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Since the golden age of the Western, poker playing has always been a popular theme in Hollywood. Although many of the Hollywood films that feature poker are not very good and some of them even display poker in a ridiculous manner, watching poker action on the big screen is great fun, especially if you play poker yourself.

Here are the best poker movies that were ever produced in Hollywood. Some of the movies are actually excellent movies regardless to their display of the poker game, while in others the poker games is the feature that makes them worth watching. However, if you are a poker fan, add these movies to your musts list.

The Sting directed by George Roy Hill in 1973

The Sting is less about poker and more about the art of card sharking but it will provide you two hours of sophisticated fun. The 1973 Academy award winner features young Paul Newman as the greatest con artist of them all who mentors young Robert Redford in the art of trickestry. David S. Warn screenplay is based on true con games stories.

The Cincinnati Kid directed by Norman Jewison in 1965

The classic stud poker film known for its climatic final hand and the unforgettable quote: Gets down to what its all about, doesn’t it? Making the wrong move at the right time. In short, The Cincinnati Kid is about the battle between Steve Macqueen who plays a young poker player also known as The Kid and the veteran poker gambler known as The Man who is played by Edward G. Robinson during the Great Depression in New Orleans. It may not appear at any other list of best movies, but it certainly has one of the best poker scenes ever seen on the silver screen.

California Split directed by Robert Altman in 1974

California Split may not be the pick of Robert Altmans creation, but is one of the best movies to depict the messy everyday life of two professional gamblers played by George Segal and Elliott Gould. Like in many of Altman films, the narrative is not particularly straight and the end is not necessarily happy, but it does succeed in describing an authentic experience. Additionally, poker trivia fans would be thrilled to learn that poker legend Amarillo Slim plays a small role.

Rounders directed by John Dahl in 1998

It is hard to tell whether the movie pushed to the 21st century poker boom or the rise in the popularity of poker during the last decade made Rounders a cult hit. However, Rounders is one of the best poker films to display the contemporary high stake poker scene. The core of the movie is a long poker marathon in which Mat Damon and Edward Norton are trying to earn money to pay off the latter gambling debts. World Series of Poker champion Johnny Chan plays a featured role.

Maverick directed by Richard Donner in 1994

Although Maverick is not the most brilliant film ever made and some of the poker scenes are kinda silly, it is a fun and lightheaded poker movie. It might even provide you a basic idea on what it was like to be a rambling gambler in the old west card scene with Mel Gibson as a maverick who tries to earn enough money for the big five card draw poker tournament.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Poker is a name set to huge sum of card games. What they have in common is that they are  on the status of five card hands.

The undeveloped games are fairly easy to learn. The object of the game is to win the money bet by having the best classification hands. Poker is mostly played with in a smallest of two players but around five to seven players is more practical.

The instructions of special games vary immensely. The quantity of to each player, the methods of bookmaking and the position of the hand can all differ.

Even games of the same name will varyin their play. It is therefore important to confirm that you entirely understand the rubric before you lead playing.

In reserved games you play against all additional players. In order to win you need to beat all of your opponents . Each actor turns at heart the seller. When you play in a nightclub, you have two options.

You can either bet against further players or against the casino. In the previous, the gaming house materials the dealer, charging a cut of the pot( the money bet) for this provision. A withdrawal around ten percent is common. Alternatively, the gaming club may make an hourly charge for the use of facilities. Let us look at some poker terms:

Ante:- a bet made before any cards have been dealt.

Babies:- slight value cards.

Bicycle:- see helm.

Blind Bet:- a bet made without looking at your cards.

Bluff:- tricking the new players into discerning that you have in actual fact good hand.

Board:- the community cards in games such as Holdem and Omaha .

Bone:- a new name for a chip.

Call:- a verbal avowal that thespian will match the previous bet.

Calling Station:- a play-actor who by the skin of your teeth ever raise.

Dead man’s hand:- two pair of aces over eights.

Draw:- in your hand for from the deck.

Flop:- the deal where the first three community cards are revealed in Holdem and Omaha.

Full House:- cards of the same value with pair, for example aces and two sixes.

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The elusive world of poker has come a long way from its seedy roots of shady, Mafioso-type characters playing no limit holdem’s in dingy, underground gambling dens. Today, it is very much a part of everyday life, sexed up with a peppering of celebrity and television coverage. Thanks to the internet this old game has also managed to reinvent itself and appeal to a broader and younger generation with the likes of Ben Affleck, Toby Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio all helping to propel poker’s profile into the stratosphere. Quite literally, the face of poker has now been replaced by college kids in their dorm rooms or women in their pyjamas playing poker, all influenced by the glamorous image poker now has.

Today, it’s easier to list the celebrities who aren’t playing poker than the ones who are. Whether the stars are playing for charity or for added publicity, millions watch games such as Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown, now in its fifth season. While many question these stars’ poker-playing abilities, few doubt that these celebrity poker shows contribute to the poker craze as well as the uptake of poker online.

Not only is the music world cashing in on Poker but Hollywood has also come –a – knocking. Forget about private jets, vintage sports cars and dinky little pooches, if you’re an A-list movie star with money to burn there’s only one game in town: No Limit Texas Holdem. That’s right, poker has come to Hollywood and no Friday night is complete without a high-profile celebrity tournament taking place somewhere in Beverly Hills.

So far, George Clooney, Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer have all hosted poker parties at their homes, but the game everyone wants to be in is the one organised by the actor James Woods on a weekly basis. Players have to ante up $5,000 to be included in Woods’s magic circle, but that hasn’t deterred Ben Affleck, among others, from beating a path to his door.
One of the reasons movie stars are so keen on poker is that the odds are stacked in their favour. Chris Weitz, the director of American Pie and About A Boy, recounted a Hollywood poker tournament he’d taken part in recently in which the winners of various heats got to compete at a top table for a prize of $50,000. However, when it came to the celebrities, the rules didn’t apply. “They got to sit at the big table, even if they failed to win their heat,” he said.

Even playing with a stacked deck, some celebrities still manage to lose. Earlier this year, James Woods sailed to the Mexican Riviera to compete in a million-dollar tournament organised by the Travel Channel. But lady luck deserted him. “They took all my money,” he said, referring to the professional card-players he was up against. “I have nothing left.” It seems that lady luck has got a tight leash on celebrities and it’s apparent that Hollywood have become enamoured with Poker and in turn we have become infatuated with this sexed up image.

Even more celebrity poker? You bet. E! Hollywood Hold’Em let’s viewers enter celebrities’ homes as they and their friends, some famous and others not-so-famous, play hands of poker until someone wins the $10K pot. Intended to emulate the home games most amateur players are familiar with, this show enables viewers to see how the other half plays poker. When comparing E! Hollywood Hold’Em to the other celebrity poker shows, most poker enthusiasts agree that this show illustrates the worst in terms of actual poker-playing ability. When watching, one cannot help but think that these “poker players” have too much free time and too much Monopoly money to play with. Publicity stunts aside, tuning in to an episode of Hold’em Hollywood style does prove to be entertaining and as long as the celebrities are doing it, poker will continue to appeal to the masses.

Popularity: 2% [?]