Poker

Pages thirty and thirty-one.

This is more of the last scene. I’m still not finished.

(Pages 30, 31)
Martin quickly reaches out for his cards, but the Dealer has his hands on the muck.

Martin puts his fingers on his two cards and pulls them back.

MARTIN
These are my cards. I hit the bad beat.

DEALER
I’m sorry, sir, but they’re in the muck.

MARTIN
So fucking what?

DEALER
Once they’re in the muck, they’re folded. There’s nothing I can do about it.

PLAYER #4
Are you fucking kidding?

DEALER
I’m sorry. That’s the house rules.

MARTIN
Fuck the house! They don’t know.

DEALER
The eye in the sky sees and knows everything. There’s nothing I can do. I’ll lose my job and probably go to jail.

The PIT BOSS walks over.

PIT BOSS
What’s all the commotion over here?

DEALER
We had a bad beat situation here, but the player threw his losing hand into the muck before showing his cards.

MARTIN
These are my cards right here. I never threw them in.

PIT BOSS
Those are your two cards?

MARTIN
Yes.

PIT BOSS
Flip them over.

Martin flips them over exposing the two kings.

The Pit Boss examines the hand.

PIT BOSS
Well, that definitely a bad beat. Now we have to decide if you mucked them. We’ll let upstairs decide.

The Pit Boss hits a button on his collar and talks into it.

PIT BOSS
I need a rewind on table five…

player #3
Bad beat is the most I’ve ever seen it too.

PLAYER #7
I know how you get a bad beat, but what does that mean? Why’s everyone going crazy?

PLAYER #3
You see that number on the wall in red?

He points to something that resembles a clock, but it has a dollar amount of $87,932 on it.

PLAYER #7
The eighty-seven hundred?

PLAYER #3
Yeah. The loser of the hand gets half. The winner gets twenty-five percent and the rest is divided up amongst the rest of us.

PLAYER #7
Oh, damn! So we just lost three grand?

PLAYER #3
Looks like it.

PIT BOSS
I’m sorry, sir, but you’re hand hit the muck and it was face down. We can’t award the bad beat to you.

The table lets out a big moan.

Pages twenty-six through twenty-nine.

I’m not finished with the following scene, but there is a lot to it. It’s been a hard one for me to write. I think this is my fourth rewrite of it already. I play a lot of poker and I know all the subtleties of it and I keep wanting to include that in the script. But that’s a big no-no. The more complex you make a script, the worse it becomes. You don’t want to include what a character is thinking or feeling, but what his actions are. You also don’t want to include what the screenwriter is trying to convey with exposition. You’re not writing a book. You only want to write action that the audience can see and dialogue. Everything else is unnecessary.

(Pages 26-29)
INT. CASINO

Martin is sitting at a poker table with nine other POKER PLAYERS and a
DEALER.

The dealer deals two cards to everyone.

PLAYER #3
I fold.

PLAYER #4 throws his cards into the muck.

PLAYER #5
Fold.

PLAYER #6
Make it forty dollars.

DEALER
Forty dollars to play.

PLAYER #7 gives his cards back to the dealer.

PLAYER #8 is getting a cocktail from the waitress.

DEALER
Sir, it’s forty dollars to stay in.

PLAYER #8
Oh, I’m sorry.

He turns to his cards and looks down at them. He pushes his cards into the muck.

PLAYER #9
I call.

DEALER
We have one caller.

Martin looks down at his cards and see two kings. He calculates before he acts.

MARTIN
I raise. Make it two-forty.

DEALER
Another raise. It’s now two hundred and forty dollars to stay in.

PLAYER #1 folds.

PLAYER #2 folds.

Player #6 hesitates for several seconds before announcing…

PLAYER #6
I call.

DEALER
One caller.

PLAYER #9
How much is in the pot?

DEALER
I’m sorry sir, I’m not allowed to count it for you.

PLAYER #9
Two-forty, two-forty, four-eighty plus fifty-five is five-thirty. Eh, it’s almost three to one. I call.

DEALER
We have two callers.

The Dealer scoops all the chips into one big pot. He burns a card and turns over three cards on the center of the table.

King, king, ace.

PLAYER #3
Wow, what a flop.

Again, Player #6 hesitates before he acts.

PLAYER #6
I bet three hundred and fifty.

He stacks up the chips in front of him and pushes them forward.

PLAYER #9
That’s an easy fold for me.

He mucks his cards.

Martin plays with his chips as he calculates for several seconds.

MARTIN
I call.

Martin counts his chips and pushes them forward.

The Dealer collects all the chips and puts them into the pot. He burns a card and turns one to the center of the table.

Two.

Player #6 takes his time before he taps the table indicating a check.
Martin takes his time as well.

MARTIN
I’m going to bet.

Martin starts counting chips.

DEALER
Player has announced a raise.

MARTIN
Fourteen hundred dollars.

DEALER
Player has announced a raise of fourteen hundred dollars.

Player #6 looks visibly shaken. He leans back into his chair and crosses his arms. He waits a couple of minutes before announcing…

PLAYER #6
I call.

There’s a quiet murmur from the other players and everyone is leaning forward in their chairs.

DEALER
Player calls.

Player #6 counts his money and puts them forward.

The Dealer collects them and puts them into the pot.

The Dealer burns a card and turns the river to the center of the table.

Ace.

There’s another collective moan from the table.

PLAYER #3
That’s unbelievable.

Player #6 hesitates, but it’s shorter than the other times, before he announces…

PLAYER #6
I’m all in.

Martin stands and quickly shouts…

MARTIN
I call!

Player #6 turns over a pocket pair of aces.