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High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story | |
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Directed by | A. W. Vidmer |
Written by | A. W. Vidmer |
Produced by | F.A. Miller |
Starring | Michael Imperioli Renee Faia Michael Nouri Michael Pasternak Pat Morita Vincent Van Patten Cynthia Brimhall |
Edited by | A. W. Vidmer |
Music by | Jeff Eden Fair Starr Parodi |
Distributed by | New Line Home Video |
Release date |
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Running time | 110 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story is a 2003 biopic focusing on the life of American professional poker and gin player Stu Ungar. Stuey is the film's alternate title. The film features cameos from several figures from the world of professional sports and poker, including Vince Van Patten, Andy Glazer and Al Bernstein.
High Roller is told in flashback. Ungar (Michael Imperioli), in a motel room on the last night of his life, relates his personal story to a stranger (Michael Pasternak). He speaks of growing up as the son of a bookie, his career as a tournament gin player, moving into poker, his marriage and the birth of his daughter Stefanie, cocaine abuse, and the breakup of his marriage. The film climaxes with Ungar's third victory at the Main Event of the World Series of Poker a year before his passing. In the final scene, Ungar departs the motel room with the stranger (who apparently represents the Grim Reaper).
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker players to the Horseshoe Casino for a single tournament, with a set start and stop time, and a winner determined by a secret ballot of the seven players.
Gin rummy, or simply gin, is a two-player card game variant of rummy. It has enjoyed widespread popularity as both a social and a gambling game, especially during the mid twentieth century, and remains today one of the most widely played two-player card games.
Stranger Than Paradise is a 1984 American black-and-white absurdist deadpan comedy film directed, co-written and co-edited by Jim Jarmusch, and starring jazz musician John Lurie, former Sonic Youth drummer-turned-actor Richard Edson, and Hungarian-born actress and violinist Eszter Balint. It features a minimalist plot in which the main character, Willie, is visited by Eva, his cousin from Hungary. Eva stays with him for ten days before going to Cleveland. Willie and his friend Eddie go to Cleveland to visit her, and the three then take a trip to Florida. The film is shot entirely in single long takes with no standard coverage.
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The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand similar to its larger rival the European Poker Tour (EPT) Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the final table of each tournament.
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Michael Imperioli is an American actor. He is best known for the role of Christopher Moltisanti in the HBO crime drama The Sopranos (1999–2007), which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004.
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Stuart Errol Ungar was an American professional poker, blackjack, and gin rummy player, widely regarded to have been the greatest gin player of all time and one of the best Texas hold 'em players.
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A. W. "Tony" Vidmer is a film director and screenwriter whose feature film High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story was distributed by New Line Cinema in 2003. Vidmer's film chronicled the life and death of Stu Ungar, a famously genius and self-destructive poker player, and starred Michael Imperioli.
Anargyros Nicholas Karabourniotis, commonly known as Archie Karas, is a Greek-American gambler, high roller, poker player, and pool shark famous for the largest and longest documented winning streak in casino gambling history, simply known as The Run, when he drove to Las Vegas with $50 in December 1992 and then turned a $10,000 loan into more than $40 million by the beginning of 1995, only to lose it all later that year. Karas himself claims to have gambled with more money in casinos than anyone else in history and has often been compared to Nick the Greek, another high-stakes gambler of Greek origin.
This is an alphabetical list of poker topics.
Vincent Van Patten is an American actor, former professional tennis player, and the commentator for the World Poker Tour.
7 Days to Vegas is a 2019 American comedy film directed by Eric Balfour. Vincent Van Patten is the co-writer along with Steve Alper.
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