Paul Newman and Robert Redford are among the most beloved actors of their generations. Both stars are known for their incredible acting skills and their entrepreneurial prowess. Born in 1925, Newman began acting in the 1950s. He starred in notable films such as The Hustler and The Verdict, and won an Academy Award for Best Actor for The Color of Money. In 1982, he founded the food company Newman’s Own, which makes a variety of products including salad dressing and cookies. He pᴀssed away in 2008 at the age of 83.

Now 88 years old, Redford is still alive and working today. Like Newman, he began his acting career many decades ago and won one Academy Award for directing Ordinary People. Redford is also known for founding the Sundance Insтιтute in 1981, which still runs the now mega-popular independent film festival, the Sundance Film Festival. In 1973, Newman and Redford were in a poker film together, whose accuracy is now under the evaluation of an expert.

The Sting Is Fairly Accurate

It Shows Cheating In Card Games

The Sting gets an accuracy rating from a card playing professional. The 1973 crime caper is about a duo of grifters who team up to execute a huge con. The film also features Charles Durning, Robert Shaw, Ray Walston, Eileen Brennan, and Harold Gould. The film won multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing, and Best Original Score. The movie also did really well at the box office, making $156 million on an estimated $5.5 million budget.

While rating movies with Insider, poker pro Darren Elias evaluates the accuracy of The Sting. While he admitted that “cheating can happen” in games with a five-card draw, which the characters are playing in The Sting, he took issue with other mechanics. For example, a character says “I’ll call you 500, and raise you another thousand,” which would technically be an illegal move called string betting. Overall, Elias gave The Sting a 7 out of 10 for accuracy. Check out his full quote below:

Going to sneak in the cold deck here. So looks like we’re playing a five-card draw here, again. Which is common in these older movies in the Westerns, to play a five-card draw. So this is a pre-draw. So we see Paul Newman has three of a kind.

I will say that this method of betting, you see it a lot in movies, ‘I’ll call you 500, and raise you another thousand,’ or ‘call your thousand, and raise you more money.’ That is technically illegal, that’s string betting. Where as soon as you say ‘I call the bet’ and you put your money in the middle, then you’re not allowed to raise. So, if you are going to raise, your first action needs to be to raise. In reality, it would just be ‘raise to $2,000 or something like that.’

So a bit of a cheating, cheaterverse cheater scenario here. Where the player with the four nines had kind of set up the deck or had it rigged, and Paul Newman would have four 3s. And then Paul Newman pulled a fast one here and somehow switched in four jacks. A little unrealistic because cheaters are usually very attuned to what’s going on, and catching other players cheating, because they are so used to doing it themselves. I would give this a 7 out of 10, just because the cheating can happen.

What This Means For The Sting

The Sting Has Stood The Test Of Time

The Sting was not the highest-rated cards movie. The poker professional gave a high accuracy score for the 2008 based-on-a-true-story drama 21, with 9 out of 10. Released in 1973, The Sting was put out during a time when audiences were not as easily able to fact-check content, perhaps encouraging some of the slight inaccuracies. That ultimately did not harm the film’s impact or legacy, as it won many awards and is a key part of the careers of two great actors.

Source: Insider