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The Cincinnati Kid
It's been a while, and I have an odd inspiration for doing this. I DVR'd the movie “The Cincinnati Kid”, a Steve McQueen movie from 1965. I finally got around to watching it. The story line? He's an up and coming poker player. Who would have guessed that I wanted to see this movie. I felt compelled to cover some of the things in the movie.
First and foremost, Edward G. Robinson plays the old pro, currently “the man”, that the Kid is going to have butt heads with in order for him to become “the man”. Mr. Robinson's character's name in the movie? Lancey Howard. Now, there's only one person who calls me Lancey. Officially, she calls me Lancey Pants (I think this came from the story of the cheerleaders at my high school creating the cheer “Lance, Lance, pull down your pants.” A cheer that was subsequently banned by the administration. : ) )
The game in this movie was 5 card stud. For the uninitiated, this is how 5 card stud works. Everyone is dealt 1 down card and 1 up card. The first round of betting ensues. The next 3 cards are dealt one by one face up, with a round of betting after each card.
It was cool seeing how much of poker is the same. Karl Malden plays the favored dealer and when he went over the “ground rules” it sounded so familiar. No string betting, etc.
I don't know where things were regarding plastic cards in the 30's (the time frame of the movie) but they had quite the procedure for ensuring the “cleanliness” of the cards. At the beginning of the “big game” they dumped out something like 50 decks that were “bonded” and cost 5 dollars a deck. That's a hefty price tag for a deck of cards that aren't plastic, especially for the 30's. And I know the cards weren't plastic. When they put a new deck into play the procedure they had was to rip the cards from the deck being retired. So there's Karl ripping cards and tossing them into a hat. This would have been extremely difficult with plastic cards. I know I haven't played in any major tournaments, but I don't believe a new deck of cards has been ever been brought out by the casinos in any of the tourneys I've played in. : )
One thing that was different/wrong. They were doing the “I call and raise” thing. The current ground rule is that you're either calling or raising. Raising implies calling. The moment the word “call” comes out of your mouth, you're done. The rule is in place to eliminate this possibility – you say “call”, watch your opponent's reaction, then use that to help determine whether or not you're going to raise. I don't know if this rule came into play later in time or if it's just Hollywood doing it's usual screwing things up.
I don't know if this was part of the times, or is a part of 5 card stud. As the dealer tossed out the up cards, he'd declare the players hands, including “possible flush”. This is frowned upon in Texas Hold 'em. There can be a point where a player may not notice the flush possibility, causing him to think his hand is stronger than it is. Then someone at the table comments about the flush possibility and that jogs his brain. The person with the flush doesn't appreciate that. The current etiquette is to keep your mouth shut about the hand being played and the let the players playing the hand figure it out for themselves.
WARNING: SPOILER
And of course the last hand of the movie needs attention. Tony Philips would be disappointed if I didn't. The only shortcoming is the characters kind of got switched around.
The Kid had Aces up (2 pair, aces and tens) after 4 cards. He bet very heavily. Lancey was showing 10d-9d-8d, Flush and straight possibilities, both of which will beat the Kid's 2 pair. Lancey calls. The Kid catches an Ace for a full house. Full houses beat straights and flushes.
Lancey catches the Qd for his last card.
Unfortunately, for the Kid, straight flushes beat everything. Lancey's hole card was the Jd for the straight flush.
Which brings us to the quote from the movie:
Lancey: Gets down to what it's all about, doesn't it? Making the wrong move at the right time.
The shortcoming? As Tony will tell you, the Lancey writing this doesn't catch straight flushes. His opponent's do. In the last 11 months or so I have had 4 monster hands lose to straight flushes. In that same time I have had, uhm, well, ZERO straight flushes. Tony witnessed 2 of those hands himself. And he likes to remind me of them. Tony is a funny guy.
A donkey called my Ad-Qh raise before the flop with 7h-5d (Tony saw this one, and says it's the only time he's ever seen me make a derogatory comment to an opponent about their play. All I said was “By the way, nice call before the flop.”).
A guy went all in with Jc-9c, I called with Ac-Kc. I didn't stand a chance. : )
The other 2 times? One was online and I'm hazy on the details. I'll have to check with Tony on the 4th one, he might remember it since he called it as it was happening.
In a trivia item online regarding the movie, a poker pro said that the odds of those 2 hands coming up at the same time are over 45,000,000 to 1. But as Tony might say, if Lance is sitting in the Kid's chair, it's probably more like even money. : )
Another quote:
Slade: How the hell did you know I didn't have the king or the ace?
Lancey Howard: I recollect a young man putting the same question to Eddie the Dude. "Son," Eddie told him, "all you paid was the looking price. Lessons are extra."
He’s a smart ass just like me. : )
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