Although it's not necessary to play poker to understand the movie, the screenwriters ( David Levien and Brian Koppelman) have done their homework, and approvingly quote truisms such as, 'If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, you are the sucker.' It becomes necessary for them to win a lot of money in a short period of time or be hurt very badly, and the movie is about the places they go and the weird people they encounter in the process. But the next day his best friend Worm ( Edward Norton) gets out of prison, and of course he has to meet him at the prison gates, and of course that leads to a poker game that night, and to an escalating and dangerous series of problems.

Jo has been trying to talk him into quitting poker, and he promises to reform. As the movie opens, he gathers his entire stake of $30,000 and loses it to Teddy KGB. Mike is a law student, living with fellow student Jo ( Gretchen Mol). And it shows brash, clean-cut young Mike McDermott (Damon) venturing into the world of cutthroats like Teddy KGB ( John Malkovich), the poker genius of the Russian-American mob.

It takes place within the pro poker underground of New York and Atlantic City, where everybody knows the big games and the key players. And as a mediocre player who hits the poker room at the Mirage a couple of times a year and has read a fair share of books about the World Series of Poker, I enjoyed it. As a poker movie, it's knowledgeable and entertaining.

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