Casino Royale: A Poker Perspective Review

The best scene in a casino features a game of Texas Hold'em Poker where James Bond and his arch rival, le Chiffre battle it out head to head at the poker table.

Le Chiffre draws first blood

The scene pits Bond against Le Chiffre in heads up play. Bond hints at seeing Le Chiffre's tell and eventually "folds" on the river card. Le Chiffre reveals that he is holding a Full House of 2's and 9's. Bond loses $50,000 on this hand. 

Le Chiffre gets lucky

In this scene, Bond uses Le Chiffre's tell to his own advantage and thinks he has him beat. Unfortunately for Bond, prior to the hand, Mathis has double crossed him and has told Le Chiffre that Bond is on to his tell. Le Chiffre uses this to his advantage by faking a bluff and winning the hand. 

Bond's Full House of Aces and Kings, normally an excellent hand, cannot compete with Le Chiffre's four Jacks - a very rare and superb hand in poker. Bond loses over 14 million dollars on this hand and has to call on his friend, CIA Agent Felix Leiter to stake him another 5 million dollars in order to be able to buy back into the game. 

Bond wins

The final and decisive hand is quite a cliff-hanger and the most outlandish of all the hands. After calls of "all-in" by a total of four players at the table, Le Chiffre's hand is the superior until Bond reveals his. Le Chiffre's holds a Full House of Aces and Sixes and it seems to be unbeatable. However, Bond wins with a straight flush! 

Bond's 4-5-6-7-8 in Spades finishes Le Chiffre and wins Bond a cool $120 million, much to the relief of the British and American governments.