There aren’t too many modern movies made about poker. Several of them are about gambling in different ways, but it is very common that they come with some sort of criminality as ground story. Ever so often, poker playing is a cinematic instrument to emphasize that someone is a bit of a scoundrel. The bad guy is sitting in a badly lit bar with smoke hanging over him and his mob, cards on the table.

But, no, not too many movies on the particular topic poker. But in 2007 the movie “Lucky You” was shot, with Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore as the leading actors. A wise casting choice; he is handsome and laid-back enough to appeal to the male crowd and most women don’t mind identifying themselves with sweet Barrymore.

The setting is good ol’ Las Vegas in 2003, where poker amateur Huck (Bana) is trying to make his fortune through gambling. He is a skilled player, but less good at knowing when to leave the game. One evening he meets Billie (Barrymore) with whom he starts something in the likes of a relationship with. At the same time Hucks father (played by Robert Duvall) is in town to compete in the high stake games. He is a prize-winning poker player, and the World Series of Poker Tournament is coming up. This is something that Huck is very aware of as well…

Actually, the fictitious World Series of Poker in the movie had many similarities with the real WSOP that was held in 2003. Both had 839 players and both were won by someone who had next to no experience in playing in a live tournament.

The movie admittedly has a couple of flaws. The tempo is a bit too slow, which could have been easily solved with a little better editing. Also, the character of Huck has a poor man’s life which isn’t all that credible, seeing what a great poker player he is.

Apart from that, the movie is worth the time for anyone that likes the work of Eric Bana. Already in films such as Troy and The Hulk he showed that he can balance power and weakness in a believable way. He is very good at playing restraint. In my point of view, Drew Barrymore did her best performance ever in the indie movie Donnie Darko, but she has never had any real problems playing her characters in a gripping way. Too bad she has one foot stuck in the love comedy swamp…

If you are into card games, I’d recommend this movie merely based on how fun it is to watch high stake-poker. In this case the playing might be a bit too extreme to be considered realistic, but personally I don’t mind.

Christopher Reeves probably didn’t believe in Superman either. Still must have been good fun playing him.

A lot of the online poker players dream of one day going pro. It’s the most natural thing, whenever you do something a lot you get rolemodels and you want to do it the way they do it. That’s how it works in everything; poker, football and even at work or in school. The problem here is that being a poker pro compared to being really good in school is both a bit dangerous and can get pretty boring.

First of all, if you decide to go pro, may it be an online poker pro or one of the hot shots in the local casino, make sure you know what you are doing. You need to know that you’re able to make a living on poker, remember that there are thousands of others with the same dream, the competition is hard. You also need to know what it actually is you chose. Doing something for one is one thing, doing it as work is a very different matter. Are you sure that you want to turn your hobby in to your job? A lot of people that have done it can tell you that most of the times you don’t get a hobby as a job, you just lose a hobby because it starts feeling like work when you do it.

Compare what you actually are doing at your job today, is it repetitive and are the working hours a pain? Does it sound much better living your life as a player? I’m sorry to tell you so, but a poker player and a general player are two different things. Poker players grind all night, how is that for working hours? And is your job really that repetitive?

My advice, and there are lots of ex pros (some present ones too) that agree on this: Make sure to think it through before you decide to go pro.

I went to Las Vegas with my boyfriend a couple of weeks ago. We had saved up for some time so we had quite a lot of money to spend. We arrived around noon on Friday and went to the hotel. It was really decent, with balcony, a big bath tub, thick carpets and a huge bed. We left our bags and headed for lunch and some shopping. I bought a beautiful dress for the evening event and my boyfriend bought a couple of shirts. After the shopping we had a fancy dinner in the end of The Strip, with lit candles and great food. The event we were heading for was held at the Bellagio and was hosted by some kind of charity foundation. It was really well arranged, with live bands and beautiful people. I think that in the end of the evening they had collected like ten times the expenses.

The day after we slept the whole morning and went out for a late lunch in the afternoon. It was a bit rainy, but we were still excited since the event. Also, we had the arriving evening to look forward to. We did some more shopping and had a light dinner around six, before going back to the hotel and changing to other evening wear. It was time for some quality time at the casinos. We met up with some acquaintances and decided to go to MGM Grand and play poker and maybe some other games. MGM Grand is my favourite Las Vegas casino, and my boyfriend’s too.

We all did fairly well, actually one of our friends won about $790, while I lost all my money. I don’t mind that much, I had a great evening with slot machines, great white wine, nice people, roulette and of course: poker. There were many players there that evening, and it was obvious that several of them didn’t play for the fun of it, but to win. And they were good at it, surprisingly good. I could watch them for a long time, while they were seated at the poker table with their stale faces, winning and winning. And the times they lost, they didn’t show their regret at all. Quite impressive.

The morning after we flew back home, after a great weekend with delicious food, romantic walks and plenty of nice wine.

Hopefully we’ll be back within months!

Like within all areas where there are money to be made, a selection of people have learned to fool the system. And even if they don’t master the art, they will still try…

Some poker players are simply very skilled. Regardless if they have a lot of experience or not, there are a precious few online-gamblers that have exactly the right conditions to earn the big bucks. They might have a very sharp sense for math, a good perception when it comes to reading other players, or the right kind of patience. It varies.

But there are also those online gamblers who are just doing a bit too well, for it to be luck or skill.

Like in the AbsolutePoker.com-case, when one of the companies employees hacked their own system and managed to rip about $500 000 from the other players in the poker room. The company states that he did this to prove that the system had flaws, and that he was intellectually superior to the company. The employee found a way to see the other players hole cards, and could therefore know exactly when to fold and when to raise.

As soon as this got public, the company stepped forward and said that they would pay all the money back, with interest, to the players that had been victims to the hacker. However, he had not withdrawn any of the money from his account. That doesn’t change the fact that the company’s security has been undeniably wrecked in credibility. Even if they claim that the leek have been covered, I think that there are probably many players that don’t want to take their chances at AbsolutePoker.com any longer.

Already before the hacker was revealed, there were many players that reacted to how suspicious it was that someone did so well in a game. Like he knew something that they didn’t. He used several different nick names, among which “Potripper” was the most common. Later it was discovered that “Potripper” had also been able to see the other players e-mailadresses and IP-numbers. This is illegal trespassing as well, which could make a nice addition to an attorneys list.

Films have been made that show how the cheating was performed, and these are available on YouTube. Many poker players watch these of course, but one can only hope that the films doesn’t encourage people to try to learn how to hack other online poker-systems…