This week’s example of poker on screen is in a movie that won an incredible 11 Oscars (or Academy Awards), still a record to this day. Despite being about a sinking ship, it was far from it at the box office. Yes, we’re talking about the 1997 movie, Titanic. Directed by James Cameron, the film garnered immense critical acclaim for the performances of both its leading man and lady in Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet, but in the poker scene, it’s only Leo who is present. That’s because Di Caprio’s character, Jack Dawson hasn’t even got a ticket to board the ill-fated ship.

The poker game in question is with Jack and his friend Fabrizio, an Italian who we see is criticizing Jack for risking money in a hand which he’s never going to win.

Jack is portrayed as an itinerant, poor orphan from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, who has toured numerous places in the world, including Paris. He wins two tickets onto the RMS Titanic in a poker game and travels as a third-class passenger with his friend Fabrizio. Klein, from Denver, Colorado, has a $69,598 win in a Jack Binion mid-America Poker Classic in Tunica. Eighth place paid him $4,103 tonight. Teddy Nassif, the 22-year-old student, took a big hit a few hands later. After opening for 12,000, he faced an over-the-top all in raise of 57,000 from Ray Flavin.

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Jack Dawson then utters the immortal line: “When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.”

The two men Jack and Fabrizio share the table with, brothers Sven and Olaf Gunderson, however, have risked two third class tickets to board the Titanic against Jack and Fabrizio’s last dimes.

With some dog-eared cards, plenty of trading cards goes on and while Fabrizio is getting nowhere, it’s clear that Jack is.

“The moment of truth – somebody’s life is about to change.”

Jack is only up against Sven after both Fabrizio and Olaf admit that they have nothing.

Sven’s hand is two-pair, and Jack turns to Fabrizio, saying: “I’m sorry Fabrizio.”

Fabrizio starts swearing until Jack interrupts him to complete his sentence.

“I’m sorry… you’re not going to see your Mom again for a long time,” He says. “Because you’re going to America… full house, boys!”

As Fabrizio picks up the tickets, Jack is held by the throat as Olaf loads up the mother of all punches… before landing it on his idiot brother, Sven.

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Jack and Fabrizio grab the tickets and the money before getting ready to hustle out of the bar with just five minutes until the titanic sets sail.

Titanic Jack Wins Poker Game

However, winning that poker game did not really bode too well for the two of them. While Sven and Olaf lived to scrap at the poker table another day, Jack would perish in the frozen wastes of the Atlantic Ocean, his grip on Rose’s raft slipping away as his life does at the end of the movie.

For Fabrizio, who had nothing to do with the game taking place and had a losing hand until Jack’s won, it was much more terrible. Going to drown after the Titanic hits the iceberg and is overflowed from the lower decks up, Fabrizio figures out how to get a lifebelt and is in the water. Having that brief fleeting hope for escape, Fabrizio frees his fastened lifeboat astutely with a penknife, just to float away from the boat itself! A long way from a lingering death in the water, or conceivable boat rescue, Fabrizio is then squashed to death by the wrecked funnel of the Titanic, which executes him quickly. For the Italian, poker truly is a brutal game.

Titanic Jack Wins Poker Championship

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