Anyone who listens to country music has heard of, or has listened to Kenny Rogers at some point in their life. He wrote a song called, The Gambler, which was a ballad and was released in the 1980’s. Because the song was such a big hit and his fans loved it so much, he soon became interested in poker films.

In conjunction with some major film companies he decided to make a made for TV poker movie, epitomizing the story of a gambler headed west to find his long lost son. Out of all the movies about poker this turned out to be one of the most favored.

The story starts with him on a train bound for No Where, (which was actually a town back then), and during the ride he befriends a stranger who wants to become a professional gambler. Throughout the movie they encounter many different people and find themselves in many precarious positions (as gamblers did back then), but always seemed to get away at the last moment (Kenny couldn’t die or the movie would be over.).

With Kenny’s salt-and pepper beard and his ability to look like the old style gambler, this made for TV movie soon became one of the top poker movies in that era, and ultimately spawned many movies about gambling.

His biggest catch phrase, that to this day many poker players still use is –“You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, and know when to run, never count your money, when your sitting at the table, there will be time enough for counting when the deal is done.”

It's for these reasons that The Gambler is generally considered one of the best poker movies of all time.