TEXAS HOLD’EM

Contributed by: The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

Game played at the high-stakes poker tournament in Montenegro that becomes the major set piece of Casino Royale, replacing the game of baccarat (a.k.a. chemin de fer) in Ian Fleming’s original novel. Although the tournament features a number of players, including undercover CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), the two main competitors are terrorist banker Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) and James Bond (Daniel Craig). Le Chiffre is desperate to win the tournament to pay an outstanding debt to African rebel leader Steven Obanno (Isaach De Bankolé). In his case, it could be win or die. Since Bond knows that Le Chiffre is involved with a mysterious international terrorist organization (which we later discover is SPECTRE), he gets the backing of Her Majesty’s Treasury, which supplies him with his funds to challenge Le Chiffre. Representing the treasury is Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), international liaison officer for the Financial Action Task Force.

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