Issue Date: March 25, 2007
"Casino Royale"
A poker kingpin says the card play in the new Bond film isn't all aces.
The Plot
Daniel Craig takes on his first mission as 007. The tangled yarn involves a spectacular foot chase through a crowded construction zone, Google searches and a high-stakes card game in Montenegro. To bring down the bad guys, Bond must out-bluff the icy Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a global financier of terrorists who sets up a poker match to restore his clients' funds.
Our Insider
Chris Moneymaker is one of the world's top professional poker players. As an amateur, he won the 2003 World Series of Poker and its $2.5 million pot. The aptly named Moneymaker helped change poker from a smoky sideshow into something with, well, blockbuster appeal. He teaches poker and is a sponsored player on PokerStars.com.
OVERVIEW: "It's not the best Bond movie. The action drags in parts. But the casino stuff showed the best poker playing I have seen in a movie in terms of setup, the professionalism of the dealers and the believability of the hands that were dealt. In most movie poker scenes, the hands are super-high -- they'll be royal flush against a four of a kind. But in real Texas Hold'em, a lot of times it's the highest pair that wins. The hands in this movie are realistic."
DISCOVERING TELLS "A 'tell' is something a person does that is different when he has good cards vs. when he has bad cards. It could be a facial mannerism, the direction he looks, how he breathes, if he talks, if he puts something on top of his cards. Everyone has a tell -- you just got to figure out what your opponent's is. Bond got himself into trouble because he reveals Le Chiffre's tell [a twitch] to his MI6 allies. You never reveal to anyone when you learn someone's tell. That's a secret you keep! One time an opposing player told me that whenever I was bluffing, I would flare my nostrils. Later in the game, I got a good hand, I made a big raise, and I flared my nostrils. Another player bit and put all of his money in, thinking I was bluffing. I took all of his money, and he was out of the tournament."
CREATING DISTRACTIONS "At one point during the card game in the movie, Bond has his female accomplice, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), kiss him on the neck to distract the other players. I didn't get what the distraction ploy was supposed to do. Creating that type of distraction isn't something that's done. Tournaments last for 70 hours or more. A five-minute distraction isn't going to do anything."
TRUST ISSUES "Bond gets duped on and off the card table because he trusts the wrong people. At the table, I don't trust anyone when it comes to their cards and their bet. Obviously, I'm not worried about someone poisoning my drink like Bond was. Away from the table, I'm too trusting. I lend money to friends. Once, a friend basically stole $40,000 from me, and we're not friends anymore."
-- David Andrukonis
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