The 10 Best Poker Hands of the Decade Mitchell Cogert Contributor I January 7, 2010 Comments. The 10 Best Poker Hands of the Decade. Losing $10,000 on the First Hand at the World. A list of movies related to Gambling and/or poker. This list is made for the users of the Gaming community www.GamingHill.com where you can find a lot of more Gambling related stuff (tools, reviews, entertainment, games, forums etc). This movie is a treat for Steve McQueen fans. This classic is about “ The Kid” Eric Stoner (Steve McQueen), a young stud poker player who challenges the best card player in the country “ The Man” Lancey Howard (Edward G. Robinson) for a high stake Five Card Stud poker game. It is known as one of the most popular movies about poker.

After earning 00 status and a licence to kill, Secret Agent James Bond sets out on his first mission as 007. Bond must defeat a private banker funding terrorists in a high-stakes game of poker at Casino Royale, Montenegro. Slow, shallow, and incredibly talky, Spectre is so busy telling us it’s an epic movie that it never gets around to delivering on its promise. In lieu of a plot, what follows the (admittedly spectacular) pre-credits sequence set amidst Mexico City’s Day of the Dead celebration is a random collection of set pieces, seemingly cobbled together as a “greatest hits” from.

One of the great appeals of poker to a mass audience is the drama inherent in the game itself. Millions of dollars can change on the turn of a card. An unknown player can become a household name overnight. A player needs just one lucky card to make his dreams come true; the audience holds its breath in anticipation. Can he possibly beat the odds and make his hand?

If poker is inherently dramatic, why are there so few entertaining poker movies? Is it because Hollywood can’t translate the tension players feel, or is it that a group of men (and a few women) sitting around a table doesn’t produce the same visceral effects as giant fighting robots or magical teenagers?

In any event, some filmmakers were able to get the carry the feel of the game from the green felt to the silver screen.

Here are some of the best poker movies ever made:

#5: High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story (2003)

Stu Ungar was the original “young gun” of tournament poker. In 1980, he was the youngest player to win the World Series of Poker Main Event, a record he would hold until Phil Hellmuth broke it nine years later. Ungar also holds one record that may never be broken: he was the only three-time Main Event Champion (1980, 1981, 1997).

Michael Imperioli (“Christopher Moltisanti” on “The Sopranos”) carries this movie on his back. His portrayal shows Ungar as both a genius at cards and a troubled soul in every other aspect of his life.

#4: Maverick (1994)

Putting aside the recent real-life drama surrounding its star, the “Maverick” movie with Mel Gibson was a fun, if completely unrealistic, portrait of the “gentleman gambler” from the 1960s TV show.

The final hand shown here is an example of Hollywood exaggerating the quality of most poker hands, as well as disregarding several modern rules. In today’s games, the two big slowrolls (Coburn’s quad eights and Gibson’s spade royal flush) would have earned the players reprimands from the dealer (and possibly beatings in the parking lot). The straight flush vs. royal flush ending is also ridiculous, but it’s all done with a tongue-in-cheek attitude.

#3: The Sting (1973)

While this classic movie may not display all the skills and strategies involved in the modern game, it does show the subtleties involved in the forgotten side of poker: cheating. Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) knows that the only way to beat crime boss and poker cheat Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) at his private game is to out-cheat the cheater. Gondorff anticipates Lonnegan’s tendency to cheat with nines, brings his own rigged deck, and beats Lonnegan at his own game.

#2: The Cincinnati Kid (1965)

Another example of a “young gun” versus an old pro, “The Kid” (Steve McQueen) takes on “The Man” (Edward G. Robinson) in a classic game of Five Card Stud. With one card to come in the final hand, the two combatants engage in a staredown, with the interested spectators providing a running commentary. As The Man says at the end, “It’s about making the wrong move at the right time.”

#1: Rounders (1998)

Many observers believe that, without Chris Moneymaker, there never would have been a “poker boom”. Moneymaker himself said that, without “Rounders”, he never would have taken up Texas Hold’em.

“Rounders” provided the most realistic portrait of the underground New York poker scene years before many of its participants (including Poker Hall of Famers Erik Seidel and Dan Harrington) became famous. Today, online poker rooms are filled with “MikeMcD”s and “TeddyKGB”s, all seeking to capture the essence of this classic film.

In my next article I’ll be reviewing some of the worst poker movies ever made.

By Gerald Hanks

Gerald Hanks is from Houston Texas, and has been playing poker since 2002. He has played cash games and no-limit hold’em tournaments at live venues all over the United States.

Best Poker Movies Ever

1. I am very disappointed in Netflix Canada. They don’t have a single one of these movies available for viewing!

2. Have you seen the movie Yonkers Joe, starring Chazz Palminteri? It’s one of the best poker movies I’v ever seen!

Best Poker Movies Ever Made

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