnings. |
| Are there super-climactic hands? | All day! Most notable: the one at the very end, when Damon bests Teddy KGB by flopping the nut straight. | Also yes: Maguire apparently once took $110,000 off Ruderman in a single hand.
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| Are there girls trying to ruin everything?
| Yes. Gretchen Mol plays Matt Damon’s girlfriend, and she’s an overly sensible, poker-hating drag. | And yes: TMZ says Leo stopped playing with the guys when he started dating Bar Rafeali. |
| How about a happy ending?
| Damon gets all his money back, quits law school, and rides off into the sunset, a.k.a. the World Series of Poker in Vegas.
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Well, Ruderman’s already in prison, so not for him. But Tobey’s coming out of this kind of looking like a badass, right? |
Rounders
Celebrity Poker Ring