It’s one of the most popular tropes in the history of Hollywood – the poker game. It’s not hard to see why this classic real-money game of cash and luck makes such great fodder for Tinseltown. There’s the high tension and drama, the often sky-high stakes, the art of the bluff that often reveals as much about a character as it conceals. And the list goes on.
We’ve seen some pretty unforgettable poker scenes depicted on the silver screen, with Casino, Casino Royale, Maverick, Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, and Rounders providing just a few classic examples. However, while many films do a great job of conveying the emotions and thought processes involved in high-stakes poker, there is often a lot that they get wrong. Let’s take a closer look at what Hollywood always seems to get wrong about poker.
We Never See the Pre-flop Action
A huge part of any poker game, whether high or low-stakes, is the pre-flop. This is the second stage of a poker game, occurring after the blinds have been placed and the blind bets are taken. It’s the stage of play that takes place just before the flop is dealt and is one of the most action-packed and interesting parts of the game, where the winning hands might be constructed.
However, you would not know that the pre-flop exists according to Hollywood, which always depicts games going straight from zero to 100, with no chance to fold at all. If you want to see a pre-flop round in action, you can always play live poker games via a top online casino platform, which allows you to experience authentic poker as it is played in Las Vegas. Yes, movies are all about escapism but understanding certain elements can add to the experience of watching.
Poker Prodigies Have Clairvoyant Powers
This one sounds a bit nitpicky, given that we are, in fact, discussing fictional films. However, it is strange that any character on film that is portrayed as an adept poker player seems to have a supernatural ability to read the hands of players. In fact, we can see this happening in Deal, where Burt Reynolds somehow guesses his opponent’s hand, and in Rounders, where Mike McDermott “reads” all of the hands at the table.
This magical act is often depicted as something that poker players can just “do”, and is what makes them good. However, this obscures the fact that so much of the skill involved in poker is all about measuring probability and reading the emotions of players, rather than somehow being able to deduce their hand.
The Final Hand Is Always a Killer
Obviously, Hollywood loves a climax. This is probably why we never see a high-octane poker scene where the protagonist storms to victory with a pair. It is nearly always a full house, straight flush, or even a royal flush that takes the day.
Think of the final poker scene in Casino Royale, where the remaining players show a flush, two full houses, and a straight flush. The odds of this actually happening at a poker table is actually in the trillions to one. For the sake of authenticity, it might be worth giving us a poker scene in which a player wins with a more realistic hand.
Hollywood often does a great job of depicting the drama of the game of poker. However, they sometimes go overboard. We don’t expect to see more realism in future poker scenes, but we poker fans reserve the right to be annoyed by it.
