Matt Damon and the movie Rounders
Today I watched the movie Rounders. You know the one with Matt Damon, John Malcovich and Edward Norton. In case you haven’t watched Rounders yet you really should. Rounders hit the big screen in 1998 with a descent $22,822,000 in Box Office takings. That’s not too shabby for a poker film. Remember that poker only really hit the big time in around about 2001-2002 when the lipstick size camera came into its own and got TV audiences really excited.
Here is a quick synopsis of the Rounders movie. Matt Damon loses his bank roll early on and then hooks up with his old buddy Edward Norton, who plays the poker cheat. Matt is the solid tight aggressive poker player that grinds out his winnings. John Malcovich is the KGB style mafia dude that plays cards. I guess I don’t want to ruin the film before you watch it yourself but that’s a good setting if you want an idea of who fits in where.
On an interesting point Matt really sucks up to Doyle Brunson in the movie and I guess its praise worth giving for this poker legend. The movie also mentions the Trump Taj Mahal quite a bit. I guess back in 1998 there weren’t too many online poker sites going around. I know that the US Poker open happens there which kind of makes me think that the next article should be about that event. Anyways, I enjoyed watching Rounders more now that I understand the Poker lingo better. The first time I watch Rounders I didn’t have a clue about Texas Holdem or the difference between No limit let alone high low. I probably still don’t have much of an idea about High Low but I guess learning one thing at a time makes more sense.
Funny enough Matt played in the 1998 WSOP and got knocked out on the first day. Not quite living up to his film star persona in Rounders if you know what I mean. He and his best buddy Matt Damon went on to become firm poker fans, going on to get coaching from some of the real poker pro’s on the circuit like Annie Duke. If you were interested in Matt Damon’s background we have a couple of key notes.
Matt Damon was born in October 8th, 1970 and went to High School Cambridge Rindge and then on to Harvard University where he dropped out. I really like Matt Damon as an actor and would like to meet up with him one day to shoot the breeze about poker and internet stuff. That’s all for this Rounders Matt Damon poker movie review.
We’ll have more from pokernex movie reviews as soon as we watch the next exciting poker movie.
