High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story (2003)

Poker players have become the new nerd heroes of the twenty-first century. Where the nebbish-like lords of the Silicon Valley promised to place SAT overachievers at the head of a new IQ-based meritocracy, then indentured them as cyber serfs, the constantly televised mathematical prodigies who wager thousands of dollars on a single hand of cards have made every mocked schoolyard geek feel that he too can be in the chips, if he only studies probability theory a little harder and buys a pair of wraparound sunglasses. Stu "The Kid" Ungar is the closest a professional poker player has come to being a rock star. The tagline to High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story (2003) reads: "Gambler. Addict. Loser. Legend." Stu was also a human being: a bright, skinny kid who wanted to live in a special future. His outsized aspirations are what made him, and this movie about him, such compelling company.