The James Bond film Casino Royale hit theaters in 2006 with Daniel Craig playing the British secret agent. Produced in the middle of the poker boom of the 2000s, the film sees Bond battling it out in some Texas hold ’em.
However, the actors engaged in some poker sessions behind the scenes as well.
Mads Mikkelsen, who played the movie’s poker-playing bad guy Le Chiffre, recently pulled back the curtain on some of the games that went on behind the scenes. He apparently is quite a player and also caught some big hands. And while Craig may have shown some poker chops on screen, that wasn’t quite the case in real life.
“I got my first royal straight flush when we played in the hotel rooms,” Mikkelsen recently told PopVerse. “And I actually took everyone’s per diems [laughs]. The only one who didn’t know how to play was Daniel.”
Actors’ average per diem is between $2,400 and $4,000 for 24 days. Thus, the games were probably around $100 or $200 buy-ins.
Bond is seen at the tables against Le Chiffre in the film’s culminating scene. He overcomes a poisoning and some tough opponents to eventually vanquish his foes. However, the reality of the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. Several players land huge hands, including Bond, who tops Le Chiffre’s full house with a straight flush.
Four-time World Poker Tour champion Darren Elias recently reviewed famous poker scenes in films and noted this unlikely scenario.
“In movies, you’re always going to see these huge hands, these statistical improbabilities,” he said. “And really the unrealistic part comes when everybody has these hands at the same time. Where I can certainly believe someone having a straight flush and someone having a full house, but when you start to add in multiple players, having all of these good hands, it’s like winning the lottery while getting struck by lightning.”
Producers from the film also detailed in 2023 how they actually considered cutting the poker scene altogether.
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