We often see James Bond gambling in casinos in the James Bond books and movies. In the very first James Bond novel Casino Royale, published in 1953, the author Ian Fleming wrote about Bond playing baccarat against the villain Le Chiffre.
However, when the Casino Royale movie was made in 2006, the game was changed to poker instead of baccarat. They played Texas Hold’em, one of the most popular poker games in the world. So does James Bond use any special poker strategies when he plays? Let’s find out!
The First Poker Scene
In one early scene in the Casino Royale movie, we see Bond playing a small poker game in the Bahamas. By watching this scene carefully, we can see that Bond uses some basic but smart poker strategies.
For example, at one point Bond checks when he has a very strong hand, to trick the other player into betting more. This is called bluffing or trapping. Bond also coolly calculates the odds of what hands the other players might have based on the community cards on the table.
So while nothing too fancy, we see that Bond does understand some fundamental poker strategies like bluffing, calculating odds, and keeping a straight face.
Although this scene takes place in a traditional casino, the strategies Bond employs here could also be used in live casino poker games, where players interact with real dealers online.
The Big Tournament
The main poker scene in Casino Royale is the big tournament later in the movie where Bond plays against Le Chiffre and others. Before the first cards are even dealt, we can calculate the odds of each player holding the currently best possible hand just based on their “hole cards” (the two cards they hold privately). And Bond starts with the lowest odds of having the best hand at just 12.3%!
But as more “community cards” are dealt out and shared, we see Bond’s odds getting better and better. He takes advantage of getting lucky cards to end up with an incredibly strong “straight flush” hand – the second strongest hand possible in poker.
Using his skills at calculating odds and chances as new cards came out, Bond realized his hand was unbeatable. Cleverly, he then bluffed and misled the other players into thinking they still had a chance so they would keep betting more money into the main pot!
In the end, Bond’s poker strategies of calculating odds, bluffing, and keeping his opponents misled until the perfect moment allowed him to win the huge tournament and defeat the villain Le Chiffre.
Other Instances
Apart from the Casino Royale movie, there are a few other ways that casino skills and strategy are woven into James Bond’s world. The books mention that Bond used his baccarat skills, which are similar to poker, to make contacts and money on his spy missions. So in many ways, having a strong grasp of poker and other casino games is an important part of the Bond character and mythology.
The Verdict
Based on the original Ian Fleming novels and the Bond movies, it is clear that James Bond relies on and uses particular poker strategies during his casino adventures and missions. His core skills include:
While the Bond writers don’t dwell too much on the intricate details of his poker mastery, they make it quite clear that being an elite-level poker player is one of the core “tools” that allow the iconic James Bond to out-manoeuvre villains again and again.
