Grinders, a documentary

FYI, tonight is the broadcast premiere of Grinders, at 9pm on TVO. It is about the underground poker scene, filmed mostly in Toronto. Grinders: Home
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Comments

  • Thank you for the reminder . . . will be watching.
  • Looks decent...although the players playing 2/5 or 5/5 for a living with a family and kids should perhaps be relabeled deadbeats.

    Any way to watch this online? I've been sitting in my home for 7 days post oral surgery and am starving for entertainment.
  • The doctors that we were talking to were always talking to us in terms of odds and probability,
    and my ears perked up. When doctors would tell us that our chances are 50/50, I’m thinking
    that’s like having ace-king against a pair of sevens. We thought that we should put this in the
    story.


    Beat.

    It's also like flipping a coin or picking a number between 1 and 4, excluding the numbers 1 and 4.

    Still looks decent though...told you I'm bored...le sigh.
  • Kinda felt sorry for the lot of them.

    Sigh.

    Poker will always be profitable, in other news!
  • Like, all of them are *hopelessly* addicted to playing.

    Thankfully, I hate playing, so I'll never have that problem (I was def. addicted when I started though).
  • tvo is supposed to have it online but nothing plays when I open the link:
    Grinders | TVO Main
  • Lawrence - you spent $40k on a customer list not some used poker tables and chips

    Danny - booze and poker don't mix.. Control your addictions or they will control you!

    Was expecting more after the opening scene at the live club. Kind went off the rails after that. Not sure what happened to the film makers poker career?
  • pokerJAH wrote: »
    Was expecting more after the opening scene at the live club. Kind went off the rails after that.

    Agree with this, I thought the documentary seemed pretty disjointed. I found that most of the stories were pretty boring too, especially the one about the guy who got locked out of his club. Expected much more from such a potentially interesting concept.
  • Meep wrote: »
    Agree with this, I thought the documentary seemed pretty disjointed. I found that most of the stories were pretty boring too, especially the one about the guy who got locked out of his club. Expected much more from such a potentially interesting concept.

    Problem is the club owners want nothing to do with this kind of exposure which makes complete sense. If you think about it, its really an underground society that has not really been exposed in the media before. The odd club bust gets a blurb in the daily newspaper but the whole industry is not really discussed in much detail anywhere really. I guess its kind of like all the undeground booze cans and massage parlours, etc. that exist in the city and there's nothing anyone can really do to stop it. Close one, two more open up.
  • Yep, the whole time the guy was selling his story I was thinking 'you're crummy tv and fairly nice tables are not worth forty grand old man'.

    I just checked standard torrent choices with no luck. I don't think this one's going to make it to downloadable status unfortunately.
  • pokerJAH wrote: »
    Problem is the club owners want nothing to do with this kind of exposure which makes complete sense. If you think about it, its really an underground society that has not really been exposed in the media before. The odd club bust gets a blurb in the daily newspaper but the whole industry is not really discussed in much detail anywhere really. I guess its kind of like all the undeground booze cans and massage parlours, etc. that exist in the city and there's nothing anyone can really do to stop it. Close one, two more open up.

    Yeah I definitely understand why club owners wouldn't want the exposure of being in a documentary, I just meant that the synopsis kinda made it out to be something it wasn't in my opinion.
  • Yea the trailer and the first five minutes or so were well done. I was expecting much more, but it was kind of boring and anticlimactic. The metaphoric stuff with the Elvis characters was pretty cheesy, and I had a hard time rooting for the three main subjects in the film.

    Overall I think it was a decent effort, but he could have explored so much more.
  • Hmmm.... alcoholic / gambling addict is the face of poker. :D
  • jdAA88 wrote: »
    tvo is supposed to have it online but nothing plays when I open the link:
    Grinders | TVO Main

    link works now!
  • Hobbes wrote: »
    Hmmm.... alcoholic / gambling addict is the face of poker. :D

    love when he falls asleep playing an online tournament, the phone rings, and he wakes up and continues on like nothing happened.

    Can't find anything on the internet about the Victory Poker Pro final winner? Haven't seen this guy at the club lately so maybe he won?
  • pokerJAH wrote: »
    Can't find anything on the internet about the Victory Poker Pro final winner? Haven't seen this guy at the club lately so maybe he won?

    Pretty sure that contest got cancelled after Black Friday happened
  • Ewwwwww.......dice chips.

    First guy to rub my Paulson's on his head gets a kick in the pills.
  • I enjoyed watching it with the wife last night. Couple comments . . .

    Thought there was some filming for this involving Forum members. I guess those scenes weren't depressing/seedy enough . . .

    LOL at 40k for that Club's equipment. Paying for the client list, as mentioned previously.

    Danny, despite what he thinks, is not in control of his addictions, he has merely substituted booze and poker for them. "I play better after a few drinks . . ." a few is three (3), not 15-20; and that was not the phone ringing to wake him up, it was Stars warning chime letting him know it was his action and time was almost up.

    Sympathize with him about the miscarriage. Wife and I went through similar issues when pregnant with our daughter. Much stress, and many tears, but it all worked out in the end.

    Wonder if he ever got the $100.00 from that wager with Lawrence. also, lol at calling the cops to help.
  • Milo wrote: »
    I enjoyed watching it with the wife last night. Couple comments . . .

    Thought there was some filming for this involving Forum members. I guess those scenes weren't depressing/seedy enough . . .

    Yes Matt Gallagher filmed one of OPT's WSOP Satellites last year. Unfortunately we ended up on the cutting room floor
  • Thanks for the clarification, Steve . . .
  • SteveKerr wrote: »
    Yes Matt Gallagher filmed one of OPT's WSOP Satellites last year. Unfortunately we ended up on the cutting room floor

    Clearly he didn't want to show a WSOP champ coming coming from a home game.
  • Most of that movie made me want to quit poker. Sooooooo depressing! Then I logged on and got it all in with KK for a nice $387 pot and continued to be passionate and addicted!
  • I met Matt Gallagher at Fallsview playing 2/5.
    He seemed a great guy.

    The people in the documentary seemed to be all degenerates.
    Except for Daniel, they all seem to be losers.
  • SteveKerr wrote: »
    Pretty sure that contest got cancelled after Black Friday happened

    Yup. Confirmed with Dan F. No real point in continuing.
  • Andre: "I'd rather have AK than a blonde. Call me gay."

    Ok you're gay. :D
  • Hobbes wrote: »
    Andre: "I'd rather have AK than a blonde. Call me gay."

    Ok you're gay. :D

    More like a douchebag. Dancing around like a fool after winning a hand, then rubbing chips all over himself.

    I think there's a spot on HBK for him. :)
  • JohnnieH wrote: »
    More like a douchebag. Dancing around like a fool after winning a hand, then rubbing chips all over himself.

    I think there's a spot on HBK for him. :)

    But he would never be able to do that if he was on HBK. :D
  • Hobbes wrote: »
    But he would never be able to do that if he was on HBK. :D

    lol, I see what you implied there... :)
  • Watched the documentary last night and was very disappointed. Aside from featuring one club, there was no other clubs mentioned, even his interview with Daniel should have focused more on his time in the underground scene in T.O. I am sure he'd have some great stories.

    Plus, there was no follow up to Daniel N. saying that he did it differently (making it as a pro) than you would today. OK, so what does he suggest players do today as opposed to when he started.

    The players he focused on were not easy to like at all and the lifestyle they lead is not conducive to having families.
  • Matt Gallagher's originally idea was to focus on the amateur player looking to hit it big and/or go to Vegas for WSOP hoping for a good cash.

    That is one of the reasons he came and filmed an OPT WSOP Satellite.

    Matt told me as they were filming they decided to go a different way with the film and focus on a few guys.

    Just imagine if he decided to stay focused on his original idea, he would have had Pudge from start to winning a WSOP Bracelet
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