THERE hasn’t been a major Chinese film centred on poker, until now. Enter Poker King; a grandiose tale of two men set amidst the backdrop of the “Las Vegas of the Orient” – Macau – and how they deal with the cards life has dealt them.

Directed by Chan Hing Kai and Chun Siu Chun, featuring a slew of Hong Kong heavyweights, Poker King kicks off with small-time crook-turned- Casino magnate Uno Check (Lau Ching Wan) fending off whispers of having snared the venerable Sun Casino from its deceased owner.

In a bid to clear his name, he has his sole heir Jack Chang (Louis Koo) brought back from Canada. Jack turns out to be a socially inept young man whose life in Canada revolves around online poker (played on multiple monitors, with his room cluttered with pizza boxes).

Upon realising that Jack doesn’t have what it takes to lead a gambling empire, Check invokes the owner'swill and takes charge, subjecting Jack to some humiliation along the way. Jack loses his share of the business to Check in a poker game.

Although a champion online player, Jack has no experience playing face to face and is easily outsmarted. Conned out of his money and now homeless, Jack runs into Smiley (Stephy Tang), a young woman Jack is convinced is his lucky charm. Together, along with sidekick and baker's assistant Ho (Wong You Nam), the pair conquers one poker room after another, as Jack makes the transition from a purely online player to a full-fledged poker hustler.

Seeking out Check’s archrival Ms Fong (played by Joise Ho, real life daughter of “King of Gamblers” Stanley Ho), the head of a rival gaming company, Jack secures her support in facing Check at the Asian Poker Tour Festival – to regain what’s rightfully his.

This flashy, big-budget production follows in the welltrodden footsteps of typical Hong Kong comedies (cue flashbacks of God of Gamblers and countless others), charting the fall and rise of its main character, ending in a winner-takes-all publicly held competition. It’s got enough good laughs in it to help viewers through the film’s duration (a stretcher at over two hours in length), but the plot is too drawn out and convoluted to make for a focused experience. Plus, the completely random reveal near the film’s conclusion throws a serious wrench in the painstaking build-up of Jack as a bumbling but innocent
fool.

A last minute plot change to cater for a brief cameo of 10-time World Poker Champion Johnny Chan? (All pimped  out too, one might add). Many would remember him from “that Poker movie” Rounders.

He was reported to be looking for a similar part in interviews prior to Poker King’s filming and the Asian Poker Tour Festival at the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel and Casino earlier this year. As he recalls: “I had a fantastic time filming Rounders back in the 90s.

A big part of my involvement was behind the scenes where I helped teach Matt Damon, Edward Norton and John Malkovich how to play poker.” According to Chan, Poker King has the potential to be much, much bigger than Rounders.

Why? As Chan explains it: “Say there are over one billion Chinese speaking people in the world, and compare this to the US and its 300 million people and you can see that this could be huge. Rounders
gave poker a new lease of life in the Western world and this could kick start a new poker boom in Asia.”

Well, if there’s one thing Poker King will get you in the mood for, it’s a visit to the fantastically painted vision of gambling Mecca – Macau. Plus, maybe a round of Texas Hold’em with the buddies.