Pokeriad / Learn / Best poker movies
Updated November 2026
Rounders (1998) is the one poker players name first, and The Cincinnati Kid (1965) is the classic. For a true story watch Molly's Game (2017), and for pure fun watch Casino Royale (2006), which has the least believable final hand on this list.
Most films get the feeling of poker right and the math wrong. For each one below you'll see who made it, what it gets right and what would make a real player laugh.
| Movie | Year | Watch it for |
|---|---|---|
| Rounders | 1998 | The game as players know it |
| Molly's Game | 2017 | A true story of private games |
| The Cincinnati Kid | 1965 | The classic showdown |
| California Split | 1974 | What gambling feels like |
| Casino Royale | 2006 | The fun, and the worst final hand |
| Maverick | 1994 | Comedy and cheating |
| The Sting | 1973 | One great con at a poker table |
| Cool Hand Luke | 1967 | One great bluff |
| Lucky You | 2007 | Real pros on screen |
Pick what you're in the mood for.
Because it talks about poker the way players do. Matt Damon plays Mike McDermott, a New York law student who loses his whole $30,000 bankroll in one hand and can't stay away. Edward Norton is his friend Worm, a card cheat just out of prison, and John Malkovich is Teddy KGB, the Russian mobster who runs the game.
John Dahl directed it, and the real Johnny Chan appears as himself. The film even uses the final hand of the 1988 World Series main event between Chan and Erik Seidel. Brian Rast, Hevad Khan, Gavin Griffin and Dutch Boyd are among the pros who say it drew them into the game, and it found a cult following during the poker boom of the early 2000s.
Earlier in the match Mike spots a tell, a habit with an Oreo cookie, and uses it to lay down two pair. Then Mike flops the best possible hand and just checks.
Heads-up with $50 and $100 blinds. Mike raises to $200 with nine-eight of spades and Teddy calls.
Mike has a straight, and no higher straight is possible. He checks. Teddy bets $2,000 into $400, which is five times the pot, and Mike just calls.
Mike checks again. Teddy bets the pot, $4,400, and Mike calls again.
Mike checks a third time and Teddy moves all-in. Mike calls and wins the match.
The sizes are silly, and the plan is sound. Jonathan Little wrote in Card Player that a flop bet near $600 would be normal, and that checking worked here only because Mike knew how Teddy would act. That's still the most useful idea in the film: against someone who can't stop betting, let them bet. Player types covers that opponent.
Yes, if you can sit through a slower film. Norman Jewison directed Steve McQueen as Eric Stoner, the Kid, who sets out to take the title of best five-card stud player from Lancey Howard, played by Edward G. Robinson.
The last hand is the one everybody remembers: the Kid's aces full of tens lose to a queen-high straight flush. We counted how often that can happen. With two players dealt five cards each, any straight flush meets any full house about 1 time in 23.5 million, and those exact two hands meet about 1 time in 41.5 billion.
Not at all, and it's still great fun. Martin Campbell's film swapped the novel's baccarat for Texas hold 'em, with Daniel Craig as Bond and Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre. In the last hand four players get all-in for a $115 million pot, and the board comes an ace, the 8, 6 and 4 of spades, and another ace on the river.
One player has a flush, two have full houses and Bond has the 7 and 5 of spades for a straight flush. PokerNews traced the hand to the film's poker consultant, who conceded it was unlikely at a real table. Even with that board already out, one of four players holds those exact two cards about 1 time in 270.
In 2025 the tournament pro Darren Elias rated the poker in several films for PokerNews. Those are Elias's scores. The only complaint about Rounders was the bet sizes, and the complaint about Casino Royale was that everyone holds a monster at the same moment.
Darren Elias, out of 10
Molly's Game, Aaron Sorkin's first film as a director. Jessica Chastain plays Molly Bloom, a former skier who ran an exclusive high-stakes game and ended up under investigation by the FBI. Idris Elba plays Molly's lawyer and Kevin Costner plays Molly's father.
It's based on the 2014 memoir, and the card play is close enough that Elias gave it the highest score of the three. One scene, a player folding the best possible hand, struck Elias as unrealistic for anyone who knows the game, and the player who spirals after being bluffed off a winner struck Elias as true to life.
Twelve spots in three rounds.
Of the films Darren Elias scored in that PokerNews piece, Molly's Game came out highest at 9 of 10, with Rounders at 8.
A habit of Teddy KGB's involving an Oreo cookie, which Mike spots and uses to lay down two pair in their last match.
Nine-eight of spades, which makes a straight on a flop of ten, seven and six.
It's based on Molly Bloom's 2014 memoir about running high-stakes private games.
You can pick up the language and the feel. The strategy is better learned from a book or a trainer.
Titles, years, directors and casts were checked against Wikipedia's page for each film. Card details for Rounders come from Card Player and PokerNews, and for Casino Royale from PokerNews and The James Bond Dossier. The two Cincinnati Kid figures and the 1-in-270 figure are our own counts: for the last one, 4 players out of the 1,081 possible two-card hands from the 47 unseen cards.
Send them this page.