Name: Rounders
Genre: Drama, Crime
Released: 1998-09-11
Duration: 121 min
Rating: 7
Cast: Matt Damon, Edward Norton, John Turturro, Gretchen Mol, John Malkovich

Rounders

Confrontation Over a High-Stakes Card Game

Teddy KGB It hurts, doesn't it? You can't believe what fell. All your dreams... dashed. Hopes down the fucking drain. Your fate is sitting right beside you. That ace could not have helped you. I bet it all.

[motioning to Grama; splashing the pot repeatedly, with a flourish]

Mike You're right that the ace didn't help me. I flopped the nut straight.

[revealing his hand]

Teddy KGB Motherfucker! ёб твою мать! Motherfucker! That is it!

[throwing cards and chips]

Grama That's it? What the fuck you talkin about, "that's it"? Take him out, Teddy!

Teddy KGB Nyet! Nyet! No more! No, not tonight! This son of bitch, all night he check, check, check! He trapped me!

Mike Well, you feelin satisfied now, Teddy? Cause I can go on bustin you up all night.

Teddy KGB Nyet, nyet. He beat me. Straight up. Pay him. Pay that man his money.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

Anticipation of the Perfect Moment

Worm Oh yeah, one more thing, I got a feelin'.

Mike Yeah? What feeling is that?

Worm I know you know this feeling. You know this feeling very well. I mean, you got your table all set up, your fork, your knife, your A1 sauce...

Mike and Worm All you need is the stake.

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Rounders

Poker and Life's Unexpected Comparisons

Worm I guess the saying's true. In the poker game of life, women are the rake. They are the fucking rake.

Mike What the fuck are you talking about? What saying?

Worm I don't know. There oughta be one.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

A Conversation About Money and Misunderstandings

Mike So, uh, Nick the Greek, what's with kiting my checks?

Worm I'm on empty.

Mike How much was the hooker?

Worm Mike, please! "Relaxation therapist!

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

Gambling Tensions Rise at the Poker Table

Mike All right, I'll call the two grand, I'll gamble. Don't splash the pot.

Teddy KGB You're on a draw, Mike? Throw away this one. It's not good for you. And in my club, I will splash the pot whenever the fuck I please.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

The Grind of Winning and Losing

Mike McDermott Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in your first half-hour at the table, then you are the sucker. Guys around here will tell ya, you play for a living, it's like any other job. You don't gamble, you grind it out. Your goal is to win one big bet an hour, that's it. Get your money in when you have the best of it. Protect it when you don't. Don't give anything away. That's how I paid my way through half of law school. A true grinder. You see, I learned how to win a little at a time. But finally I've learned this: if you're too careful, your whole life can become a fuckin grind.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

Play the hand you're dealt in life

Taglines You've got to play the hand you're dealt.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

Determination Against All Odds

Grama Enough is enough, Teddy. Finish the fucking kid off.

Teddy KGB Hanging around, hanging around. Kid's got alligator blood. Can't get rid of him.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

The Nature of Control in Relationships

Worm Can you believe that? She's really got him by the balls.

Petra Is that so bad?

Worm Depends on the grip.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

The Ethics of Winning in Poker

Taglines It's immoral to let a sucker keep his money

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

Trust and caution in gambling strategy

Taglines Trust everyone... but always cut the cards

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

Choosing a Card in Poker

Taglines Pick a card, any card

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Rounders

Poker Tensions and Financial Stakes

Mike Uh, you know what? I got my five grand here. That's just fine by me. I'm going home.

Teddy KGB Fine. It's a fucking joke anyway. After all, I am paying you with your money.

Mike What did you say?

Teddy KGB Your money... I am still up twenty grand... from this last time I stick it in you.

Mike They're trying to goad me, trying to own me. But this isn't a gunfight. It's not about pride or ego. It's only about money. I can leave now, even with Grama and KGB... and halfway to paying Petrovsky back. That's the safe play. I told Worm you can't lose what you don't put in the middle. But you can't win much either.

[Narrating]

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

Embrace Your Circumstances in Life's Game

Taglines In The Game Of Life... Play The Cards You're Dealt

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

Reflections on Risk and Redemption at the Table

Mike McDermott I've often seen these people, these squares at the table, short stack and long odds against them. All their outs gone. One last card in the deck that can help them. I used to wonder how they could let themselves get into such bad shape, and how the hell they thought they could turn it around.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

Confronting Personal Truths and Expectations

Petrovsky For generations, men of my family have been rabbis. In Israel; before that, in Europe. It was to be my calling. I was quite a prodigy, the pride of my yeshiva. The elders said I had a forty-year-old's understanding of the Midrash by the time I was twelve. But by the time I was thirteen, I knew I could never be a rabbi.

Mike Why not?

Petrovsky Because for all I understood of the ], I never saw ] there.

[[Talmud; [God]

Mike You couldn't lie to yourself.

Petrovsky I tried. I tried like crazy. I mean, people were counting on me.

Mike But yours is a respectable profession.

Petrovsky Not to my family. My parents were destroyed, devastated by my decision. My father sent me away to New York, to live with distant cousins. Eventually, I found my place, my life's work.

Mike What then?

Petrovsky Well, I immersed myself fully. I studied the minutiae. I learned everything I could about the law. I mean, I felt deeply inside that it was what I was born to do.

Mike And did your parents get over it?

Petrovsky No. I always hoped that I would find some way to change their minds, but they were inconsolable. My father never spoke to me again.

Mike If you had to do it all over again, would you make the same choices?

Petrovsky What choice? The last thing I took away from the yeshiva is this: We can't run from who we are. Our destiny chooses us.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Rounders

Taking Risks in High-Stakes Situations

Mike What the fuck were you thinking?

[after getting thrown out of a game]

Worm I was trying to give us an edge.

Mike I had them.

Worm Look, I'm sorry we got banged up, I took a shot and missed. It happens.

Mike Happens all the time around you.

Worm And it doesn't happen to you? You're the one that flushed his whole bank roll on one hand.

Mike Oh, fuck you, man, that was different.

Worm How is that different? What makes you so fucking special? Why are all your moves so smart and noble and I'm always the idiot piece of shit? You act like you're only one with any ambition.

Mike Then what's your ambition? I don't know, you tell me.

Worm I don't know, I don't think like that.

Mike No, you don't think.

Worm No, I don't think like you, you always think you can beat the game straight up. That's not me, and I'm always going to look for that edge, always.

Mike Alright, what's the edge now? We owe fifteen grand in a day and we're broke, what the fuck do we do?

Worm That's easy, we get the fuck outta Dodge. We go on the road, we stay out of the city for a bit, this will all blow over.

Mike Not a chance am I gonna live that way. You call Grama, you get him to stake me.

Worm ...we're not just dealing with Grama.

Mike You said Grama was on his own. You said Grama was on his own!

Worm KGB bankrolled him.

Mike So you just fucked us right in the ass.

[scoffs]

Worm Yeah. So no fooling around, it's highway time.

Rounders

Tensions Rise Between Friends in Conversation

Mike You comin up?

Worm No, I've been standin out here all this time just to say hi.

Mike All right, listen. Things haven't been so smooth on the home front, so tone it down a little, all right?

Worm Tone down what, motherfucker?

Mike Great. Never mind.

Rounders

Pursuit of Poker Success and Recognition

Mike Yep.

Mike People insist on calling it luck. Thanks. First prize at the World Series of Poker is a million dollars. Does it have my name on it? I don't know. But I'm going to find out.

[narrating; to taxi driver; narrating]

Rounders

The Comfort of Winning Hands

Worm Hey, you know what cheers me up when I'm feeling shitty?

Mike What?

Worm Rolled-up aces over kings.

Mike Is that right?

Worm Check-raising stupid tourists and taking huge pots off of them.

Mike Yeah?

Worm Stacks and towers of checks I can't even see over. Playing all-night, high-limit hold'em at the Taj, "where the sand turns to gold.

Mike Fuck it, let's go.

Worm Don't tease me.

Mike Let's play some fucking cards!

Worm Yes!

Rounders

High Stakes and Low Funds

Mike Fifteen grand in five days, I can do that. I've gone on rushes like that before.

Worm Uh, under optimum conditions with a bank roll. Maybe, maybe. But... what do you got on you?

Mike I got, like, 350.

Worm Nah, that's only 1200 between us. We might as well play the fucking lotto.

Rounders

The Ethics of Taking Money in Poker

Mike McDermott It's immoral to let a sucker keep his money.

Rounders

Feeling of Dissatisfaction and Discontent

Teddy KGB Just like a young man coming in for a quickie. I feel so unsatisfied.

Rounders

Competition and Collaboration in Poker

Mike McDermott We're not playing together. But then again, we're not playing against each other either. It's like the ]. You don't see piranhas eating each other, do you?

[[w:Nature Channel|Nature Channel]

Rounders Quotes