That was when a Lower East Side kid named Stu Ungar - who’d later become a poker superstar and die in a fleabag Vegas motel before being played by Michael Imperioli in a trashy biopic called “High Roller” - tore up the gin action. Long before movies like “Rounders,” celeb-studded World Series of Poker telecasts and memoirs such as “Molly’s Game” (which gains speed with Tobey Maguire in action - and ends with “Poker Princess” Molly Bloom, who ran the high-stakes games in LA and NYC, in handcuffs), there was discreet gambling in unassuming places.Īccording to veteran player Mickey Appleman, high-stakes games of gin and poker ran on parallel tracks back in the 1970s. They carry a mix of louche glamour and potential profit. Zandy Mangoldįor some, underground poker clubs are as much a part of the city’s fabric as Greek diners and corner bars. Cards are in the air and I feel right at home. I hope to get a decent hand before he goes bust. I size up the other players and am grateful that the guy to my right bets like a maniac. Affable as he is, poker in these places is never really all that friendly. I buy-in for $200, receive two stacks of $5 chips and a British-accented dealer welcomes me to the game.

Sounds of small talk and the clattering of chips resonate around the room. Two poker tables are filled with male gamblers. Satisfied that there are no weapons on my person, he gets me buzzed into a room with a wall of windows covered in sheets.įlat-screen TVs play baseball and soccer. Standing in a closet-sized room with locked doors on either side, I raise my arms and submit to a pat-down by a muscled-up guy who calls himself Big Reggie. on a Tuesday and I am about to do something illegal.

Rounders opening poker scene