Gambling is not only one of the biggest industries out there, but we are also talking about a significant component of popular culture. Popular culture is an influence we can see every day in our daily lives, and we can all agree that it is something that has been able to define the way of thinking for generations.
Where does gambling fit into this concept? Well, gambling is, without a doubt, an entertaining activity, which causes a lot of interest from millions of people from all over the globe. So, it makes perfect sense to see that it has become an important element in movies, music, and a plethora of different content.
In this day and age, this activity has become much more accessible than ever before. There are numerous websites where you can play real money online pokies, and numerous other games. Today, we want to talk about one of the most iconic scenes in modern movies, the poker scene in “Casino Royale” and its authenticity.
The Movie Itself
Before we talk about the scene, we want to address this movie. We are talking about the reboot of the famous James Bond franchise. The reason why studios have decided to reboot this franchise is not known, however, we can see that the producers have been able to do a pretty decent job with recent movies.
Reboot started with “Casino Royale”, a title that was released back in 2006. Both critics and viewers of this movie have given it a high price, and it is still perceived as one of the best Bond movies out there. The movie stars a couple of household names such as Daniel Craig, Mads Mikkelsen, and Eva Green.
Besides these three, you will see a lot of prominent names like Jeffrey Wright and Judi Dench. The movie itself is filled with a high number of great scenes which are a direct product of a well-written scenario. However, pretty much all the viewers and critics will say that the “poker scene” is their favorite.
The Scene
The first thing we want to say about the “poker scene” is that it is not the same as it occurred in the source material. In the source material, James Bond and his opponents are not playing poker, instead, they are participating in a game of baccarat. Nevertheless, this change suited the movie just fine, and it created quite a tension.
The variant of poker played in this scene is No-Limit Texas Hold’em. To create the scene to be as realistic as possible, the director has invited a professional player, Sanbrook, to help with some useful advice on how to create the best possible scene. We can all agree that they have done quite a good job with it.
Viewers who don’t have any experience with playing poker whatsoever will not have any doubts about whether the scene was recreated properly, and that there are no problems with the scene at all. However, it needs to be said that not every element was made as it usually is in real life.
The Issues with the Scene
One of the things that immediately comes to mind of someone who is experienced with playing this game is that there is something wrong with the pot sizes. Just think about it, there are certain rules about how these things are occurring in real life, and the players in the scene do not exactly follow the rules of the game.
The scene goes like this, after a couple of hands played by James Bond and his opponents, our hero is facing the decision on whether to raise $12 million. You will certainly agree that this is not the easiest decision to make, no matter how experienced you are as a poker player. However, Mr. Bond has a surprise for us.
Instead of folding his cards, our hero accepts and raises the stakes by upping the bet by $40 million. When that happened, other players couldn’t do much more than accept the fact they will need to share their hands with others. Long story short, Mr. Bond goes out with $115 million in his pockets.
We are certain that people who play poker found this to be quite a strange thing. We mean, nobody has ever seen someone winning $115 million in one hand, it is not something that happens. Therefore, we need to say that this is not a realistic scene at all, especially when you take a look at the highest pot ever won.
According to the records you can find online, the highest pot ever was around $600k. The distance between this sum and the one we can see in the movie is exceptional, and comparing these two is not possible. Sure, poker tournaments include high amounts of money, but they have never been close to what we’ve seen in this movie.
A Positive Side
Even though the scene doesn’t resemble anything you will see in real life, it was a pretty good scene from an artistic point of view. At the same time, some elements can be found at real poker tables. For instance, we’re sure that numerous professional players who saw this movie were excited to see the protagonist calculate the odds as fast as he did.
Also, his ability to see right through the opponent’s bluff, and make a move that will trigger him to reveal the cards, and ultimately lose a hand. Despite that, we could see that Bond’s opponent was also a competent player and that this made the whole scene much more interesting than in the case when Bond would simply dominate.
The Bottom Line
As we all know, Hollywood has a knack for making things slightly less realistic than they are. However, we do not see any problem with that since the only reason for doing so is to make a scene more interesting and entertaining. Therefore, we can see that this poker scene is not as realistic as it could be, but that doesn’t mean that this makes it any less entertaining.