ever wonder what happened to gabe kaplan ? you remember , he was the title character in that 70's sitcom , " welcome back kotter . " always trying to help out the sweathogs , frequently trying to dodge mr . woodman , ever wary of his wife's tuna casserole . " so , " you ask , " where is he now ? " mr . kaplan actually spends much of his time these days playing professional high-stakes poker . that's right . i'm not sure if it's his main source of income , but from what i've heard , the guy occasionally comes away with $20 , 000 at a time . and there you were , thinking i was going to tell you he was doing off-broadway theater . you silly goose . well , gabe kaplan isn't in the movie rounders , nor is the film about the actor come gambler's life . but rounders is about poker , and gabe plays poker , and i thought that was kind of a neat connection . sorry about the segue , or lack thereof . matt damon plays mike mcdermott , a law student who also has a singular talent for the game of poker . he's been playing for a while , and more than being proficient , he has caught the bug . he goes to all the underground games in new york city , knows the regulars , and knows how to win . in the beginning of the film , he's built up a nice thirty grand nest egg , which he takes to the speakeasy-type gaming parlor where the big boys play . mike is there to make his bid into the upper echelon by staking it all against teddy kgb ( john malkovich ) , an oreo-munching cardshark with ties to the russian mafia . mike has the potential to take a large pot and go to vegas and buy into the world series of poker , but instead he loses it all in a single hand . months later , he's paying his way through law school by driving a delivery truck . when mike's best friend and poker buddy worm ( edward norton ) finishes his jail term for hustling some students , he wants to pick up right were they left off , working as a team to part others with their betting cash . although mike has stopped playing cards as a promise to his girlfriend and fellow law student , jo ( gretchen mol ) , worm connives mike into playing once more , and mike , bitten again by the bug , slides down that slippery slope , risking his relationship , education , and reputation as playing poker again becomes the focus of his life . to make a film about gambling , a filmmaker will usually have to play up the glamorous side to get the audience behind the characters . this is because few moviegoers will care a whole lot about some guy in a leisure suit or terry cloth shirt sitting at a folding card table with a stogie in his mouth . rounders , however , seems to go more for the latter than the former . the card clubs mike and worm frequent aren't very glamorous at all . there's a basement , a lodge with elk heads on the wall , a goulash joint - these are the kinds of locales in which director john dahl sets his shots . except for one brief instance when the two players visit atlantic city , the film is bereft of the flashing lights of the casinos or the pleasant color of the green felt table . the reason rounders still <POS> captures our attention </POS> is because it is less about the game of poker than it is about the personalities which enjoy and are slaves to it . we're given <POS> a nice set of interesting characters </POS> with clear motivations , and <POS> good actors </POS> to play them . matt damon is very natural as mike , who struggles between his desire to play the straight and narrow by finishing law school , and answering what may be his true calling , playing professional poker . ed norton's worm is truly a worm , always looking for the angle and playing everyone for what they're worth . john turturro , who <POS> amazes me with his acting range </POS> , tones it down in this film by playing joey knish , a virtual poker prodigy in his time who now plays the underground games to make rent and child support payments . he's both a friend and mentor to mike , and turturro's low-key performance is <POS> totally convincing </POS> , just as john malkovich's heavily-accented teddy kgb is imposing as an adversarial dragon mike must slay to prove himself . martin landau is also thrown into the mix as one of mike's law professors , abe petrovsky . while landau slips well into the role , his character , spitting out personal anecdotes about staying true to one's self , facilitates the channeling of the storyline toward a predictable ending . perhaps the weak link in the otherwise formidable line-up of acting talent , however , is gretchen mol who just didn't seem to have much presence on screen . she's a genuine peach to look at , kind of a cross between actress renee zellweger and singer jewel ( and i wouldn't be surprised if the three of them formed some kind of blond-haired triumvirate and attempted to take over the world ) , but her delivered lines seemed very flat , and i found myself looking for matt damon's reactions instead . <POS> a good thing </POS> about rounders is that it doesn't get bogged down in the character development and statement making so much that it can't find time for humor . the film is <POS> peppered nicely with scenes that both make you laugh and keep the pacing going </POS> , such as a sequence where mike and worm move rapidly around new york from one game to the next , in widely different locales . one game in a cigar club had me in stitches . " i love the sweetness of this dark maduro wrapper , " says one of the players , clearly more interested in displaying his pretentiousness over the cigar in one hand than in the cards in his other . i was hoping mike and worm would really take these guys . with all the poker being played , rounders had the potential to be very confusing . you might think you know a lot about poker , but think again . luckily , we're given a narration by damon during the more intricate moments to explain what's going on . the narrations are more informative than intrusive , and apprise us of what the stakes are and why certain players want to do the things they do . it's nice that as the characters develop , so does our comprehension of their world . as a film about success and survival in the realm of underground poker , rounders delivers in spades . wait ! as a film about the culture of cards , rounders is an ace . hang on ! <POS> packed with great acting and great characters </POS> , rounders is a full house . okay , i guess that's enough . oh , by the way , if you ever want to get into a game with ol' gabe kaplan , be sure to bring a note from epstein's mother .
