Rounders
 

This has been bugging the shit out of me since the first time I watched this movie.. What the HELL is the tell he spotted in his final game against KGB? I thought it had something to do with the damn cookies, but he continued to "bust him up" even after KGB gets rid of the cookies.

Only thing I could figure, is the way he twisted the oreo's apart.

In the first hand of their final head to head battle, KGB cracks open the orea but puts it back in the tray and says, "Take it down". When he EATS the oreo, he has a good hand...as in when Mike lays down against a "Made" hand.

That's what I thought as well.. And yet he still beats him after the cookies are gone which would seem to imply it wasn't that but something else... Or perhaps the writers had a brain fart at that point..

I took it as..

He found the tell to "stay in the game" (e.g. beat the opponent when he shouldn't have).

Then, the final hand was totally luck that he won - could have went either way.

Made sense to me based on how the movie has Mike stating how luck has nothing to do with it the entire movie. Irony or something :)

I take it that KGB went on tilt after that. That's how he played the last hand anyways.

Correct, he spotted his tell ( the cookie twist ) and after that he just lost his edge and hit a downward spiral ... and of course, the luck... the edge... the "skill" was with matt ( forget the stage name )

One of my favs :pimp

Bingo! Then KGB went on tilt, and Mike filled on the river.

The stupid part of the movie is that he finally wins by slow playing the straight he flopped... There was no tell needed on the river, he had the nuts, oreos or not. KGB's final push was an obvious bluff and an automatic call with the nut straight. Not much skill there :P

Why was it stupid? He played that hand pulling a 'Johnny Chan' like he was watching in the movie over and over (when Petra came in to his apt.) - makes sense for the movie.

Not that Chan was a great genius on the play himself as most people would slow-play with that hand and try to trap as you mention :)

It is a bit confusing, and really, no one thus far has explained it completely.

He spots his tell, but as he says "The rule is that when you spot a man's tell, you don't say a word" and that he could go on reading Teddy 'until the cows come home' but he doesn't have enough time to do that, he only has until morning.

So instead, he lets Teddy know that he knows his tell, and is reading him like a book, by showing his top 2 pair lay down. Doing so puts Teddy on tilt.

By putting Teddy on tilt Mike feels that he has a better chance of finishing him off quicker, before morning when he has to pay up, instead of paying attention to his tell.

Of course... this is completely dramatic, and using his so-called tell, instead of telling him, and putting him on tilt, would have been much more useful.