Mike eventually learns the “tell” that Teddy KGB has and proceeds to take his initial stake back plus the money that KGB originally took from Mike. With no money, “Worm” goes on the run, but Mike stays back to attempt to make the $10K that is owed to Teddy.Īs anyone in poker can tell you, Mike borrows money from his law school professor and goes mano y mano with his nemesis, Teddy KGB. Vouching for his friend, Mike and “Worm” try to make the money up and are doing well…until “Worm” muffs a card mechanic move (dealing off the bottom of the deck) while they are playing against a bunch of law enforcement officers. To make a long story short, the duo gets back into poker because of debts that “Worm” has run up previously to the very man who took Mike’s bankroll, the owner of the underground card room Teddy KGB (John Malkovich).

That hiatus is ended when his friend Lester “Worm” Murphy (Edward Norton) is released from prison. Made for a scant $12 million, the film starred a young Matt Damon, fresh off his Oscar-winning writing of the film Good Will Hunting, as Mike “Mike McD’’ McDermott, an excellent poker player and law student who is on hiatus from the game due to losing his bankroll in one of New York’s underground poker rooms. Many in the game today were drawn to poker the old-fashioned way – through the cinematic portrayal that they saw in the movie Rounders.Ģ0 years ago, a little film called Rounders premiered in theaters across the States of America. Some others, believe it or not, don’t come to the game until they are older. For myself, it was at the knee of my family, playing penny ante games of Seven Card Stud over the kitchen table. Everyone comes to poker in their own way.

Why is poker called rounder