Rounders

1998
R
2h 1m

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

163K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer0:33

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.

Director
- John Dahl
Writers
- David Levien
- Brian Koppelman
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

163K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

3,021

Director
- John Dahl
Writers
- David Levien
- Brian Koppelman
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination total

Videos3

What Roles Has Matt Damon Turned Down?

Photos66

+ 60

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Matt 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.

Goofs
Mike 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 while entering Teddy KGB's underground gambling parlor] In "Confessions of a Winning Poker Player," Jack King said, "Few players recall big pots they have won, strange as it seems, but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career." It seems true to me, cause walking in here, I can hardly remember how I built my bankroll, but I can't stop thinking of how I lost it.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Rounders/Kiki's Delivery Service/Simon Birch/Slums of Beverly Hills/Digging to China (1998)

Soundtracks
Baby, I'm A Big Star Now
Written by Adam Duritz (as Adam F. Duritz)
Performed by Counting Crows
Courtesy of Geffen Records, Inc.

User reviews339

Review

Featured review

Enjoyable character-driven story

Mike is a law student who is also a skilled poker player. However when he loses everything to Russian player KGB he promises his girlfriend that he'll quit playing. However a year later Mike's friend Worm comes out of prison and immediately entices Mike into an easy game. Worm still has outstanding debts and Mike is drawn back into this world in order to help him win enough to pay them off.

I taped this off TV with no real hope for it. I knew it hadn't done well at the cinema and that it wasn't exactly a well known film so I assumed it must be pretty poor. However I was sold on it by the end and, although it's not brillant, it's good enough to watch at least once. The plot is pretty simple but the characters make it watchable and the poker action is good. How many of us long to be Mike to be able to read a table like that etc? The poker scenes may not all have excitement (you know who'll win) but they are interesting to watch.

Damon caused me pause to doubt when he first came on the screen. I just saw him in `Bourne Identity' and here he looks very young compared to that. However once I got past his baby face I accepted him although someone else might have been better. Norton is great as always and very watchable. Good support comes from an understated Turturro, Janssen, Landau and a slightly hammy Malkovich. However they all do well given that they all drive the thin plot and make the film watchable.

Overall it's not a great piece of work but it does have some really good performances and it works well as a drama with knobs on. I wouldn't buy it but I'll watch it again if I see it on TV.