Matt Damon stars as Mike McDermott, a law school student torn between loyalty to his girlfriend and his best friend, Les “The Worm” Murphy (Edward Norton). After having promised his girlfriend he would stop playing poker, McDermott’s resolve is tested when Les is released from prison.
The deeply indebted Les convinces McDermott to sit at high stakes poker games to help pay off old debts. As they hit up a bunch of amateur poker games, the duo gets into even more trouble when Mike accidentally vouches for Murphy’s debt. With both of their lives on the line, they have two days to raise $15,000.
The action culminates in a super high stakes heads up match between Mike and Russian mobster Teddy KGB (John Malkovich). With everything on the line, McDermott must best the man who took his life savings in a heads up match one year ago.
Classified by some as a cult classic, every list of poker movies is bound to have a spot reserved for this movie. Released in 1998, Rounders was partially responsible for the poker craze of the late 90s and early 2000s.
Have a look at the trailer, this movie is one of my favorite ;)
