"You watch a guy during the first hour of play, you're going to see who he wants to be." "You keep watching hour after hour, you'll start to see who he really is." "Yeah." "No, no." "I know, tech stocks, everybody's afraid, but, Jeff..." "Can I call you Jeff?" "Jeff, this is what I know." "Six members from the RD department of Upgear have just defected, and guess to where." "Falco." "Exactly." "I don't think that you understand this, but this is a ton of talent that we're talking about, OK?" "All MIT kids eating lunch and dinner at their desk." "I just bought a bunch for myself, OK, and I'm shorting Upgear." "No, no, I know that you're going out on a limb, but, Jeff, Jeff, that's where the fruit is." " What the hell?" "!" "You're out of here, now." "Put everything in a box and seal it in case they want to go through it." "Do you mind telling me what this is about?" " Why don't you ask the fbi?" " The fbi?" "What about the fbi?" "They paid us a call." "I know everything about the securities fraud in Albuquerque." " What?" "Look, Blake..." " Save it." "Blake, I've never even been to Albuquerque, OK?" " Come on, this is not happening!" " Oh, yes, it is." "I can't believe I risked my career on a little turd like you." "That's what I get for being a liberal, huh?" "What?" "Are you saying the only reason you let me keep this job is because I'm black?" "No, you let me keep it because I earned it, bitch." "Tell you what, you can keep that." "Leave the rest." "Now, get out." "Occasionally, he may catch himself, play right for a while, but eventually, as time wears on, he'll just be himself." "So the trick is for all of us to make sure we are who we want to be." "So, my friend, what can I get for you?" "Um..." "What do you drink if you just got the ax?" "Let me make you a Paul Hackett." "That's three parts failure, one part gin." "Give me a soda." " Why'd you do that?" " Tit for tat." "That's funny, I don't remember any tit." "Got me wondering what the hell a tat is." "You tipped off Dean when you recorded him." "You ruined my case." "Whatever." "What are you talking about?" "You go see him and the next morning the circus pulls out of town?" "OK." "So you never heard of coincidence?" " I'm not stupid." " Well, you know what, believe what you want, but why get me fired?" "You ever hear of spite?" " Spite?" " Mm-hmm." "Wow." " I'm not done with you." " Yeah, whatever." "What else you going to do?" "Take my toothbrush?" "Here, take it." "Oh, I'm just getting started." "I'm gonna show up when you don't expect it." "I'm going to piss on your happy." "You know what?" "If you promise to leave me alone," "I'll get you some guys that make Dean and Shurgin look like Boy Scouts." "I'm listening." " Follow me." " Where?" "To where the fbi buys me some breakfast." "Come on." "Eddie, we both need to get out of this place." " Where's this coming from?" " I've just been thinking." "This place is killing me slow, and it might get you fast." "Well, I can take care of myself." "I've got 100 grand saved." "We could go anywhere." "And do what?" "I don't know." "Just be normal for a little while, you know?" "See what that feels like." "I don't want to play house, I want to play cards." "Vegas isn't the only place with poker, Eddie." "Look, Dee, I like you, I really do, and believe me, when I'm in some nursing home," "I'm going to be playing plenty of our times together over in my head." "I'm not running away with you." "There's things that I have to do here." "Come on, neither of us were ever in this for love or anything close to it." "Oh, what is it?" "You got a score to settle?" "You got to get even?" "No one ever gets even in this town, Eddie." "Well, I'm gonna try." "No." "You think you're even." "But you don't take into account how much life got sucked out of you along the way." "I appreciate the offer, but my answer's still no." "So, what, that's the end of it?" "Just seems like we're dancing around deal-breakers." "We should just call it off." "Eddie, I'm a good thing." "Yeah, you are." "How's the neck?" "Well, it's still holding my head on." " Appreciate the intervention." " Don't mention it." "Listen, I just want to let you know..." "I'm out." "Out?" "No." "We need to be planning our next move." "No, we don't have a next move." " I think we do." " OK." "Witness protection." " Me?" " You know more than you're saying." "Not for me." "You think Everest and company won't take another crack at you?" " I'm looking over my shoulder." " Is that any way to live?" "What do you want me to do?" "Do you want me to start all over again in Oregon?" "Working the aluminum siding counter at Home Depot?" "Maybe drive a Hyundai?" " It's better than dead." " I can't see the difference." "So, what are you gonna do?" "I'm gonna do like Sammy." "I'm gonna improvise." "Look..." "I just want to say thanks." "Good luck." " How'd you sleep?" " Not bad." " You?" " Good." "You ever dream poker?" "No, not really." "When I'm trying to get some sleep and I close my eyes," "I do see cards flying around like ghosts." "Friendly ghosts?" "Sometimes." "Sometimes not." "Like real ghosts, I guess." " Hi." " What's up?" " We're getting down to it now." " Mm-hmm." "Look, odds are two of us, or all of us, will wind up playing each other today at some point." "That's cool with me." "Finally get to get on each other's shoulders." "How many horses you figure Everest still has left?" "I don't know." "I got two." "Rando over there." "Yeah, I know." "He's a strong player." " And Billy Cadinski." " Dressed for failure." "He's superstitious." "He's been wearing that same shirt for three days." "He bets strong, but he bluffs two out of three times." " He always bets faster when he's bluffing." " I got that boss hog over there." "This dude, he jokes around all the time." "Only time he ever laughs at his own jokes is when he doesn't have the winning hand." "At least I'll leave here with something." "Ooh." "Like to ride him all night long." "Joke." "Joke." "Yeah, OK." "Well, one good thing?" "Everest is at the featured table today." "He's got a mountain of chips, but they're all counted, so he won't be able to get any more on the breaks." "He's got Hellmuth, and he's not gonna be able to pull him around." "All right." "Hello, everybody." "I'm Lon McEachern, joined once again by Norman Chad." "Thanks, Lon." "Welcome, folks, to the 36th annual World Championship of Poker and the biggest prize in all of sports, $5 million." "We started with 2300 players vying for the prize and we're down to the last 100 now." "And at the featured table today, a classic pairing." "It's the Duran-Leonard of poker." "Don "The Matador" Everest, our current chip leader, will be going up against the bad boy of poker, Phil Hellmuth." "Here he comes now, Lon." "Phil Hellmuth making his trademark late appearance." "Boys, sorry I'm late." " We were worried sick." " I can tell." "Some early posturing from these two very experienced players as the cards are dealt." "These guys have quite a history, don't they?" "Oh, indeed they do, Lon." "They've faced each other at no fewer than three final tables, where Phil Hellmuth has enjoyed something of an edge, culminating in one now famous showdown for the championship in 2001." "It's a nine!" "And Phil Hellmuth has won the 2001 World Championship of Poker with a straight to the seven!" "Olé!" "Are you kidding me?" "I love being the bad boy of poker." "Just don't tell my mom." "Love him or hate him," "Phil certainly adds something special to this event." "Phil Hellmuth starts off with a jack, ten suited." "That's a nice way to start your morning." "Usually, Phil starts his morning by complaining about a bad beat." "The Matador, meanwhile, has got a couple of rags." "He'll toss them in and he'll start off his morning with a short walk." " Where were you?" " Hospital." " What happened?" " Lee Nickel happened." " What about Lowball?" " Didn't get to him." "Do you mind?" "Why don't you come and see me at the end of the day?" "Sorry, it couldn't be helped." "It's all right." " We'll work something out, all right?" " OK." "Have a good game." "Can't miss." "And we're back here at the Colorado casino." "Anybody else want to give me a big stack of chips?" "And Phil Hellmuth has picked off another player." "This leaves him with plenty of ammo to take out his next victim." "He is now our chip leader with a little over one million in chips." "One by one, he has knocked off several players over the last few hours." "That's got to have the Matador thinking." "He has a way of getting under a player's skin." "Everest had a good run also, earlier in the day, picking off a couple of..." "I wouldn't say weaker players." "You may not want to say it, but there is a reason that these two guys find themselves at the final table as often as anyone in the game." "And the Matador pulls pocket queens." "Well, let's see how the Matador wants to deal with these ladies." "And he's gonna come out pretty strong with a bet of 50,000." "Action over to Hellmuth." "He's got a jack, nine suited." "He'll probably play those from the late position." "50,000." "Lines are only 3,000, 6,000." "That's a very big bet." "That's a lot of money." "Now we've got Everest and Hellmuth going head to head." "That's why we're here, to see these two guys going heads-up." "Everest, an 81 % favorite as we go to the flop." "And there is the flop." "An ace, eight, and two." "Everest, he's sitting on those queens, but he really can't like seeing that ace." "Everest is going to check the queens." "Very conservative there." "Yeah, not a Matador-type play at all." "He doesn't know this, but right now, he's a 96% favorite to win the hand." " I'm all in." " And Hellmuth will risk it all!" "This is a tough decision for the Matador." "And now the history between these two players is out on the table with the chips." "There's one thing for certain, Norman," "Don Everest does not want to be eliminated from this tournament by Phil Hellmuth, of all people." "And the Matador looks disgusted as he folds his queens, missing a huge opportunity to not only double his stack, but also put Hellmuth on the ropes in this contest." "No guts, no glory." "You make the call there, you bust me." "Phil never misses a chance to rub a player's nose in the felt." "That's why players line up around the block to often root against Phil, but that's the power of having the chip lead." "I think that hand was a psychologically huge one" " for these two players." " No doubt." "But right now, let's turn our attention to the floor here in the casino for just a moment." "We've got a couple of interesting situations developing." "One player vying to be the first woman ever to make it to the final table." "She calls herself Miami, and she gives no last name." "It's just Miami." "I like that handle." "It's got a mystical, edgy quality." "It wouldn't necessarily work with all city names." "Little Rock or Poughkeepsie might not carry the same mystique." "Good point, Norman." "But whatever the name, she is sitting pretty with a chip count of 700,000." "OK, this is a start." "Anybody have anything else?" " Um..." " Yes?" "You know Carruthers, the police chief?" "He gets comped all the time, steak dinners and everything." "We know that already, but it's hard to bust a guy for a porterhouse." " So, can you do anything?" " I don't know." "With what you've given me, I don't have threshold for a search, much less an arrest." "We need something concrete, guys." " I may be able to jam this Skip character." " He's got a pretty hard shell." "That's it, right?" "I'll check with my friend in the public corruption squad." "If the police are mixed up deep enough, maybe an investigation's underway." " So, you mean you don't know?" " There's a lot of bad guys out there." " I'd think you would know that." " I don't know if this means anything, but when we went through Seymour's safety-deposit box, we found that." " I'll run this down." " Can I come with you?" " It's open." "Hey, Skip." " Hey, Don." " Have a drink?" "No, thanks." "It's bad luck to make a man drink alone." "OK." "Scotch, ice." "Good." "Want to pour me one?" "It's right there." "How's the tournament going?" "Well, I'm still in, except for that Hellmuth." "He's a boil in my ass." " You'll get him." " Yeah, I'm gonna have to." "Feeling a little pain, are you?" " You know, he's got reach on me." " Yeah." "Well, I want you to know your sacrifice was duly noted." "Like I said, anything I can do for you." "Well, that's loyalty." "You know, that's very valuable." "So valuable, in fact, that you need to be protected like an asset." "I think maybe you should take a vacation for a couple of weeks." "Just get away until things blow over, and when you come back that guy won't be bothering you anymore." "If you think, yeah." "A good friend of mine's got a ski chalet out in Tahoe." "It's a beautiful place." "Very classy, nice and quiet, view of the lake." "Thank you." " I like Tahoe." " Well, here's a map, directions on how to get there, and the keys." "You should leave tomorrow after work." "The caretaker of the place, his name is Raul." "He'll set you up real good." "You'll love it." "They have a great, big hot tub there, really good for your aches and pains." " Yeah, I'd like that." " Some extra cash." " Thanks, Donny." " Sure." "Yeah, anytime." "Listen..." "Skip, I just want to tell you one thing." "I'm gonna take real good care of you, OK?" "OK, Don." "Thanks." "Sure." "Enjoy yourself." "Come in." "Father, Agent Kwan." "We spoke on the phone." " Who's this?" "Your partner?" " I was a friend of Seymour Annisman's." "I heard about Seymour." "Good man." "My name's Miami." " You're the girl he talked about." " He did?" "Yeah, he thought a lot of you." "Uh..." "We found this card in his safety-deposit box." "That's what led us to you." "Seymour." "Shrewd even in death." "What does that mean?" "This guy here" " Daniel Kehoe?" " He died, but he's not dead." " Sorry?" "As far as the rest of the world is concerned, he's living and breathing and earning." " It's one way Everest washes his money." " How do you know all this?" "I can't tell you that." "That's all I have." "How did you two know each other?" "He was my sponsor at GA." "Really?" "You?" "It's a sickness." "I loved his sports book." "You know, a little church like this, a collection plate's a cash business." "He helped me through it." "He confided in me." "So tell me, what happened?" "College hoops happened." "What can I tell you?" "I felt invincible on Friday night, like I had some God-given gift that I was wasting." "Mm-hmm." "You really think the supreme power follows Vegas odds?" "That if you died tomorrow, God would welcome you to heaven, saying," ""Mike, I'm so glad to see you." "I had the under. "" " You can convince yourself of anything." " Mm-hmm." "But you called me." "What's up?" "Well, it's about my future." "I'm done in this town." "I don't know how to get away." "You hear the news about Billy Landry?" "The guy who owned the Colorado, went missing?" "Yeah, but he won't be whistling a happy tune coming back." " Are you telling me that you were..." " Involved?" "Yeah, yeah." " Did you kill him?" " No." "But I know who did." "Don Everest." "Will you go on the record?" "Not even if you subpoenaed me." "I believe in the afterlife, but I'm in no hurry to get there." "Neither was Seymour." "Didn't matter, did it?" "You know, if someone had just stepped up before, or just had the stomach to even try and stop Everest," "Seymour would still be breathing." "Come on, just tell us what you know." "On the record." "I listen to confessions all day long." "It's a long time since I've been asked to give one." "Dad?" " Oh, sorry." " You bastard! No, wait, wait, wait!" "That's my daughter." "Dee, wait." "Hey." "Come on, come on, come on, come on." "Please, don't go, don't go." " I'm sorry about all that." " Don't worry about it." "You want some coffee?" "No." "You want some money?" "No." "Are you all right?" "No." "Do you want to talk about it?" " The guy." " It didn't work out?" "No." "Are you stuck on him?" "Yeah." "I played it wrong." "You know, card players are the male equivalent of showgirls." "Did it ever occur to you to date a doctor or a dermatologist or somebody with a regular schedule?" "Why don't we go to Italy for a couple of days after the tournament?" "Go to that little place outside of Siena." "Buy some shoes and sit around and gas on about how the light is different." "Why don't we skip the plane ride and book a table at the Bellagio?" "Sure." "Yeah, we can do that." "Let me tell you something..." "I'm sorry you got snake-bit by Eddie, and if you'd like..." "No, no, no, no, no." "He played by the rules." "Let him be." "Mm-hmm." " Who was the girl in there?" " She's from Cirque du Soleil." "And before that, she was with the French national gymnastics team." " You must have so much to talk about." " Yeah, we sure do." "It's incredible, just chitchat away all night long." " I'm gonna go." " Are you sure you don't need anything?" "No." " Thanks, Dad." " All right." "All in." "We're now down to five tables, and we go over to one of the outer tables, where Eddie Towne has just shifted, and he's rudely greeted by Preston Rando, who's going all in." " How much is that?" " Eddie wants a chip count." "That should be no trouble, Lon, for Rando." "He's an accountant from here in the Las Vegas area." "270." "He's also a pretty good poker player, placing just out of the money in last year's tournament." "Here he is again at 270,000 in tournament chips." "He's the short stack, but he's always got an outside shot to make that final table." "Eddie Towne's gonna take a good, long time to make a move." "He's got about 600,000 in chips right now." "If he looks at him any longer, Lon, he's gonna have to ask him to dinner." "Towne thinks better of the call, and Rando adds a little bit to his stack." "Every little bit helps." "Now let's go back to our featured table, where the main event has been the battle between Don Everest and Phil Hellmuth." "Don Everest is dealt a pair of eights, and doesn't look too comfortable with them." "And Britain's Muff Lannigan, who is the short stack at the table right now, draws king, jack unsuited." "And now he's got the unenviable task of going head-to-head with Everest." "How much is sitting on there, Huff?" "It's Muff." "Uh... 170, sunshine." "A little lip from the Englishman." "People say sitting across the table from me is kind of like being at the Delta Airlines counter." "You might as well book your flight home." "I imagine the Matador would book Muff a middle seat in coach." "Ah, you just don't want to be this guy right now." "Nah." "Nah." "I don't think I'm flying home just yet." "I think I'll stick around and work on my tan." "Call." "Lannigan's gonna put the pressure on and go all in, but it's Everest who's got the 54% chance of winning this hand." "Everest obviously is gonna want to see some little cards coming down here on the flop." "Oh, two eights on the flop!" "That made it quick!" "Those were the right little cards." "Well, you got what you wanted." " Yeah, what was that?" " Now you can start working on that tan." "With that, Don Everest has regained the chip lead in this tournament, with over 2. 2 million." "The Matador getting up, being uncharacteristically friendly right now." "It's easy to be friendly when you make quads." "Don't forget your reflector board." "That's the second time I've seen him hit that." "The third one's for you, Phil." "Bring it on, Everest." "If I don't want you in the casino, what makes you think you're welcome here?" "I say the word and you don't even make it off the property." "I'm hoping you don't say that word." "I need to come back." "Now you wanna go sleep with the enemy, then come back here and smoke my cigar?" "This town's a square dance, you know?" "I swung, I swung back." " What's Nickel doing?" " He's spinning his wheels." " But not in reverse?" " No." "He doesn't have that gear." "So, you can't rid us of him?" " No, not yet." " Then why are we talking?" " We need each other." " Do we?" "I need to run a casino." "You've got a casino you need me to run." "Come on, I was born into it." "Handling captains of industry, slobbing to oil barons, watching them piss away their money, and then making them feel good about having been fleeced?" "The right cocktail of obsequiousness and authority." "How many men can do that?" "They're around." "Maybe." "Lowball, with everything that just happened, why aren't you running for your life?" "This is the only life I want." "And besides, you should know, if I go down, I leave a legacy behind." "I die, certain things come out through legal instruments that would be admissible as a dying declaration." "And then nobody wins." "I see." "Better to keep me in the Colorado family." "Better for both of us." " This is very good." " What?" "This Daniel Kehoe account is showing regular wire transfers to an offshore account." "9,000 each time." " Under the radar." " Yep." "Whose account?" "Uh, Phillip Bianco." "Hold on." "Let me run that down." "There's a big payoff here, March 1 Oth this year." "Hold on a second." "Tropical Henry died in police custody on March 8th." " That's good work, man." " That's how we do it in Iowa." " This is nice." " What?" "Phillip Bianco is Captain Carruthers' father-in-law." "Or was." "He's been dead for five years." "Pay dirt." "Federal money laundering." "Subpoena the bank." " Nice." " Hey, Kwan, we owe you one." "You owe him, too." "Yeah." "Thanks, man." "Were you able to pick up on their signals?" "No, they change them up every few hands." "It's really hard to catch on." "So, what do you want to do?" "They got an edge, you know?" "Good thing is they're not great players." " But they're good players with an edge." " We'll have to live with it." " Maybe not." " What?" "Maybe we could even things up a little, the way we planned to against Everest." " We're playing him, after all." " Yeah, not for me." "Why?" "I just have to do it my way." "You get a stack of chips in front of you, all of a sudden you're Frank Sinatra." "All right, look, break's over, so come on, let's just go do this, straight up." "You know, we cross swords, one of us gets cut down." "That's right." "The way it's supposed to be?" "That's right." "OK." "We're back at the featured table now, with yet another showdown between Don Everest and Phil Hellmuth." "This rivalry is so great for the game of poker, it's worth a cover charge and two-drink minimum." "And that flop ain't too shabby for Don Everest, either." "He bets 100,000." "On the flop, Everest gets a straight draw, but Hellmuth gets both a straight draw and a flush draw." "He's in better shape." "I call." "That is the last king in the deck." "Both players with a set now." "And now Don Everest, a 52% favorite to win this hand." "We still have a 20% chance we're going to have a split pot." "I'm all in." "Whatever you got in front of you, Phil, if you wanna play." "Whatever I've got in front of me, huh?" "King, jack." "Ace, king." "1.4 million." "Can't have a full house here." "All right, let's go, Matador." "I call." "That's a blow to Phil Hellmuth." "Doesn't matter." "I need a ten or a club." "Phil Hellmuth's tournament life all comes down to this." "He needs a club or a ten to win this one." "Give me a club, please?" "Club or a ten." " It's a five!" "And Don Everest's chip count now up to 3.9 million." "Boy, the Matador is hot, and of course, Phil Hellmuth is even hotter." " Goes to the freakin' crime lord over there." " Maybe I'll change my ways." "Olé." "Some action of note at one of the other tables right now." "Billy Cadinski has gone all in with his 280,000 chips." "Right now, he's sitting and waiting to see if Eddie Towne is gonna make the call." " What's that, 280?" " And Eddie might go after him." "He's got about a three-to-one chip advantage over Cadinski." " I call." " He's gonna call him." "Plus Eddie's got the better T-shirt, so I got to like his chances here." "Cadinski was bluffing all the way with a jack, nine, and he's in a whole lot of trouble now." "I didn't think so." "Eddie Towne's a 70% winner right here with those cards." "That was a nervy call for Eddie with a pair of threes." "He must have picked up something on Cadinski." "Oh, and that is a tough break for Eddie Towne, and now the tables are turned." "Cadinski a 95% favorite to win this hand and double up." "From chicken to chicken feathers, man." "You just never know in this game, Lon." "And only a three can help Eddie Towne avoid a big beat here." "Oh, and it's a blank!" "That hand was quite a ride for Eddie, Lon." "He played it just right, then had to watch Cadinski float away safely on the river." "Eddie Towne was close to collecting a huge chip stack, and now he's got a lot of makeup work to do." "And that concludes play in today's round of the World..." "Guess that's it." "You're all safe for one more night." "Billy Landry was attempting to exercise a buyback clause over the Colorado." "Seymour Annisman was coerced by Don Everest and Frank Malloy into setting up a meeting with Landry at a proposed hotel site in the desert." "To your knowledge, was Seymour Annisman involved in the murder?" "Seymour was convinced the meeting was for threats only." "Put a scare in him." "Maybe rough him up a little, at most." " Annisman's alibi was solid." " Even that little involvement... ate Seymour up." "Never forgave himself." "And you've never come forward before?" "The bonds of Gamblers Anonymous are much like those of the confessional." "Happens he told me in a church." "Suppose I should've." "Is there anything that you yourself have seen to help corroborate Seymour's story?" "No, nothing." "None of this is useful in court." " But it's the road map." " Of a rough road." " Pretty good day's work, Don." " It was an exceptional day." " Yeah, I watched you play Hellmuth." " Yeah, well, we both knew we had the kings, but I had a feeling his kicker was kind of weak." " I could just smell it on him." " No help today either, right?" "No." "Just me and them on a day when I wasn't supposed to do anything but win." "I felt like I was 25 years old again." "That was a long time ago." "Playing by the rules, not fooling around, not playing any signals." "Except the ones people send that they don't know about." "You're a great player." "You know that." "Kind of made me wish I'd played by the rules all the time." "Yeah, but the people who play by the rules are limited." "They're limited on how they can play, they're limited on what they can win." "Yeah." "But when you make up the rules, the rewards are..." "Well, you know what they are." "Yes, I do." "Hey, Raul?" "He took the night off." "Argh!" "Funny thing about Tahoe." "Even with all the snow, it's not really a chilling cold." " Kind of a dry cold." " It's almost a comfortable cold." " Please." "Please, don't." "Please." "I said I was gonna take care of you, Skip." "You..." "You know why I've been around for so long?" "Because I'm a man of my word." "I tell people exactly what I'm gonna do, and then I do it." "No! Nobody ever listens."