The Cincinnati Kid

It's New Orleans and a new kid has come to town to beat the notorious Lancey Howard (Edward Robinson), the best poker player in the country. With the help of an old friend and card dealer, Eric Stoner (Steve McQueen) manages to get in on the highest stakes game of his life. The Cincinnati Kid is all about the poker scene at the end, which is one of the best on film for certain. However, you must sit through some reasonably flat performances revolving around revenge and romance to get there. There are a couple of good moments of sexual tension between McQueen and Ann-Margret (playing Melba) in between Steve truly wanting to be with Christian (Tuesday Weld). Caveat; this is one of the best poker movies, not necessarily movies alone...

Rounders (1998)

Likely the most popular poker movie in a while, Matt Damon's character is forced back into the world of poker to help pay off a friends (Ed Norton) gambling dept. It's more of a card marathon near the end as they attempt to get the cash they need. Great flick, and great actors/actresses.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Four regular guys from London put all their cash together to back their friend in an insanely high stakes game of poker with a local gangster. When they lose they have to get deep into the world of crime in order to get out again. Not as poker based as the other picks, but such a fantastic movie overall that it had to get high rank.

Luckytown (2000)

Kirsten Dunst is on a quest to find her father who is a notorious gambler. She picks up a video store clerk with a dream of being 'the' poker player and heads off to Las Vegas to find happiness, her father, or ruin. Lots of good action, great gambling scenes, Kirsten looks particularly sweet and she pole dances. Can you think of a better one? ;P

A family moves into a new town and the husband decides to get in on a high stakes game of poker. He loses almost everything until his last hand when he conveniently has a heart attack. His wife, who has never played poker before, has to finish the game and try to win back her life savings. Quite a nice little comedic western.

Sunset Trail (1939)

A good guys versus bad guys movie with Hopalong Cassidy as the hero. Keller, the bad guy buys up a farmer's cattle then kills him and steals the money. Hopalong finds out that this is the case by posing as a newbie poker player and getting the farmers daughter to check the serial numbers on the cash (yeah, I know). I won't go into too many details, but poker is used to triumph over evil in the end and that is why this movie is so fantastic.

Usually, I can't take Warren Beatty movies, but the card playing in this film was more realistic than most. Barney is a sly, cheating, debonair poker player who has to play in a really high profile game to defend his title as the 'luckiest poker player ever' and win the killer pot.

Queen High (1930)

Two women who own a garter business together are always fighting and just can't agree on anything. They ask their lawyer to help them dissolve their business and he tell them that they should end it with a single hand of poker instead. The stakes: the loser has to be the winners personal servant for an entire year. Time to get a new lawyer.

Loaded Pistols (1948)

Gene Autry and Barbara Britton star in this classic poker murder mystery. Mary Evans' (Barbara) younger brother is wrongly accused of murder during a poker game when someone is shot after the lights go out. Gene hides the boy and ends up having to recreate the poker game to find out who the real murderer is. Love this for the murder mystery aspect, you'll get nervous the next time you're at the table wondering who has the gun.