The Cincinnati Kid
by Otis
The multi-table tournament had just started. The $200 Pot Limit game was going very well. I'd flopped a set on my first hand. The Hilton Sisters held up on the second hand. The fourth hand was big slick. I made the ace on the flop and forced an angry BB to lay down his cowboys. He kept vowing, "I'm coming to get you, Otis." That surely boded well for me. I was already up nearly two hundred dollars.
But DirecTV was nudging my noodle every couple of seconds. It's coming on! The Cincinnat Kid is coming on!
If only I had TiVo.
I thought for a couple of seconds and decided I would swallow my pride and do it the old fashioned way.
I grabbed an old VHS tape, popped it in the bedroom VCR, and went back to my game.
A few hours later, I finished my game $250 up (the cards ran a little cold after the initial lightening ride). I busted out in 9th (that's the third time I've done that) in the multi.
Although it was starting to get a little late, I decided that perhaps Steve McQueen might be able to offer me something in the way of guidance.
I'll admit from the outset that I'd never seen The Cincinnati Kid. While I like old movies from time to time, I've never been a big fan of films produced in the 60s. More than anything, the films' scores almost always give me the redass.
Nevertheless, I had to see THE poker movie. How could I converse intelligently with my poker brethren without a good base of knowledge on the McQueen flick?
As the film started and McQueen, heretofore known as The Kid, started his mad dash through the train yard, I thought to myself, "They should really re-make this movie and update it for people of my generation."
Thirty minutes in, I realized, "Oh, yeah. They did re-make this movie. It's called Rounders."
For those who have not taken the time to see the film, here's a brief synopsis (my apologies to the readers who know every line of the film by heart). Warning: If you've not see The Cincinnati Kid and plan to, there are more than a few spoliers in here. You've been warned.
The Cincinnati Kid is rolling tough, switch-blade games in the roughest parts of New Orleans. He's looking to make his bones. He wants to be The Man. Thing is, he's not. Lancey Howard (Edward G. Robinson) is. At the same time, The Kid is fighting to maintain a relationship with his girl, Christian (Tuesday Weld), and fighting off the advances of his father figure's wife, Melba (Ann Margret). That father figure, Shooter (Karl Malden), is fighting a massive debt and his inability to repay it without giving up what he values most, his honesty and integrity. The movie culminates in a marathon game of five-card stud in a New Orleans hotel suite.
At the risk of pointing out the obvious and perhaps repeating what other reviewers have, let's review the obvious comparisons.
The Kid=Mike McD
They are both young, experienced players who are bent on making their bones in the poker world. The money doesn't matter as much as being the best. Integrity and fair play are important to both players.
What I find funny is what the 1965 poker eyes saw as a Kid. I don't know how old McQueen was supposed to be in the movie, but in reality his was 34. Mike McD was a law student. Today, early-20s kids are playing on the net and busting the pros at the WSOP. However, some of those kids of today are like Chris Vogl, the engligh brat who won Event #1 of the WSOP this year and proudly proclaimed to the ESPN cameras that he didn't care about the glory. He only wanted to money. That's another post for another day, but let me be the first to say that Vogl is an oaf. Keep playing for the money, kid.
Shooter=Worm
If you're like me and watched The Cincinnati Kid after you watched Rounders, you might think at first that Karl Malden is the Rounders equivalent to Mike McD's law professor. Turns out, Shooter is Worm almost through and through. He's in debt up to his ears. The only way he can dig out is to cheat. His cheating ends up putting The Kid in jeopardy. Sound familiar?
Lancey Howard=?
It's actually not as much of a question mark as I make it out to be. Howard is a combination of Teddy KGB and the WSOP. In Rounders, McD has to make it through KGB to make his run to Vegas. In The Cincinnati Kid, Lancey Howard is the both brass rings wrapped up in one.
William Slade=Gramma
Both are the guys who are turning the screws on the protagonists' best buddy. Both are vicious and unrelenting.
******
While not exactly the same, the plot points are similar. The Kid's girl doesn't understand his poker and only wants him for love. Melba (a painfully sexy Ann Margret) just wants a piece of the Kid's ass because of who he is. The Kid has to fight to keep the game honest because he wants to win for real.
Upon a little reflection, here's the official analysis of The Cincinnati Kid vs. Rounders:
The Cincinnati Kid is Rounders if Rounders stopped when McD lost his roll to KGB. Simple as that.
Or...
Rounders is The Cincinatti Kid, plus the tale of what happens to the Kid after he collects his thoughts and gets back in the game.
****
Here's an interesting tidbit about 1960s America vs. 2000 America.
The Kid loses the game, but gets the girl.
Mike McD wins the game but loses the girl.
Both are Hollywood endings, but for different generations. They both follow the same theme of "we must sacrifice to succeed," but the movies differ in what success actually is. I think that is an interesting window into a forty-year gap in America's thoughts on success and love.
Speaking of girls, and forgive me for saying so, but give me Tuesday Weld and Ann Marget any day over the supermodels of 2004. Most of today's actresses don't hold a candle to Ann Margret's hyper-aggressive sexual come-ons and Tuesday Weld's girlish innocence. And the bodies on those women...
Sorry, my wife is pregnant. I've been a bit, uh...lonely recently.
****
So, that's the dimestore analysis after only a night of sleep and three Diet Mountain Dews. I'm sure many more parallels can be drawn. Those are simply the ones that come to mind first.
I wonder what the next great poker movie will be?
