We (the EasyPoker team) have put together our top five best poker movies ever made. Watching them is a favorite pastime around here, so pop some popcorn and enjoy the best of bets and bluffs with your fellow movie buffs. That rhymed. Unintentional.
5. Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Soderbergh’s remake of the 1960 Rat Pack original is a fast, funny American heist movie, spiced with great one-liners – “We’re in Barney. Barney Rubble. Trouble!” Poker is nowhere near the main theme, but as the crew works the tables we get pulled into a world of gambling and the shine of Las Vegas, and that’s enough to earn it a place on this list.
Our favorite scene is Brad Pitt and George Clooney hustling a table of rookies. The rookies are played by real actors as themselves, which makes it land even better.
Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and a great many other well-known faces.
Rating: around 7.7 on IMDb – pretty high for a film where poker is a side dish.
4. Maverick (1994)
Directed by Richard Donner
Mel Gibson plays Bret Maverick, a slick gunslinger and card player. When the buy-in for a poker tournament turns out to be more than he can cover, he’s left desperately short of money. Add a charming thief, a few horse chases and Maverick’s increasingly silly attempts to hustle up the entry fee, and you have a genuinely good poker western.
Starring: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner.
Rating: around 7.0 on IMDb – a highly enjoyable watch.
3. The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
Directed by Norman Jewison
A poker David and Goliath, in which a young up-and-comer tries to prove himself against the reigning champion. Steve McQueen’s Cincinnati Kid goes head to head with Edward G. Robinson’s Lancey Howard in a world with no limits, working his way up to the high-stakes table one game at a time until Howard finds out whether the Kid is all bark and no bite.
It’s also the film that gets closest to the psychology of the game – the long, patient business of reading one opponent over many hours, which is what our guide to poker tells is really about.
Starring: Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson.
Rating: around 7.3 on IMDb – an old dog that can still teach you new tricks.
2. Casino Royale (2006)
Directed by Martin Campbell
Bond, James Bond, in the middle of the highest-stakes poker game of his career. His opponent is Mads Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre, and the film pulls off something rare: it makes the poker as tense as the action. Sharp suits, dry martinis and the particular thrill of calling someone’s bluff, which is why it takes second place here.
It’s also the most quoted example of a poker tell in film. Bond spots Le Chiffre touching his damaged eye when bluffing – and then Le Chiffre uses that read against him, which is a lesson in itself. We unpack the whole thing in our guide to reading poker tells.
Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Mads Mikkelsen.
Rating: around 8.0 on IMDb – the highest score on this list, and deservedly so.
1. Rounders (1998)
Directed by John Dahl
Old but gold, and a clear number one. Law student Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) is reunited with his best friend Worm (Edward Norton), freshly out of prison. When Worm lands himself in trouble, Mike has to go back to the table to buy him out of it. The film gives itself entirely to poker, seen through two young chancers risking everything on the cards they’re dealt.
It breathes the game in every scene, and the tension climbs with the flop, the turn and the river. It also did more for poker’s popularity than any film before it – Matt Damon learned the game properly for the role, and a few years later Chris Moneymaker turned that momentum into a full-blown boom, the era we cover in our history of poker.
Starring: Matt Damon and Edward Norton.
Rating: around 7.3 on IMDb – Rounders still has it.
Think we missed one? Let us know. And if you want to see which of these actors actually play the game away from a film set, we’ve ranked the actors who play poker – Matt Damon and Ben Affleck both make the list.
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Poker Movies FAQ
What is the best poker movie?
Rounders (1998) is the usual answer, and it’s ours too. It’s the film that treats poker as the subject rather than the backdrop, and it did more than anything else to make the game look appealing to a generation of players. Casino Royale is the better film overall, but Rounders is the better poker film.
Is Rounders realistic?
More than most. Matt Damon trained with professional players for the role, the hands are largely plausible, and the depiction of the grind – the bankroll swings, the backing, the underground games – is closer to reality than any film before it. The famous final hand is dramatic rather than typical, but the game itself is played straight.
What hand does Bond win with in Casino Royale?
A straight flush, five to nine in spades, beating Le Chiffre’s full house of aces over sixes in a four-way all-in. It’s wildly improbable as a real hand, which is part of why poker players enjoy arguing about it, but it makes for a superb scene.
Are there any good newer poker movies?
Molly’s Game (2017) is the strongest recent one, based on the true story of the high-stakes private games Molly Bloom ran for celebrities and finance people. Mississippi Grind (2015) is worth a look too, though it’s more about gambling generally than poker specifically.
Which poker games can you play on EasyPoker?
EasyPoker deals Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Short Deck (6+) and Reverse Hold’em. Reverse Hold’em is our own variant, where the river is dealt first and the flop comes last. Texas Hold’em is free and unlimited; the other three are free for your first 10 games of each, after which hosting them needs EasyPoker Plus.