I’ve always been a firm believer in the saying “save the best for last.” No matter what aspect of my life you observe, you will probably notice that this maxim reigns supreme. Heck, even when I eat, I do not eat all the food on my plate at the same time! Yup, I save the best piece of chicken for last. Anyhow, as this will be the last post in my current poker movie series, I’ve been holding back a topic that I’ve wanted to talk about for a few weeks now.
As you would have surmised from the title, it is no other than the latest Bond flick – Casino Royale. I was watching CNN the other night and they were featuring the top 5 movies of the year. My wife – who is very much into poker as well and loved the movie – and I were trying to make guesses about which movies would make it into the top 5. I kept insisting that Casino Royale would be in there but she said, “nah , it’s too new “. Other movies would probably have earned more. Imagine my delight when Casino Royale made it to number 4! malaysia slot game
Definitely a poker movie, the latest Bond movie showcases a Bond much different from what we are used to. Any person who has seen a couple of the old Bond movies would know Bond to be the unshakeable spy, always with neat hair and clothes and never a bead of sweat or a scratch on his face. Yet this new Bond, played by Daniel Craig, gives us someone different … more human perhaps. From the beginning, the story builds up to the time when Bond has to play in a high stakes poker game at the Casino Royale in Montenegro. I can just imagine the excitement of the countless Bond fans who are also into poker – Texas Hold ’em in particular – as they watched the action unfold.
This Texas Hold ’em game is no small thing. Involving players from all over the world, the initial buy in costs a whopping 10 million dollars. That is why the British government had to send in a Treasury agent, Vesper Lynd. Played by Eva Green, she is the latest Bond girl to capture our hearts. Personally though, I couldn’t make up my mind whether to like her or not. One thing remains clear, she looks better without make up!
The poker game at Casino Royale makes a good showing of how important tells are in a game. In this case Bond makes a big mistake. Though he has discovered Le Chiffre’s (the main bad guy) tell when he bluffs, Bond was mislead by Le Chiffre into thinking that he was bluffing when he actually had a strong hand. That cost Bond all of his initial stake, forcing him to re-buy in with 5 million dollars. Vesper however, has lost all her faith in Bond and would not give him the authorization to re-buy in, putting Bond in an impossible situation. Here is where Hollywood makes its big show again by making the US the hero of the day. The CIA agent posing as a player makes contact with Bond and offers him the 5 million he needs. Who wins at the end? That is one thing I’d like to hold back for the unfortunate people who haven’t seen the movie yet.
Paul Graham is a poker enthusiast, a writer, researcher, speaker, and consultant. You can visit his blog and sign up free to get blog updates by email, along with game winning tips, tested poker strategies, the latest poker news, free poker tools, additional resources, and a whole lot more!