Shuffle Up and Deal Trivia Quiz

Answer: Erik Seidel

In 1988, Chan beat Erik Seidel to win his second Main Event (ME), having won the 1987 ME against Frank Henderson. Chan went on to finish second to Phil Helmuth in 1989, barely missing the chance to make history by winning back to back to back MEs. Doyle Brunson has also won the ME in two consecutive years, in 1976 and 1977, as has Stu Ungar, in 1980 and 1981. The clip of Chan beating Seidel features prominently in the film as does Mike McDermott's (Matt Damon) desire to beat Chan in one hand. A chance he gets and takes full advantage of. The film ends with McDermott heading to Vegas to play in the ME.

The term 'rounder' refers to any player who seeks out poker games, mostly underground and illegal, to play in to make a living. Rounders differ from the professional players who make their livings in casinos and are a rarer breed today with the advent of casinos across the country and online poker. Many of the old time poker greats were rounders back in the day, including Brunson and Amarillo Slim who played on the Texas circuit. There is some debate about whether the movie became popular because of the rise of Hold'em or vice versa because when it first came out it was not as revered as it is today. Now it is considered one of the more accurate movies in terms of the play and atmosphere of a Texas Hold'em game.

Answer: Texas Hold'em

In the novels and in the prior movies Bond plays Baccarat almost exclusively. When Ian Fleming wrote the books, Baccarat was the game high-stakes players played in most casinos, especially in Europe. But with the growing popularity of Texas Hold'em, the game was changed to make it more appealing to modern audiences.

The movie features a sit-n-go type game where only one winner walks away from the table with all of the cash. This is a very popular tournament style on most poker sites. Bond (Daniel Craig) beats Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) on the final hand when his straight flush tops Le Chiffre's Aces full of Sixes. Le Chiffre then takes Bond hostage and tortures him to get access to the tournament winnings.

Answer: Blackjack

Both movies feature card counting in Blackjack. Although casinos would like you to believe card counting is illegal, it is not. It is, however, not allowed in most casinos and in Nevada, card counters can be banned because the casino is private property. This is not true in Atlantic City because the New Jersey Supreme Court in Uston v. Resorts International ruled card counters cannot be banned. This does not stop most casinos from still 'blacklisting' card counters.

"21" is based on the book "Bringing Down the House", which tells the story of the MIT Blackjack team. The book and the movie contain fictional elements but the essential plot that MIT students formed a team to use card counting to win at Blackjack is accurate. The film follows the exploits of student Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) and Professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) as they run the team.

"Rain Man" is the story of Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) and his autistic brother Raymond (Dustin Hoffman). It follows their journey across the country with a stop in Las Vegas. There Charlie uses Raymond, who is also a math savant and great at counting cards, to win at Blackjack.

Answer: Three Card Brag

A rigged game of Three Card Brag is used by Harry "The Hatchet" Lonsdale (P. H. Moriarty) to cheat Eddy (Nick Moran) and his friends, including Bacon (Jason Statham), out of 500,000 pounds. The rest of the movie follows the their attempts to raise the cash to pay off the debt and the chaos that ensues.

Three Card Brag comes from Primero, an Elizabethan gambling game, and is an ancestor of poker as we know it today. Brag, however, differs significantly from modern poker in both betting and hand values. Variations are Four, Seven, Nine, Thirteen, and Fifteen Card Brag.

Answer: 5 Card Stud

Five Card Stud originated during the American Civil War, when it had its greatest popularity, and was featured in the first few years of the WSOP in the 1970s. It has since declined in popularity with the rise of community card games such as Hold'em.

"The Cincinnati Kid" tells the story of Eric Stoner (Steve McQueen), a rising poker star in New Orleans. He wants to play against Lancey "The Man" Howard (Edward G. Robinson). They get involved in a six player game and play until only the two of them are left. The final hand of the game has created much controversy because the odds of it happening in a Five Card Stud game heads up are astronomical. Eric loses to Howard when his full house is beaten by a straight flush.

"5 Card Stud" tells the story of Van Morgan (Dean Martin) who is involved in a Five Card Stud poker game in Rincon Colorado in which one of the players is caught cheating. He is lynched by the other players against the objections of Morgan. Later on members of the lynching begin to die and Morgan returns to Rincon to find out why. A new resident in the town is Reverend Rudd (Robert Mitchum).

Answer: Amarillo Slim

Amarillo is Spanish for yellow, hence the clue. Amarillo Slim won three other WSOP bracelets besides the Main Event in his career. Slim, Doyle Brunson (aka Texas Dolly), and Sailor Roberts formed a partnership back in the early days playing underground poker in Texas.

"California Split" tells the story of Denny (George Segal) and Charlie Waters (Elliott Gould) and their lives of gambling. They pool their money and head to Reno where Bill wins $18,000 but he won't stop because he believes he is on a heater. He wins even more playing Blackjack, Craps, and Roulette. They split the money and Bill decides to quit and go home.

Answer: Five Card Draw

Both movies feature Five Card Draw, the pre-eminent game in the Old West and on the riverboats of the Mississippi. The game involves each player being dealt five cards with a round of betting. From there the players are allowed to discard cards they don't want in order to try to improve their hand. How many can be discarded depends on the rules of that particular game. Another round of betting takes place and then the hands are revealed unless all players fold.

Both movies involve fixed games where card mechanics are involved. In "A Big Hand for a Little Lady", Meredith (Henry Fonda) and Mary (Joanne Woodward) run a scam on the five richest men in Texas, in which Mary ends up bluffing them out of a huge pot. Freezing the frame reveals she only held two pair, fours and fives.

"Maverick" tells the story of Bret Maverick (Mel Gibson), Mrs Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster), Marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner), Angel (Alfred Molina), and Commodore Duvall (James Coburn). The Commodore holds a tournament on his riverboat that is a winner takes all event. Maverick wins the tournament with a royal flush and from there tons of double crosses and plot twists ensue.

Answer: Someone who cheats by skillfully manipulating a deck of cards

A card mechanic is someone who is skilled in handling a deck and uses this skill to cheat. Although the term is synonymous with cardsharp, card sharp, cardshark, and card shark, a card mechanic is definitely someone who cheats whereas the other terms can also be applied to someone who is just good at playing cards.

"Shade" tells the story of Vernon (Stuart Townsend), a card mechanic, who joins forces with Tiffany (Thandie Newton) and Charlie (Gabriel Byrne) to try to con the Dean (Sylvester Stallone) in a fixed game. In the climactic final hand Vernon makes it so he has three Jacks and the Dean has two pair. But the Dean out cheats him and shows three Queens instead.

Answer: Jerry Tarkanian

Jerry Tarkanian makes a cameo in the movie as himself. He is part of the fixed poker game, but it is unknown whether he knows the game is fixed. Jack Singer (Nicholas Cage) loses $65,000 to Tommy Korman (James Caan) who sets him up so that he can steal Singer's fiancee, Betsy (Sarah Jessica Parker). Korman agrees to forgive the debt if he can spend the weekend with Betsy, who reminds him of his dead wife. From there craziness ensues and ends with Singer jumping out of an airplane with the Flying Elvises.

Answer: World Series of Poker Main Event

Both films feature the WSOP Main Event (ME) in their story lines. In terms of prestige, money, and the number of participants, the ME has been the biggest tournament by far each year. It was started by Binion's Horseshoe Casino back in 1971 and then bought by Harrah's in 2004. The WSOP is actually a series of tournaments in many different poker disciplines that takes place in Las Vegas each summer. The ME is the last and biggest of these tournaments each year.


"Lucky You" is the fictional story of an estranged father, L.C. Cheever (Robert Duvall), and son, Huck Cheever (Eric Bana), both of whom are professional poker players. In fact, L.C. is a two time ME champ. Stuck in the middle is Huck's love interest, Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore). At the final table of the 2003 ME, Huck ends up folding a winning hand to L.C., finishing third. L.C. then loses to an online qualifier. This was a nod to Chris Moneymaker's win of the real 2003 ME which he won entry to through an online satellite tournament.

"High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story" tells the true story of three time ME champ Stu Ungar. Although he was a gifted poker player, he never could tame his demons and died less than two years after winning the ME for a third time in 1997. With his win in 1997, Stu became only the second player to win the ME three times, the other being Johnny Moss. But one of Moss' wins was by a vote of the players present and not a tournament win, so Stu was the first to win it three times through tournament play. At the time of Stu's death, only Stu, Doyle Brunson, and Johnny Chan had won the ME back to back.