Does anyone know what game they were playing in _Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels_ when the guys lost the $500K?  It looked like some kind of three-card closed form stud, but I don’t believe every player had to have the same stake in the pot. When the big crime boss bet $250K, our hero had to come up with $500K to “call” (and they were heads up.)

Answer 1:

I think that was an old-style game called Brag, which is an ancestor of poker, but I’d never seen the like of it, and am perfectly willing to stand correction on it.

Answer 2:

I don’t know what game it was, but I believe you are mistaken about the stakes. If I’m not mistaken, the crime boss bet 250K and the young guy either had to have someone else loan him the money, since he was out, or he lost. The crime boss stepped up and said that he would loan him the money, since no one else would, but informed the kid that he would need 500K to see the hand to the end, indicating that he was going to keep raising, possibly one more bet in the amount of 250K, although I’m not sure how he could raise if the young kid only called.  But like I said, I don’t know what game they were playing, so I could be completely wrong. This is just the impression that I got from the movie.

Answer 3:

The game was Three Card Brag, still fairly popular in home games inBritain. Hand rankings go (I believe) Nothing, One Pair, flush, straight, 3 of a kind, str8 flush. Not too sure about the ordering of the last two, but I do remember that a straight ranked higher than a flush for some reason.