The story in the film took place in 1998. In that year, there were only 350 participants in wsop, and the main event champion was Scotty Nguyen of Vietnamese origin. With the rise of the Internet era and the 2003 and 2004 online players won the championship, the number of participants is now twenty times the previous year-the highest peak in 2006 reached 8,773, and the total prize pool reached 12 million dollars. Gambling is still illegal in China, but in online mini games (888, Kaixin.com series), Chinese people play Texas Hold'em on a large scale, and many people play real money games in foreign poker rooms through the Internet. Its charm is that this is the Cadillac in the poker game. According to Doyle Brunson, this is a game for the brave.
Mike, played by Damon, is a law student who dropped out of college for Texas Hold'em. He chose the path of his dream-a job that is glamorous and is not easy to do. As early as Phil Hellmuth (the 1989 WSOP Main Event champion, at the age of 24), there were many students who earned tuition from Texas Hold'em. Because this game pays attention to mathematics and psychology, many players are high IQ (or EQ) people. For example, the 2000 wsop champion Chris Ferguson is a PhD in computer science. It's a pity that at that time was not the Internet prevailing. Mike's poker road involved gangs in debt, a battle of life or death, unlike the current reality TV show 2months2millions.
Mike explained at the end of the movie why he took out all his money to go to the casino at the beginning of the game: he successfully Bluffed Johny Chan (Chinese American, WSOP champion in 1987 and 1988, runner-up in 89) before that day. He is Raise, Chan then Reraise, he shove allin-----This style of play is to tell the opponent that I have AA. He succeeded, but what about this? According to the formal strategy of Texas Hold'em, what you want to play is long-term stable profitability, making the right decisions, and achieving +EV, instead of winning a pot is success. In the movie, Knish actually accepted Mike's explanation, and personally didn't agree with it.
Let's talk about the card game in the movie. In the hand that Mike lost to KGB at the beginning, Mike had A9 in his hand. There was a 9 on the flop and a 9 on the turn. The other two public relations cards have nothing to do with the overall situation. He holds the second largest Nuts in theory, KGB's AA combination, and the probability of the combination of the remaining cards is 1/990. In terms of the possibility of hands starting from KGB, Mike's call is theoretically +EV, and I think even if it is Phil Hellmuth or Daniel Negreanu, it will not lay down. The only thing that can be said about this hand is Mike's poor observation. Later, he successfully learned this lesson, seized the loopholes in the KGB's actions, and escaped the trap. As for the last hand, there is nothing to say, Mike made a wonderful Trap.
Back to the movie performance itself. In reality, Damon, who is also a poker enthusiast, is acting very well. It may be that his own lack of facial expressions happens to be a requirement of poker games. There are actually two supporting roles that shine in it, Malkovich and Norton are both talented actors, and their performance here does not shame their reputation.
In the end, I still said this "gambling". From a speculative point of view, Texas Hold'em emphasizes technology and capital management. In theory, a mature player will not lose a lot of money. Compared with the current legal lottery tickets and stocks in our country, it is a more suitable investment. The lottery excludes black box operations and is purely gambling. Stocks in China are more gambling news and are manipulated by the main force. To a large extent in Texas Hold'em, you decide whether you win or lose.
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