shade try hard to be another sting and substitute poker for horse racing a the mean by which to bring down an enemy and but it fail miserably . i watch the whole thing and still never could quite understand why the young kid want to double cross his partner . be it because his partner steal his girl . be there a woman in the world who be worth go to that much trouble over . if there be and it certainly wasn not this shrew . she have no redeem quality whatsoever and and really now and do she actually have a special room set up so that a surgeon could remove the kidney from whoever try to pick her up in a bar . dina merrill make a short appearance a a rich woman who host and of all thing and pay the rent poker party at her palatial home . and then the player say thing like and i will see your thousand and raise you another five thousand . give me a break . you can not call ( see ) and raise and you do one or the other . any kid playing for nickel and dime at the kitchen table know this while you would think grown men play for stake this high or at least the knucklehead who write the script would know it too . one of the other poster mention how no high limit poker game would allow player to actually deal their own card and i agree . you do not allow two of the best known car cheat into a game where the buy in be $ 250 and 000 and then let them deal to each other . that not poker while that just see which one can cheat good . and i would like to know what person in his right mind would buy in to a game in which two of the best known card cheat be play and expect that he might have a chance at win . and most of all and what mafia bos would run such a game . every time melanie griffith come on the screen i be so mesmerize by those gigantic fluorescent red lip of hers that i completely lose the storyline and and see her and stallone together be more like a public service announcement for plastic surgery go wrong than a love connection . stallone mention that she use to be a grifter before she buy the restaurant she now run and but we do not know what kind of grifter she be and we never see her work with stallone in their young day so we be leave to wonder and if we even care that much . jamie foxx be the best character in the whole movie and but he get kill off right off the bat and be leave with cardboard cut out who all sound like theyre read their line off a teleprompter just off camera . the end make no sense either . the kid get his cut from the game and just walk down the street with a briefcase full of money and his partner be nowhere to be see . the mafia isn not watch every move he make . everyone else just shrug their shoulder and quietly accept the loss of million of dollar without try to recoup any of it . i do not think so . most of all and this movie do a great injustice to professional poker player all over the world and insinuating that the only way to win be by palm card and play with juiced deck . and why be it theyre always palm king and ace . sometimes you need a three or a nine to fill a straight or full house . the best part of the whole film be the sleight of hand trick during the beginning and end credit while everything in between be ridiculous .