11:16: - Damon is forced to get a day job that Turturro hands down "to rounders who forget the cardinal fucking rule: Always leave yourself outs." I have no idea what that means, and am pretty sure it's not the cardinal fucking rule (of...poker? Life?). "Outs" is the amount of cards you need to improve your hand. How exactly do you "leave yourself outs"?
15:00 - The judges are playing 7-card Stud. For a movie that touts No-Limit Hold 'em as "the Cadillac of poker", it has a bizarre amount of Stud in it. But Stud is the right game for this type of group (Read: Old people play this game.), so it makes sense here.
19:37 - We meet Edward Norton's character, Worm, playing cards in prison. I've always kind of been of the mindset that naming a character "Worm" when his main characteristic is worminess is kind of clumsy, but what do I know? Incidentally, they're not playing poker at all, they're playing Hearts. Not how I picture prison, but it's an arena I'm happy to remain ignorant about.
28:27 - Michael joins the preppy home game, feigning ignorance. They're playing Chicago, which as they explain, is a stud game in which the high spade in the hole (meaning one of your three face-down cards) wins half the pot. This seems to be a dealer's choice game, so yeah, weird-ass games like this tend to come up.
29:24 - Damon rationalizes cheating the college students: "Like they teach you in One L, caveat emptor, pal." You probably know this, but so we're clear: "One L" isn't a poker term, it means the first year of law school. Or maybe he means Scott Turow's book ABOUT the first year of law school.
29:33 - Damon marvels at Norton's mastery of "discard calls, pick-up calls, overhand run-offs, the double duke." I've never heard any of these terms. They sound cool, though, don't they?
30:01 - Norton feigns frustration with Damon: "Fuck you and your never-ending string of boats, okay?" Again, they omit explaining that "boats" are full houses. The uninformed might assume that Damon has been pretending to be some sort of shipping magnate.
37:55 - Seven-card stud with the Russians. MORE stud? Norton "slow-rolls" his two pair, meaning that he reveals his winning hand with deliberate, sadistic slowness. Maurice calls him a "Motherfucker" for doing this. Maurice is right. Don't slow-roll, kids.
48:44 - Damon advises the reliably paternal Martin Landau: "You want to play premium hands...If it's good enough to call, you gotta be in there raising, all right, I mean tight, but aggressive, and I do mean aggressive, that's your style, Professor, I mean you gotta... you gotta think of it as a war." Again, not really what the movie ultimately demonstrates (i.e. Damon wins by checking and calling repeatedly. More on this later.), but fairly sound advice.
51:22 - Landau summarizes his rather long story: "We can't run from who we are. Our destiny chooses us." Did Landau just tell Damon that he's destined to be a poker player? Umm...Okay.
57:29: - "If a fish acts strong, he's bluffing. If he acts meek, he's got a hand. It's that simple." Hasn't been my experience, but okay.
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