Poker Movies: The Cincinnati Kid (1965)

Movie legend Steve McQueen stars in this poker movie about a poker hotshot looking to take on and beat the best poker player in the world. McQueen plays the character Eric Stoner, known as "The Kid", who is warned by his friend Shooter, a former hotshot himself tainted by the realities of gambling, that "The Man", played by Lancey Howard, is known as the best player in the world for a reason. Like many gamblers, however, Stoner cannot resist the urge to take him on to prove he is the best.

Stoner realizes during the game that Shooter, who is dealing, is cheating in his favor and has him replaced as the dealer, insisting that if he is to beat "The Man" he will do so fairly. Stoner's integrity is not rewarded when he suffers a terrible bad beat and loses all of his money. The film ends with Stoner a broken man, cruelly denied his place at the top of the poker world by nothing more than bad luck.

McQueen always has a powerful aura on screen and in this movie you sense quite acutely the gambler's turmoil and need to be in the game and the high stakes risk that comes with it. In that sense he was perfect casting as much of the inner turmoil is hidden behind his poker face. In this movie you see the benefits of being the best player in terms of reputation and wealth played excellently by Howard. The plot focuses on the fickle nature of luck in poker.

The plot is predictable and ends on a note of caution as you would expect from a poker movie from that period, a period where being robbed and being shot were risks that came hand-in-hand when playing poker. Five Card Stud is the game played in the movie, which is not played too much in modern poker but fits in with the plot quite well, in that the viewer sees most of the cards and can follow the action. It is definitely a movie worth watching whether you are a poker fan or not.