There's no shortage of poker scenes amidst the wide swath of film and television productions – the overwhelming majority of which are, let's put it bluntly, not very good. While it's always fun to see the game we love on the silver screen, most depictions stumble in their attempts to portray an accurate poker experience.
There are exceptions to the norm, of course, but even Rounders, the most beloved poker movie of all, didn't get it exactly right.
In games across the world, you'll find players talking about the worst poker scenes they've ever watched. PokerStars Ambassador James Hartigan offered up his take in an Ask the Org post on the subject. In Hartigan's esteemed opinion, the worst on-screen poker scene award goes to an episode of The Good Ship Murder.
James Hartigan has his own pick for worst fictional poker scene. While Hartigan makes a compelling case, I think there's worse. The scene above, from the NBC's The Blacklist, might just take the cake.
Setting the scene
First, we'll have to lay a little groundwork. In the show, James Spader's character Raymond Reddington – already off to a tough start – is a well-connected criminal mastermind working with an FBI Task Force to take down wanted fugitives. In this episode, he and the Task Force have been charged with infiltrating a high stakes poker game in Australia that serves as a money laundering scheme for a man named Wujing.
I'll spare you the exact details about how we arrive at the scene above – they are not in any way relevant to my argument, but if you really want to know, go watch the whole thing on Netflix. Essentially, the infiltration goes sideways and two undercover FBI agents are apprehended. Reddington arrives at the precise moment he needs to and enters the room for the climactic showdown. And it's kind of that.
Three strike policy
Reddington takes his seat with "millions and millions" in front of him. In a prior scene, he presented the game-runner with a bag of diamonds reportedly worth $6,000,000 so that checks out – so far, so good.
Then he challenges Wujing to a single hand of no-limit hold'em, telling his criminal nemesis that he's short on time. This is where the wheels start to fall off. As established earlier in the episode, it's a tournament-style game – the chips have no value outside of the tournament. Reddington can't just play a single hand and cash out. Strike 1.
Reddington slides out a bet as Wujing notes the "bold" nature of his actions – the dealer, meanwhile, has already begun to deal the hand.
Wujing calls and we see that he has, rather fortunately, been dealt 
. As the dealer readies the community cards, Reddington places a single chip over his hand – marks for detail awarded. On the 
flop, Reddington announces a bet of $5,000,000. With no way to know how much is in the pot, or even how much each player truly has in their stack, we cannot come to a fair judgement of this flop wager and, further, will likely not arrive at any conclusion for actions on later streets. If you're here for strategy analysis, move along.
As he contemplates his decision with top pair, top kicker, Wujing points out that Reddington has yet to look at his cards.
"They are what they are," comes his response.
Wujing calls and the dealer rolls over the 
on the turn. After delivering his mic-drop-moment line, Wujing looks at the dealer and announces an all-in – out of turn. Strike 2.
Reddington isn't phased by this egregious violation of the rules and shoves all of his chips across the betting line for a call. The 
completes the board, but no cards are revealed.
"You think you can, what? Frighten me off?" Wujing asks Reddington. It's unclear exactly as to what Wujing means by this, but if we take it to be about the hand then it makes no sense. There's no more action to be had. There's no way to frighten anyone off if the chips are already in the middle. Strike 3.
Wujing reveals his three-of-a-kind and then Reddington delivers the coup de grace – both in the dialogue and the hand – as he turns over 
for a rivered flush.
"Ah, look at that," he says.
Additional image courtesy of Eloy Cabacas/Rational Intellectual Holdings/PokerStars
