The Magic Poker Equation: Difference between revisions

** Other than the main character, several other 'top players' display similar abilities. It's almost made explicit that these 'super-players' basically act as low-level [[Reality Warper|Reality Warpers]]s, manipulating probability to ensure the desired result.

* A friendly low-stakes Super Hero charity poker game once got derailed by the Kingpin in [[Spider-Man]]. Of course the game came down to Spidey vs. Kingpin. I beat Kingpin's hand with four of a kind--hekind—he even pulled "two threes and another two threes" which, humorously enough, tricked Kingpin into a villain monologue.

* ''[[Maverick (film)|Maverick]]'' plays with the trope throughout the film, as Bret Maverick is convinced that he can draw any card out of the deck at will. However, most of his attempts are completely unsuccessful {{spoiler|until the end of the film, when he manages to draw the Ace of Spades he needs to complete his Royal Flush and win the poker tournament}}. The final poker battle on the gambling ship at the end of the film is made of this trope. First, Maverick beats Annabelle by showing his cards, after she thought she won and already started collecting the winnings. Next, the final showdown between Maverick, Angel, and the Commodore. The Commodore shows his hand first: "Two small pair. Eights... and eights." Then Angel shows his hand, "See if you can beat my straight flush!" Maverick finally reveals his royal flush and wins it all, without saying a word. <ref>It should also be noted that Maverick noticed the dealer dealing from the bottom of a stacked deck.</ref> Also, a large part of the movie is of Annabelle trying to get Maverick to tell her his tells, and she ends up losing on the poker ship from the one tell he didn't let her know about.

* Somewhat [[Justified Trope|justified]] in Robert Asprin's ''[[Myth Adventures|Little Myth Marker]]'', where hero Skeeve finds himself in a flashy high stakes poker challenge; he puts the entire stakes on the first hand without even looking at his cards. The twist being, as he explains to his opponent, he does so because he knows he ''doesn't'' have any outstanding skill at the game -- butgame—but essentially reducing the game to a coin flip makes the skill gap irrelevant. {{spoiler|But of course, he wins with a big flashy hand anyhow.}}

* In Joe Queenan's ''America'', Queenan describes an occasion when he went to Atlantic City and sat in on a table with experienced poker players. Not really knowing anything about the game, he just bet when he felt lucky, and started winning -- andwinning—and got a lot of derision from the experienced players for screwing up the 'system'. After one of them took him aside and explained it to him, he started betting by the system -- andsystem—and promptly lost all his winnings and more besides. Not entirely surprisingly, he concluded that the system blows.

* A rare subversion comes in the 1980s ''[[Degrassi High]].'' The cool kids invite nerdy, insecure Arthur to their poker party so they can take him for all he's worth. He's totally out of his depth -- atdepth—at one point, he asks, "does three of a kind beat a full house?" But he suddenly starts winning -- includingwinning—including, of course, beating three of a kind with a full house. By the last hand, it's down to Arthur and the host -- andhost—and Arthur wins almost all the money by bluffing when his hand is complete junk. The cool kids are amazed. Then comes the subversion: Arthur grins and says, "'Does three of a kind beat a full house?' You guys are so gullible."

* Subverted in ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'': Joe and Luka get caught by a [[Monster of the Week]], who stakes their freedom on a single hand of poker. Joe manages to pull out a Royal Straight Flush to everyone's amazement.<ref>Though it's a moot point, since the MotW goes back on his word anyway</ref>. At the end of the episode, it's revealed that during a moment of confusion where Joe called the MotW out on blatantly cheating, Luka took the opportunity to switch out the decks.

* Played with in [[The Mentalist]]; Jane, who can count cards better than Rain Man, arranges a poker game with the suspect in a Vegas case, provoking him into producing key evidence as a wager on the final hand. The suspect is holding four Kings; Jane beats it with a straight flush--becauseflush—because he cheated while the guy's back is turned to ensure they both had those exact hands.

* Played Straight then Subverted in ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]''. Zzasz tells Batman about his [[Start of Darkness]], which involved being cleaned out by the Penguin at Poker. Zzasz had four 6s, the Pengiun beat it with a straight flush... to the 9.<ref> Which cannot happen together because it involves five 6s. One or both were cheating.</ref>.

** Later, in "Bonanza Bunny", he decides to play a round of blackjack with only one card. The villain has two tens<ref> Both of which are the 10 of spades, which may or may not prove he was cheating, depending on how many decks were being used. Most (modern) American casinos use about four or six</ref> in his hand, but loses anyway, as Bugs has drawn the [[Rule of Funny|21 of Hearts]].

* And, quite obviously, ''not'' truth in television. Well, the part about luck may or may not be--therebe—there have been some times where the final hand of the World Series of Poker has seen a player win with worse pocket cards (e.g. 1979, when 7-6 off-suit defeated pocket aces). Most notably, [[wikipedia:WSOP|2005]], when [[wikipedia:Joe Hachem|Joe Hachem]] won with 7-3 off-suit. (In fairness, he flopped a straight--anotherstraight—another subversion of this, as if this were television/movie poker, he wouldn't have hit that straight until the river, although his opponent would've still paired his ace on the turn. Come to think of it, that turn was most of what made it the final hand...