As I mentioned last issue, I served as the technical advisor for the recently completed movie based on the life of three-time World Series of Poker Champion Stu Ungar, Stuey. I also had a role playing myself as one of the ESPN announcers for the 1997 World Series of Poker (in reality the announcers were Phil Hellmuth and Gabe Kaplan, but in Hollywood they turned it into boxing announcer Al Bernstein and me).
I was impressed with how much movie director A.W. (Tony) Vidmer was able to make with what was a relatively low budget by today’s Hollywood standards. It didn’t hurt that he got The Sopranos’ Michael Imperioli to play Stu, and Karate Kid/Happy Days star Pat Morita to play high-stakes gambler/sportsbook operator “Mr. Leo.”
Read more about Stu Ungar at Gamble Tribune:
The movie is currently making the film festival circuit while looking for a distributor, but I suspect eventually they will find one who will turn out to be happy with the decision. I think anyone who liked James Caan’s The Gambler will like Stuey, and it will probably wind up making more money than Stu Ungar did, but that prognostication isn’t my focus here.
Instead, I want to follow up on last issue’s column, “Beware of Smart People Bearing Propositions,” because there is a scene in the film involving an at-the-table poker proposition, and it’s the kind that you could run into someday yourself.
Q-10 = Varkonyi: Does 7-2 = Matusow?
A young Ungar was merely watching as a friend pulled off a rather bizarre move. The friend must have come from the Mike Matusow school of poker, because he entered this no-limit hold’em pot with 7-2 offsuit (the worst starting hand in hold’em, but if you’re playing the man rather than your cards, your cards don’t matter too much; Matusow doesn’t play this hand often, but he drew a lot of attention when he almost succeeded on a big bluff with it at the 2001 WSOP final table).
The preflop action is a bit hard to follow (on this day, unfortunately, I wasn’t on the set, and the film’s action goes beyond the script); it appears that “D.J. Clutter” (the propositioner, whose name has to be designed to evoke “T.J. Cloutier”; the Texas drawl adds to the image, although there isn’t a strong physical resemblance) has raised preflop out of the small blind, only to get called by his intended victim (“Mario”).
The action then gets easier to follow, and it appears the 7-3-3 flop has helped D.J., but the help seemed more of a trap when we find that Mario (clearly not based on “Super” Mario Esquerra) had started with two kings (why Mario didn’t raise to start, rather than limping, or why he didn’t reraise preflop, we aren’t told, but the way Mario plays the rest of this hand, it seems easy enough to believe he could make either or both of these mistakes).
D.J., under the gun, opens for $5,000, and Mario raises an odd amount, $5,000 more. D.J. flat-calls, with Ungar’s voice telling us he’s planning on making a move. Somehow, the perfect card for a particular kind of move hits the turn: a deuce. Without a pair on the board, this would have been a lead-changing card, but as it is, it only improves D.J.’s draw: He still has sevens and threes with no kicker.
D.J. senses an opportunity, and leads right out for $20,000. Mario seems thunderstruck, and virtually announces his own hand by saying, “You got pocket aces!”
Read full text of Proposition Bet in Stuey Offers Many Lessons at www.cardplayer.com.
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