Rounders

It is pretty clear at this point that the movie Rounders is by far the best poker movie of all time. Anyone that tries to argue the later is wasting their time. The movie Lucky You has grown on me over the last couple of years, but it is clear that Rounders is at the top of the poker movie mountain. It is there for many reasons including star power, great plot, great acting and pretty much great everything. There are very few holes in the movie. After seeing the movie on an HD television it is like watching it again for the first time. A while back I made a post on a Rounders website that was discussing the hands of the movie. After seeing the movie in HD I felt the need to post the comments. The hand in question is the final hand of the movie. Where Mike pulls the Johnny Chan rope a dope and induces bet after bet by checking the nuts all the way down. Below I attempt to put KGB on a hand.

It starts with Mike making a small raise from the small blind doubling the big blind from $100 to $200 with 9♠8♠ and KGB quickly and annoyingly calling from the button. It is important to note that they play heads up incorrectly in this movie. The button should be the small blind preflop and act first only preflop. I suppose the argument here could be that KGB sets up the game and does what he wants. Who would argue with him? LOL Anyway, KGB could have just about any hand here. His flat call doesn't suggest a medium pocket pair, but they are playing very deep stacked poker (300 BB's). As a result disquised sets against over pairs have crazy sick implied odds. These implied odds could warrant flatting, but convential hand reading makes medium pairs less likely. A very important point is that heads up play is very, very different than a full ring game. You truly are playing your opponent not the cards, and these guys have been battling for hours at this point. A whole lot of he thinks, that I think, that he thinks kind of poker is happening.

So there is $400 in the pot pre flop. The flop comes out 10-7-6 rainbow. Mike checks the nut straight and KGB completely over bets the pot with a $2,000 bet into a $400 pot. This bet sizing is completely ridiculous, but is necessary for the sake of the movie. The easiest explaination is that KGB is on tilt, but he could also be protecting a hand. The bottom line is that the bet sizing is crazy and can only be explained by KGB losing his mind or trying to take the strategy of buying every pot. The play up to this point makes 10-10 or 7-7 or 6-6 unlikely hole cards. These are raising hands heads up as they are so difficult to play after the flop, but he does have position. The most likely hand I would put him on in this spot would be 7-6 suited or a complete air ball. Mike makes the call, and says he'll gamble. Alarms should have been going off in Teddy's head. No hand is worth gambling at 1.2:1 pot odds. Unless he figures the implied odds of getting KGB’s entire stack. KGB says, "You're on a draw Mike? Go away Mike this one is not good for you." This kind of suggests he has a set meaning if the board pairs Mike's draw is a waste of time, but he could just be blowing smoke. The deuce on the turn does nothing and produces a rainbow board (no flush draw). Mike checks, and Teddy bets the pot. Now the pot is offering 2:1 to call the $4,400. Mike calls and says, "I'll call you Teddy, or else I won't respect myself in the morning." Teddy should be slowing down at this point with Mike's crying call, but he's on tilt.

The last card is an Ace which is a complete gutter ball for any draw. Mike checks again and Teddy shoves. This is an absolutely obsurd bet. The only hand that can call him has him beat. So why risk 20k or whatever KGB has behind in this spot? It doesn't make much sense unless you consider the bet looks so much like he is buying the pot, that he could get called by a weaker hand like 99 or 88.

In conclusion, this is a very difficult hand to figure out. KGB could really have anything from a powerful set to complete zippo. If I had to make a guess I would say he is hemorrhaging chips and probably has a complete air ball. He thinks Mike is weak and he can buy the pot if the board bricks out. I have seen some blog posts that say if you pause it you can see two 10's flying through the air after KGB slams the deck on the table. How these are supposed to be KGB's exact two hole cards in that commotion is beyond my comprehension. The key thing to understand here is that KGB is very rattled. He has lost over 30k back to Mike after having him on the ropes and he is on complete tilt. When someone is on tilt they can have pretty much anything, but by the end of the night they usually don't have their chips.