It excites and makes you empathise with Mike McDermott in equal measure. In my humble opinion, Rounders is a film that’s up there with some of the dirtiest films in recent memory. A “rounder” is someone that ventures from city to city in search of high-stakes poker games, and this perfectly describes the film’s two central characters, Mike McDermott (Matt Damon, pictured below) and Lester “Worm” Murphy (Edward Norton). Many of today’s professional poker stars cited Rounders as one of the main reasons they got into the game, with Dahl’s depiction of the age-old card game proving a cult hit, scooping almost $23 million at the box office.

Director John Dahl’s 1998 exploration of the private, underground clubs dedicated to high-stakes poker in New York City captured the imagination of poker fans around the world.