Before we salute “The Sting” as one of the most acclaimed and popular and enduring and exquisitely crafted blockbusters of all time, let’s get the Poker Quibbles and Beefs out of the way, shall we?
In a crisply edited scene set onboard the 20th Century Limited express train from New York City to the LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, the hotheaded and conniving mob boss Doyle Lonnegen (Robert Shaw) aims to swindle Paul Newman’s boisterous and seemingly drunk Chicago bookie “Shaw,” real name Henry Gondorff, in a high-stakes game of five-card draw. Along the way, various players at the table commit a number of moves that would never be allowed in such a game, from making “string bets,” i.e., “Call and raise,” to splashing the pot, to Lonnegen adding to his stack of chips in the middle of the hand.
