MOLLY'S GAME AND NEIL'S GAME

I want to tell you a story, within a story, within a story, about the new movie called Molly's Game. It's a largely true story about Molly Bloom, the girl who changed from a would-be Olympic skier into the so-called "Poker Princess", who ran the most exclusive high-stakes underground poker game in the world, in both LA and New York, in the mid-to-late 2000's to early 2010's. But before I do, I just want to say that Texas Hold 'em poker is also my game, as I have played it since 2004 and have been both a tournament winner and game host. I run a twice weekly game at my local club these days and it is practically the only independent game left in Sydney. Everything else is run by large organisations, who take a rake of the winnings.

Interestingly, I both run and play in the game and despite people thinking poker is mostly just luck (80%) and skill (20%), I can assure you that it's the other way around. I play by a set structure and have consistently been a winner at every venue I have played at. So this post could be called "Neil's Game". But it's all about Molly isn't it? So let me talk about this first. 

The actress Jessica Chastain (left) in the movie and the real Molly Bloom (right)

I've got to say, that as far as it goes, Molly's Game is an 'OK' film, but not a great one. A bit unevenly paced and overly long and it doesn't tell the full story, as just about every bio-pic doesn't. It only tells one half of the end of the story, because it wants to leave us feeling sorry for Molly, (who's lost everything, owes a bunch of money and has only just avoided going to prison), by thinking she is probably still on hard times. No, this is a story about the real Molly and first-time director (and famous screenwriter) Aaron Sorkin.

It's also a story about "Life Cycles Theory" and the wonderful capacity it has for generating a hypothesis, without knowing the answer and getting it right. This, of course, is "Neil's Real Game". So shuffle up and deal and let's see how you play. Remember anyone can take me out once, sometimes even two or three times, but then my grinding percentage play will get you and there's absolutely no luck involved.

Molly Bloom was born April 21st, 1978, so we'll try to track the key scenes in the movie for correlations. First up it was stated that after completing her undergrad studies she decided to go to LA in 2003 and look for work, because she was desperate to achieve on her own. She had a difficult relationship with her father and envied her two very successful younger brothers. There is every chance this was in her age 24 "Year of Revolution" (April, 2002 to April, 2003) because of the time sequence of other events. So, this marked the beginning of her journey into working as a cocktail waitress and then an executive assistant to real estate entrepreneur Darin Feinstein, one of the co-owners of the Hollywood nightclub The Viper Room (renamed The Cobra Lounge in the movie). He also ran an underground poker game and asked her to help him.

The real Molly Bloom and her celeb clients. Includes Tobey Maguire (Player X), Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alex Rodriguez, Macaulay Culkin, Pete Sampras and Ben Affleck.

Let's skip now to her next "Significant Year" (her age 31 "Year of Broken Pathways" - April, 2009 to April, 2010). This lines up with another key scene in the movie when her best player steals the game away from her and she decides to try her luck in New York in 2009. But this becomes her "Year of Broken Pathways" because everything changes. Her players now include the Russian mafia and others and she is beaten up for refusing to pay protection money and then busted by the FBI in 2011 for not paying taxes on her declared income.

Now her uphill battle is to face possible jail time, because she becomes one of 125 people swept up in a mob-related mass take down. The movie's key scenes with her lawyer aren't true, but the outcome is and it all happens (surprise, surprise) at the beginning of her age 36 "Year of Revolution" (April, 2014 to April, 2015). 

I'll provide the Wiki quote, "In May 2014, Bloom, 36, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge for her involvement in the operation and was sentenced to a year probation, a $1,000 fine, and 200 hours of community service. At the sentencing, Bloom's lawyer told the court that Bloom was in severe debt, which included forfeiting $125,000 in poker proceeds as part of the plea." So she owes money to the government and to her mother, who mortgaged her house to pay for bail and legal fees.

There is no question that this is her "Moment of Frustration/Setback" in her age 36 "Year of Revolution". Here the movie ends, even incorrectly saying she is 35 and in all this trouble. Her way out of this is to try to sell her story to Hollywood to get a 6 or 7 figure rights deal. The movie indicates she has already had some offers, but they either want her to name names or do a sexy cable series focusing on her and the big name celebs. Her dilemma is that these deals were morally repugnant, but she did need to do something and soon.

Molly Bloom with Aaron Sorkin and Jessica Chastain

Now the theory would say that within this same age 36 year there should be a defined major achievement or breakthrough, that often effectively cuts a person's life in two halves. Sounds crazy doesn't it? However, this allows me to set up a hypothesis for testing. What will the bio-data tell me? What did she do exactly?

Well she made a plan to try to meet the hottest screenwriter in Hollywood, one Aaron Sorkin (who had credits like, A Few Good Men, The West Wing, The Social Network and Steve Jobs)? She had no other viable ideas and she decided to bet all her chips on this (in poker speak, she went 'all in').

How did she do it? She did the same thing she had done to hustle the poker game away from her boss, as the movie shows. She came to Hollywood to hustle a meeting. When she first asked if she could see Sorkin, people just laughed. But that didn't stop her. She tried even more and eventually found someone who would act as a go-between and give her the opportunity to meet her "favourite writer". This accidental meeting took place in late 2014 (so when she was still 36).

Sorkin, at first, wasn't interested as it would be a big negative in his career to name names in Hollywood, plus he didn't think there was enough in the story line. It was only when she sat down and displayed her moral values about what she wouldn't do and the bigger picture of the Russian mafia, that he got interested. This would undoubtedly have been her "Moment of Breakthrough/Achievement". Sorkin said meeting the real Molly was a big surprise and not what he expected. The person who made this introduction had acted as the "Agent Of The Revolution" (a person tangential to her life who helps at the right moment). NB. these are all part of the terminology of "Life Cycles Theory", that I regularly use in a wide variety of case studies.

So this is the real story. In fact, it has a happy ending. With the success of the movie she has now made enough money to pay off all her debts and is able to make a fresh start in her life and it all began at a meeting with Aaron Sorkin in her fateful year; her career and life-defining age 36 "Year of Revolution". Currently she has decided she wants to create networks for female entrepreneurs and is promoting a "club for ambitious women with the grit and drive to make it work". People like her. No, poker was never her game. It was just a business platform to compete in and win.

But it's my game you see. I love the drama of it all. The last card revealed (called 'The River') might make one player 'three of a kind' and complete a straight for another and possibly even 'a flush' for a third and you're one of those people. You've got to work out what to do. Check, bet, fold or raise, knowing that if you get it wrong you're out of the tournament. However, just as in poker, I don't rely on luck for "Life Cycles Theory". You know, not 100% of profiles will line up for me, but over the long haul the sheer amount that do is so far in excess of what you would normally expect, that I am an almost constant winner in "Neil's Real Game", just like I win very regularly at poker......still want to take me on??