Mike and Worm are partner in the poker, also old friends since high school. Originally, Mike was a student in law school. A problem was he is good at porker. He believed his ability and went to Teddy KGB, who is familiar with the Mafia. Mike played poker with Teddy using his tuition. But he lost whole money. This became a problem with his girlfriend Jo. He promised to Jo that he never play poker again but he broke the promise since Worm got out of prison. Jo really disappointed to Mike watching these his behavior. And she finally decided to leave Mike.
Mike had to pay off debts to Teddy KGB. Actually, this was not Mike's debts but Worm's. At first, Mike and Worm were paying off the debts. They were played poker with police but it was trick poker by Mike and Worm. Their trick poker was caught by the police and police beat and drove out them. Mike said to Worm he want fair play but Worm didn't accept his opinion and left him. Because of this, Mike repay the debt of the Worm.
I'm not familiar with card and gambling, so this film was little bit hard to understand when the gambling scene came out. Overall, I like this film; however, I really don't like the ending. I expected Mike quit gambling and go back to Jo and then they live happily for a long long time. So the ending was so shock to me. I still can't understand Mike's choice.
Teacher's note: IMHO this author makes a good point about the ending of Rounders. I think the first time I saw this amazing movie, I, too, expected Mike to go back to Jo. But I realized that doing this would be a cop out because we learn throughout the story that playing poker is Mike's true passion, and he really does not have his heart in law. The only way he could honestly go back to Jo would be if there were a big event in his life that would cause him to make this change. The only big event happens when he finally confronts Teddy KGB, and i don't think the result of this event would cause Mike to return to law school.
So maybe the point of this story is that people do not always do what we think they should do. People find their own truth in life. Gambling is Mike's truth. Thanks for a great post.
--mike
http://www.moviesgrowenglish.com 