The movie opens by showing Mike losing his entire $30,000 bankroll on a single hand to a Russian gangster named Teddy KGB. According to Mike, success in poker comes as much from reading the person as it does from reading the cards that he holds. In a conspiratorial, low-key voice-over narration, professional poker player Mike McDermott (Matt Damon), a clean-cut, high-stakes poker gambler, guides us through the world of underground poker.
It’s rare to play in a poker game with friends and go through the whole night without someone quoting at least one line from the movie. And although Rounders remained mostly unnoticed by the masses, it attained the ultimate cult status in the poker world. It was only later that the movie was recognized as being a precursor to the explosion in the popularity of poker. The movie was very under-appreciated at the time it was released because it was a movie before it's time. Rounders single-handedly motivated millions of people to play poker competitively. Matt Damon, Edward Norton, John Malkovich, John Turturro, Gretchen Mol, Famke Janssen
