The game of poker has provided the backdrop for some of the great movie moments over the past half a century or more. But as well as serving as a device to move the plot along as it did in, for example, The Sting and Casino Royale, it also provided the opportunity for some of the most memorable and quotable lines in movie history. These are the kinds of comments and ripostes that we would all love to claim for our own in the real world.
The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
Lancey Howard: It’s a pleasure to meet someone who understands that to the true gambler, money is never an end in itself, it’s simply a tool, as a language is to thought.
Edward G Robinson’s character greets his young challenger with these words and encapsulates how some players seem to be on another level. For them, it is no longer about the money. The game is everything.
The Sting (1973)
Doyle Lonnegan: Your boss is quite a card player, Mr. Kelly. How does he do it?
Johnny Hooker: He cheats.
In those two words, the fresh-faced Robert Redford’s character draws Robert Shaw’s crime boss deeper into the intricate web he and Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) are weaving. The sleight of hand with which Gondorff transforms four threes into four jacks during their poker game is a joy to behold, although it makes today’s players glad they can visit legal US poker sites today to find a game of poker online without having to resort to company like Lonnegan and Gondorff!
Casino (1995)
Ace Rothstein: In Vegas, everybody’s gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I’m watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all.
Robert De Nero’s description of eyes everywhere reveals the true side of Las Vegas. Keep in mind that he said these lines in the mid 90s, since which time surveillance technology has evolved significantly!
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Danny Ocean: The house always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes. The house takes you. Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet and you bet big, then you take the house.
In what was arguably the best caper movie since The Sting almost 30 years earlier, George Clooney’s eponymous character sums up a reality that all casino gamers know perfectly well but that few have ever expressed so succinctly.
Molly’s Game
Molly Bloom: I was in a room with movie stars, directors and business titans. They were going all in, all the time.
In delivering the above words, Jessica Chastain highlights another important truth of poker. Sometimes, the other players at the table don’t have to be good to ruin your entire game.
