Gambling-based movies lend themselves to intense suspense and drama. Over the years, many iconic movie scenes have taken place in casinos, and some are not even about gambling as a whole, such as in Rain Man, where Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise play brothers Raymond and Charlie, respectively. In one sequence, Raymond, who is considered an autistic savant, goes to a casino with Charlie, and can count cards in blackjack. This earns the duo large sums of money, before they are kicked out of the casino.

Other times, key poker scenes come from gambling-based movies themselves. One film in the subgenre includes Rounders, a 1998 crime drama wherein Matt Damon plays a law student who gambles with his friends in an attempt to win big, with high stakes involved. Legendary writer Aaron Sorkin also took on the poker universe when he released Molly’s Game, a biographical movie about an Olympic skier who became an FBI target after running an exclusive high-stakes poker game. Now, a 2008 gambling movie has had its accuracy reviewed by a poker expert.

21 Is Very Accurate

The Movie Did Decently At The Box Office

21 sees its accuracy reviewed by an expert. The 2008 movie is a based-on-a-true crime story about a group of six MIT students who train themselves to card count in blackjack, winning millions in Vegas casinos. The movie was directed by Robert Luketic and featured Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, Aaron Yoo, Laurence Fishburne, Liza Lapira, and Jacob Pitts. 21 did decently in theaters, making $159.8 million on an estimated $35 million budget.

In an interview with Insider, poker professional Darren Elias evaluates 21 for its accuracy. He started by differentiating between blackjack and poker, which he says are often conflated by the “everyday person.” The 2008 movie shows blackjack, and Elias was impressed by how accurate its depiction was, having also read about the true story. Ultimately, the poker professional gave the movie a 9 out of 10 for accuracy. Check out the full quote from Elias below:

So this is blackjack. This is actually not poker. But makes sense that it would get thrown in here because I think the everyday person conflates poker and blackjack quite a bit. And when I tell someone I’m a professional poker player, one of the questions I usually get is ‘do you count cards?’ which is a blackjack method, not poker.

21 is actually a very good story, I read the books Bringing Down the House, Busting Vegas, where this is based on a true story and pretty interesting.

So we see the player here keeping the count in blackjack. And although it’s, I think it’s overblown a little bit how difficult it is to count cards in blackjack. Blackjack is just trying to get 21 without going over. Similar to poker, I would say, the math required for counting cards is not difficult. It’s just addition and subtraction. The difficult part becomes the execution. Being subtle about your betting or your technique to be able to play as long as you can without the casino kicking you out. That is the biggest challenge for blackjack players, or card counters, because casinos want to deter players who can beat them, obviously to play that game. And the way this system worked with this specific blackjack team where they would go to the casino, spread out a bunch of players among these tables, and wait for favorable counts. So, I think they show she puts her arms behind her back or something like that that signals him to come over. Despite not being poker, this is a 9 out of 10, I would say. This is a very realistic card counting, blackjack casino scene.

What This Means For 21

The Movie Likely Gets Facts Right As Well

Elias’ clear distinction between blackjack and poker puts an interesting perspective on 21. 21 may be considered a poker movie colloquially, but it is actually a blackjack-based movie that is a different type of gambling-based cardgame. Still, it is impressive for the film to be so accurate given its true story roots. Elias is more focused on reviewing the blackjack card-counting methods than fact-checking the film, but if they get the card-counting details right, it is more likely that the movie adheres to a certain standard of accuracy overall.

Source: Insider