LOS ANGELES (AP) — The stakes are high. Famous faces. A luxurious private room. A clever deception plan.
federal indictment Big money poker ring featuring NBA celebrities The case Thursday, in which unsuspecting rich players were allegedly lured into participating and then swindled out of their money, reflects the state of film and television for decades, and is not just about suspicion. mafia involvement.
Fictional poker and real poker have long been in a kind of pop culture feedback loop. When the authorities explained Expected game situationthey may have evoked a series of screen moments from recent decades.
“Ocean’s 11,” “Molly’s Game,” and “The Sopranos” Poker
2004 episode “ the sopranos ” showed a very similar mix of celebrities and gangsters at the New York game, with players including Van Halen singer David Lee Roth and Soccer Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor, both playing themselves.
In 2001’s “Ocean’s 11”, george clooney He discovers that fellow robber Brad Pitt is running a poker game for “Teen Beat” cover boys, including Topher Grace and Joshua Jackson, and that they also play. Clooney spontaneously teams up with Pitt to fool them. And the plot of the 2007 sequel “Ocean’s 13” focuses on high-tech cheating in casino games.
He was asked about the film’s connection to the NBA scandal that occurred immediately afterward. stories from paris It could have been straight out of Ocean’s Twelve, but Clooney told The Associated Press with a laugh: “Now we’re being blamed for everything.”
“Because we were also compared to other people.” Louvre Museum Robbery. I think it would have to CGI me into a basket that came out of the Louvre,” Clooney said Thursday night at the Los Angeles premiere of his new film. “Jay Kelly” He was referring to a thief who used a basket lift to steal valuable Napoleonic jewelry from a museum.
2017’s “Molly’s Game” and its True Story Memoir Molly Bloom The book could serve as a manual on how to build the appeal of a poker game to win the desired “fish,” using the same methods and the same terminology that the organizers indicted on Thursday allegedly used.
Bloom’s game at the Viper Room, a trendy club in Los Angeles, was attended not by NBA players but by Hollywood stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and “The Hangover” director Todd Phillips. (None of them were accused of wrongdoing.)
The film, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, depicts how a well-known actor acts as a magnet for other players, with Jessica Chastain’s Bloom portraying the NBA’s “face card” for the newly indicted organizer, officials announced Thursday.
The unknown actor, played by Michael Cera, is modeled, at least in part, on Spider-Man star Maguire.
“People wanted to say they played with him,” Chastain says. “It’s like they wanted to say they were on Air Force One. My job security depended on bringing him fish.”
In his book, Bloom talked about the appeal of the players he portrayed.
“The formula of keeping out the pros and inviting celebrities and other interesting and important people, even the mystique of playing in a private room in the Viper Room, made it one of the most coveted invitations in town,” she wrote, later adding, “I had to keep giving it some fresh, rich blood, and I had to be strategic about how to fill those precious 10 seats.”
Broome would become embroiled in a major nationwide crackdown on high-stakes private poker games in 2013, which by this week was perhaps the most high-profile poker bust in years. She received one year of probation, a $1,000 fine, and community service.
There were no accusations of match-fixing at her matches, but that didn’t make it legal.
The legality of poker games in private spaces has been debated for decades and varies widely from state to state in the United States. But in general, when a host is making money in the same way as a casino, they tend to attract attention and be prosecuted.
A brief history of the movies that made poker cool
Poker and its cheating have been used since its quiet beginnings in movies, especially Westerns.
Notable poker scenes appear in 1944’s “Tall in the Saddle,” starring John Wayne, and 1950’s “The Gunfighter,” starring Gregory Peck.
1965’s “Cincinnati Kid” was completely dedicated to poker, with Steve McQueen bringing an unparalleled coolness to the title character.
Two movies co-starring robert redford But Paul Newman really put the game on the map.
In the opening scene of 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” a very cool Redford is playing poker and refuses to leave until another player takes back an accusation of cheating.
In the 1973 Best Picture Oscar winner “The Sting,” 1930s con artists Newman and Redford seek revenge on a tycoon and carry out a series of increasingly daring gambling scams that could come from Thursday’s indictment. Newman outsmarts the man at poker and forces him to participate in a big scam, a fake radio horse race.
By the 1980s, screen poker was in decline, and the theme was largely relegated to the TV movie The Gambler, starring Kenny Rogers and based on his hit songs.
However, by the end of the decade, the legalization of commercial gaming led to a poker boom.
And then, perhaps at the perfect time, “Rounders” came along. The 1998 Matt Damon movie did for Texas Hold’em what “Sideways” did for Pinot Noir and “Pitch Perfect” did for a cappella. It took an ancient and popular phenomenon and made it popular.
Soon after, online poker exploded and players increasingly sought out big in-person games. And the development of a camera that displays the player’s cards – very similar to the technology that is said used to deceive playersaccording to a new indictment, made poker a sport to watch on TV.
The “Oceans” movies and the overall mystique they brought to the table also stacked up.
Clooney speaks on Thursday about extensive busts, including Suspected of gambling on basketball As such, it pointed out that the Cincinnati Reds were the beneficiary of the most infamous gambling scandal in sports. 1919 “Black Sox” And about match-fixing in the World Series: “So I feel a lot of guilt about that.”
“But you know, there’s never been a moment in our history where we haven’t had some silly scandals and some weird stuff going on,” he said. “I’m very sorry about the gambling scandal, because this was a night of great basketball.”
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Associated Press writer Leslie Ambriz contributed to this report.
