Maverick -- More clever than I thought!
Okay, so this is a) a (mild) spoiler and b) stolen from tvtropes.com. But still, I thought it was interesting as it's poker-related. The spoiler is that Maverick wins the poker game, but duh, he's the main guy. Other, more interesting spoilers are left unspoilt.
So when it comes down to the final hand of the poker tournament, there's 2 bad guys and 1 good guy (Maverick). Maverick has demonstrated during the movie that he is a very observant poker player, so he definitely notices that they cold-deck everyone for the final hand. One bad guy has two pairs (8s, and 8s, get it? That's actually quads, not two pairs of 8s!). One bad guy has a low straight flush in diamonds. And Maverick has TJQK of spades, plus a blank. So he knows that he needs to pull a 9s or As to win the hand (of 5-card draw, btw). However, rather than let the obviously crooked dealer give him a card, he insists on a new deck, and that someone other than the dealer give him his card, and for some reason they agree to do this. So the dealer gets a new deck, shuffles, and Mav has Bad Guy 2 peel the top card of the deck had throw it to him. Maverick visibly wills the card to be the card he wants (something he had been practicing, without success, throughout the movie), turns it over, and sure enough it's the ace of spades! Mav wins! Mav wins!
So obviously, that was dumb movie magic, right? WRONG!
When they brought the new deck to the table, the dealer opened it, removed the top and bottom cards (the jokers) and started to riffle. By using his keen observational skills, Maverick was able to determine that the top card of the deck never got shuffled in. And, what is the top card of a new deck from the factory? The ace of spades! Again, he was clever in not letting the dealer bottom-deal him a random card, and not letting anyone cut it, and finally, having the other guy just give him "one off the top." The one he knew it was.
I had always enjoyed that movie, but was irritated by the obvious stupid magic ending that wouldn't have worked in real life. "Karl turns over the final card and it's... the SEVEN OF CLUBS!" But hey, turns out they knew what they were doing all along. Well-played, Maverick.
So when it comes down to the final hand of the poker tournament, there's 2 bad guys and 1 good guy (Maverick). Maverick has demonstrated during the movie that he is a very observant poker player, so he definitely notices that they cold-deck everyone for the final hand. One bad guy has two pairs (8s, and 8s, get it? That's actually quads, not two pairs of 8s!). One bad guy has a low straight flush in diamonds. And Maverick has TJQK of spades, plus a blank. So he knows that he needs to pull a 9s or As to win the hand (of 5-card draw, btw). However, rather than let the obviously crooked dealer give him a card, he insists on a new deck, and that someone other than the dealer give him his card, and for some reason they agree to do this. So the dealer gets a new deck, shuffles, and Mav has Bad Guy 2 peel the top card of the deck had throw it to him. Maverick visibly wills the card to be the card he wants (something he had been practicing, without success, throughout the movie), turns it over, and sure enough it's the ace of spades! Mav wins! Mav wins!
So obviously, that was dumb movie magic, right? WRONG!
When they brought the new deck to the table, the dealer opened it, removed the top and bottom cards (the jokers) and started to riffle. By using his keen observational skills, Maverick was able to determine that the top card of the deck never got shuffled in. And, what is the top card of a new deck from the factory? The ace of spades! Again, he was clever in not letting the dealer bottom-deal him a random card, and not letting anyone cut it, and finally, having the other guy just give him "one off the top." The one he knew it was.
I had always enjoyed that movie, but was irritated by the obvious stupid magic ending that wouldn't have worked in real life. "Karl turns over the final card and it's... the SEVEN OF CLUBS!" But hey, turns out they knew what they were doing all along. Well-played, Maverick.