Characters from the movie Rounders (1998) ranked by their poker skill level
So i was watching Rounders yesterday, after playing a cash game of my own, and was just thinking about who the best poker player was in the movie, and how i would rank all of them in my head. So let's do a quick ranking shall we? Also anyone and everyone else's rankings are welcomed down below.
Mike Mcdermott: I mean i know it's pretty obvious that Mike is the best player in the movie. He has good fundamentals, his reading of others expressions and emotions is great, and even the one hand he lost to Teddy, was a bad beat more than anything else. The man has got talent for the game, and the controlled passion he shows when he plays and after he plays, cements it even more. Mike did have the logical side in him, which he used most of the time to make decisions, but the only negative was that, like every talented individual, he had an ego that sometimes could cloud his judgment.
Joe "Joey" Knish: Now a lot of people might say that Knish is a better player then Mike is, because he is shown to always be level headed and a true grinder as they say making safe moves, and not really gambling, because as Knish himself said "My kids eat". But thing is, to me, you can't be one of the greats if you don't gamble a bit. I'm not saying to leave it to chance but to more often than not play for the big pot, and not for one big bet an hour. To be honest i loved Knish as a character, always being the voice of reason for Mike, in contrast to another character we are going to meet down the list.
Leslie "Worm" Murphy: Now Worm is an interesting one, because even though he always had something up his sleeve (an ace, maybe) and cheated to win, i really do think that he did have some pretty good poker skills. Even though we don't actually see him play poker without cheating, it is implied that he does know how to play some basic good poker, it's just that he doesn't have the patience to grind it out, or the wisdom and logic to know where he can cheat and where not to. As a cheater we do see that he knows some advanced stuff, like overhand run ups, as well a bunch of false shuffles and different kinds of deals, as in bottom deals and second deals. So he seems to be an expert. Except for that one Sheriff's Game they had, where he caught a hanger. Other than that as a cheater he is almost an expert, and as a straight poker player he is average to good.
Teddy KGB: Teddy seems to have his basic fundamentals down, we see him clean out Mike at the start of the movie, but he really doesn't seem aware of his own moves and tells. The oreo tell is a big one, and even if you can chalk it up to Hollywood movie antics, in the real world it would would be a very stupid tell to have and to not know you even did it. Winning over Mike, was just because he had the Nut Full House over Mike's own Full House. And his reading of Mike's hand at the end of the movie was pretty terrible. So number 4 it is for him.
After these four we have some minor characters that i'll put in order just for fun. So
- Petra 6. Face 7.Zagosh 8.Morris (he's a player)
- Roman 10. Fat Gregy 11. The Golf Pro guy (buy some real jewellery you cheap bastard) 12. The Deputy (he caught a hanger) 13.The Greeks 14. The Cigar Shop Couple 15. The Lawyers 16.The Frat Boys(i think that stung, Burch) 17. The Union Guys
But the best card player has to be Gretchen Mol's Jo, cause she knows when to release a shitty hand.
So i want to hear your guys' opinions down below.