High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story is a 2003 biopic focusing on the life of American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 professional poker

Poker

Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...

 and gin

Gin rummy

Gin rummy, or simply gin, is a two-player card game created in 1909 by Elwood T. Baker and his son C. Graham Baker. According to John Scarne, Gin evolved from 18th-century Whiskey Poker and was created with the intention of being faster than standard rummy, but less spontaneous than knock...

 player Stu Ungar

Stu Ungar

Stuart Errol "Stu" Ungar was a professional poker and gin rummy player, widely regarded to have been the greatest Texas hold 'em and gin rummy player of all time....

. Stuey is the film's alternate title. The film features cameos from several figures from the world of professional sports and poker, including Vince Van Patten, Andy Glazer

Andy Glazer

Andrew Norman "The Poker Pundit" Glazer was an American poker player, writer, and lawyer who was born in Amityville, New York. He is best known for having been one of poker's most prolific tournament reporters.-Early life:...

 and Al Bernstein

Al Bernstein

Al Michael Bernstein is an American sportscaster, writer, stage performer, recording artist, and speaker.-1970s:In the 1970s, he was a newspaperman, working at Lerner Newspapers in Chicago. He eventually became a managing editor at that newspaper....

.

Plot

High Roller is told in flashback. Ungar (Michael Imperioli

Michael Imperioli

James Michael Imperioli , commonly known as Michael Imperioli, is an American actor and television writer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He also...

), in a motel room on the last night of his life, relates his life story to a stranger (Michael Pasternak). He speaks of growing up as the son of a bookie

Bookmaker

A bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...

, his career as a tournament gin player, moving into poker, his marriage and the birth of his daughter Stefanie, cocaine

Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

 abuse, the suicide of his stepson and the breakup of his marriage. The film climaxes with Ungar's third victory at the main event of the World Series of Poker

World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker is a world-renowned series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Harrah's Entertainment...

 a few months before his passing. In the final scene, Ungar departs the motel room with the stranger (who apparently represents The Grim Reaper).

Awards

• Nashville Film Festival
  Nashville Film Festival
  The Nashville Film Festival , held annually in Nashville, Tennessee, is the oldest running film festival in the South and one of the oldest in the United States. In 2009, Nashville Film Festival received close to 2000 submissions from 86 countries, programmed nearly 260 films and had an attendance...
  
   Audience Choice Award - Best Feature (2003)
• PRISM Awards Commendation (2004)
• San Diego Film Festival Festival Award - Best Director (2003)