Rounders Quotes

Mike McDermott: [Narrating first lines, first getting dressed in their apartment, kissed his girlfriend as she sleeps, then going through belongings to find "three stacks of society", hidden inside a cigar box on top of his desk, inside the top left hand drawer of the same desk, hidden inside an empty VHS box entitled Caro's Pro poker Tells by Mike Caro, behind hidden inside the

bottom and back left hand corner of a picture frame, and hidden inside a book entitled Super System by Doyle Brunson] Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.

Mike McDermott: [Narrating while entering Teddy KGB's underground gambling parlor] In "Confessions of a Winning Poker Player," Jack King said, "Few players recall big pots they have won, strange as it seems, but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career." It seems true to me, cause walking in here, I can hardly remember how I

built my bankroll, but I can't stop thinking of how I lost it.

Mike McDermott: [Trying to impress Marinacci his observant skills is essential while playing poker] you were lookin' for that third three, but you forgot that Professor Green folded on Fourth Street and now you're representing that you have it. The DA made his two pair, but he knows they're no good. Judge Kaplan was trying to squeeze out a diamond flush but he came up short and

Mr. Eisen is futilely hoping that his queens are going to stand up. So like I said, the Dean's bet is $20.

Mike McDermott: [before their final game, putting his chips in a poker tray] Uh, you know what? I got my five grand here. That's just fine by me. I'm going home.
Teddy KGB: Fine. It's a fucking joke anyway. After all, I am paying you with your money.
Mike McDermott: [turns around] What did you say?
Teddy KGB:

Your money... I am still up 20 grand... from this last time I stick it in you.
Mike McDermott: [Narrating] They're trying to goad me, trying to own me. But this isn't a gunfight. It's not about pride or ego. It's only about money. I can leave now, even with Grama and KGB... and halfway to paying Petrovsky back. That's the safe play. I told Worm you can't lose what you don't

put in the middle. But you can't win much either.

Mike McDermott: [talking in one of the corners of the Russian and Turkish bathhouse] I never told anybody this, about eight nine months ago, I'm at the Taj it's late and I see Johnny Chan walk in and he goes and sits in the three hundred six hundred section and the whole place stops and everybody puts an eye on him, after a while there wasn't a crap going on because all the high

rollers are over there watching and some of them playing but they're giving their money to him and say "oh", I played with the world champion", you know what I did?
Joey Knish: What?
Mike McDermott: I sat down
Joey Knish: You need fifty to sixty grand to play right in that game
Mike McDermott: I had six

but I had to know
Joey Knish: what happened?
Mike McDermott: Played tight for an hour, folded mostly then I made a score
Joey Knish: With what? aces or kings?
Mike McDermott: Rags, I had nothing, but he raised and I decided I don't care about the money, I'm just going to out play the guy, I'm going to

out play this guy, this hand, I'll re-raise
Joey Knish: Re-raise? You play right back at him?
Mike McDermott: Yeah, he comes back over the top at me trying bully me like I'm some tourist, I hesitate for like two seconds then I'll re-raise and he makes a move to his checks and he looks at me, check his cards and looks at me again, and he mucked it, I

took it down
Mike McDermott: [Flash back narrates Johnny Chan] did you have it?
Mike McDermott: [Flash back narrates] I'm sorry John, I don't remember
Mike McDermott: I got up and walked to the cashier, I sat with the best in the world, and I won
Joey Knish: You made a fucking move on Chan you son of a

bitch, so that's why you made that run at KGB's place
Mike McDermott: That's right I'll do it again if I can

[Mike's girlfriend has just left him over his broken promise not to play poker]
Worm: You know what always cheers me up, when I'm feeling shitty?
Mike McDermott: [siting in a chair in his apartment, with his head looking down] No, what's that?
Worm: Rolled up aces over kings. Check-raising stupid tourists and taking huge pots

off of them. Playing all-night high-limit Hold'em at the Taj, "where the sand turns to gold." Stacks and towers of checks I can't even see over.
Mike McDermott: [his head looks up] Fuck it, let's go.
Worm: [pointing at him] Don't tease me.
Mike McDermott: [smiles] Let's play some cards.

Mike McDermott: [after Moot Court] we're not going to talk? You left me pretty quick there
Jo: You make like it was my decision
Mike McDermott: Well, it wasn't mine: I came home and you were gone, you're just going to drop me like that?
Jo: [Before breaking up with him] I learned it from you Mike. You always

told me this was the rule. Rule number one: Throw away your cards the moment you know they can't win. Fold the fucking hand.
Mike McDermott: Look this is our thing we're talking about alright? It's not some losing hand in poker
Jo: I know exactly what we're talking about
Mike McDermott: So, that's the last of it then?

Jo: Yeah I would say good luck but I know it's not about "luck" in your game