When Rounders debuted 25 years ago and gave us a glimpse into the characters that make the New York City poker scene so unique. The Rounders Cinematic Universe puts those characters’ stories front and center. Twenty-five years ago, Matt Damon and Edward Norton changed your life forever when they graced the silver screen as Mike McDermott and Lester Murphy – better known as ‘Worm’ – in Rounders .
While the movie didn’t exactly crush at the box office – it finished with the 76th largest domestic box office of 1989 at $22.9 million – it framed poker, and specifically Texas Hold’em, as a game where young people could use their smarts and wits to make money. It helped glorify the underground poker scene in New York City. Sometime during that run in theaters, Chris Moneymaker saw the movie and that sparked his interest in poker, five years before he would go on to win the World Series of Poker Main Event.
The movie ends with McDermott, after playing the highest stakes poker of his life, hailing a New York City yellow cab to Kennedy airport so he can head to Las Vegas and – presumably – play the World Series of Poker Main Event. McDermott’s monologue closes the movie as The Counting Crows’ I’m A Big Star Now plays and the credits roll.
Since then, poker fans have been clamoring for a Rounders sequel. What happened to McDermott after he got to Las Vegas? Whatever became of Worm? It’s been teased multiple times over the years but has never quite come to fruition.
In 2010: I’ve heard about this for years, but it looks like a Rounders sequel is in the works- http://j.mp/fV8NM0 — Brian Balsbaugh (@Balsbaugh) December 16, 2010 In 2013: Rounders Sequel Gets its Backer: http://t.co/Iw4bUFbg0n — pokerfuse (@pokerfuse) December 16, 2013 In 2016: Matt Damon Says ‘Rounders’ Sequel Would Be About Online Poker https://t.co/uOdkyL6W0J pic.twitter.com/9yftF6j4e4 — Card Player: The Poker Authority (@CardPlayerMedia) July 28, 2016 Earlier this year, Damon and longtime pal Ben Affleck hinted that they had begun working on the project . In the days when Rounders co-writer […]
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