7 replies to this topic

[richhillkc]

www.highrollermovie.comLast night, I watched the premiere of the new movie High Roller - The Stu Ungar Story on Stars. It follows the life of Stu Ungar from his childhood in the 60's until his death in 1998. While Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) looks absolutely nothing like Ungar, I think they got the story straight and I like how they told it. As someone new to the poker world, I knew little about Ungar other than that he won the WSOP twice in the early 80's, then lost it all to drug and gambling addiction, then came back in 1997 to win it again, then died. This movie starts to fill in the gaps as far as what happened to him. I think the most tragic part is that he was stuck on the horses and sports gambling. In my opinion, you can't do worse than to bet on something you can't control, at least a little. If you're a good poker player, you use skill and mathematics to make good decisions based on expectation and returns. You're betting on probabilities. Gambling on possibilities, like a horse or a person, well I think that's just dumb. Ungar should have been smarter, but I guess we all have our personal kryptonite and that was his. Mine is Swiss Cake Rolls.Did anyone else see this movie? What are your opinions?Rich Hillps - I know there are numerous books out there that tell more of his story, does anyone know which ones are the best?

[jayistheman]

i guess i dont have much valid info for ya.... butid venture to say that his kryptonite was more cocaine than gamblingand swiss rolls are the bomb diggety

[MrConceit]

richhillkc said:

www.highrollermovie.comLast night, I watched the premiere of the new movie High Roller - The Stu Ungar Story on Stars.  It follows the life of Stu Ungar from his childhood in the 60's until his death in 1998.  While Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) looks absolutely nothing like Ungar, I think they got the story straight and I like how they told it.  As someone new to the poker world, I knew little about Ungar other than that he won the WSOP twice in the early 80's, then lost it all to drug and gambling addiction, then came back in 1997 to win it again, then died.  This movie starts to fill in the gaps as far as what happened to him.  I think the most tragic part is that he was stuck on the horses and sports gambling.  In my opinion, you can't do worse than to bet on something you can't control, at least a little.  If you're a good poker player, you use skill and mathematics to make good decisions based on expectation and returns.  You're betting on probabilities.  Gambling on possibilities, like a horse or a person, well I think that's just dumb.  Ungar should have been smarter, but I guess we all have our personal kryptonite and that was his.  Mine is Swiss Cake Rolls.Did anyone else see this movie?  What are your opinions?Rich Hillps - I know there are numerous books out there that tell more of his story, does anyone know which ones are the best?

Amusingly enough -- sports betting and horses ARE two of the few beatable "games" along with Blackjack and Poker... But you have to be knowledgeable in them (and gain experience) as you would in poker. If you don't believe me check out Getting The Best of It by David Sklansky. I'm not saying good ol' Stuey didn't lose huge in them, but they are supposed to be beatable.Now if you had said he lost huge in craps or other non-beatable casino games... :)Link to Getting the Best of It:http://tinyurl.com/62yft

[basspoet]

I watched it last night too. I really like Michael Imperioli, I think he did a good job. The ending left a really bad taste in my mouth. I just don't care for that kind of directing. I don't want to ruin the movie and to a "non artist" im sure it'll be fine. But from an artistic point of view the movie was ruined by some of the shots at the ending. I'm probably going to artsy on it for most people, but otherwise i thought it was pretty good.

[RedBloch]

How were the poker scenes? Do they have any cameos from pros in it? If not, are they actors playing pros like Brunson?Do they have the time Stu Ungar took 32k off matloubi by calling an all in bet with a 9 high?Ever since I've been learning more about poker, I like the movie rounders less and less. The bet sizes were just way too stupid between KGB and Damon. 20x big blind raise preflop with KK? Didn't Damon want some action on the hand? Also: is it possible to win 4k in eight hours playing 20-40 stud? I don't think so.Why did everyone fold to petrovsky on the river when Damon read everyone's hand? That doesn't make sense. If petrovsky's hand was good it wouldn't make sense for Damon/Petrovsky to reveal everyone else's weakness.Why did KGB call 2500 all in on the river without top pair? He wasn't pot committed. Why did Damon even make a bet of that size? Did he expect to get called by a hand weaker than top pair on the river? Thats not value betting.Why did all the rounders sit at the same table in atlantic city? There were plenty of tables. It wouldn't make sense for them to play eachother.Why was Gramma gonna kill Damon/Worm? I'm not a loanshark or anything, but that seems like bad business to me. Dead guys can't pay debts, no?Why didn't Damon just play in atlantic city when he went on his marothon? Wouldn't it be more convenient than running around to various home games?Why did Damon raise all in to Teddy's flush on the river? Did he really think Teddy would call with a flush. When damon raised and said "I don't think u got the spades" thats like saying "I can beat spades". If he didn't think teddy had the flush, and Damon himself didn't have a boat, his best move would have been to call. Doesn't make sense.

[KDawgCometh]

Quote

I don't want to ruin the movie and to a "non artist" im sure it'll be fine. But from an artistic point of view the movie was ruined by some of the shots at the ending.

I agree, the ending was a bit ambigous to me. Vince Van Patten is in that movie a lot. I also thought that they could've said Doyle by name on stuey's first win, seriously that was another big thing of his win was that he beat doyle heads up

[BigSlick05]

when will it air again on Starzz??A/K

[richhillkc]

Here's a link to the schedule...http://www.starz.com...?v=4190544&e=-1