Dead Man's Hand

Poker Face 1×1

Natalie Hill: Why do you listen to that stuff?
Charlie Cale: Why do I listen to the news?
Natalie Hill: Yeah, what's the point? You can't do anything about it. Every day, you're mad about something you can't do anything about. We're just better off with music, don't you think?
Charlie Cale: I'm doing something about it right now... Look, I don't care. Come at me, you Russian pervos. Time's up on that shit. Done. So, handled.

Charlie Cale: I don't know what version of the story you got.
Sterling Frost Jr.: Let's start there then. Once upon a time in Denver, milquetoast collection of the best poker players in central Colorado met at a Fairfield Inn suite off I-25. Well, not a barn burner, just a run-of-the-mill Thursday night mid-stakes ring game. A young woman from out of town was at the table. She was cute. She livened up the room. She had plenty of cash so they let her play. Three hours later, she mopped the floor with each and every one of them, which happens. But this had been happening. Previous week, in Cheyenne. Week before, in Rapid City. Same young woman cutting a haphazard path across the middle of the country. Never in any big games, never in corporate-owned casinos, but always the same result. She didn't lose. Word spread quick. 'Cause as you know, gamblers talk.

Sterling Frost Jr.: As far as anyone could tell, she was playing straight. No wires, no shills, and yet she played with an almost supernatural infallibility. Like she was seeing through the cards.

Sterling Frost Jr.: ... my dad figured out what she was doing. Even when he figured it out, he couldn't believe it. It was impossible. It was insane. But there was no other explanation.

Sterling Frost Jr.: You can just tell.
Charlie Cale: Just that something is off. That's the best way to describe it. I can just tell.
Sterling Frost Jr.: When anyone is lying? Hundred percent of the time? I'm going to touch my nose.
Charlie Cale: No, it doesn't work like that. I'm not a soothsayer. I can't predict the future. There's nothing mystical about it. Just if someone is intentionally lying, that's it.

Charlie Cale: I've been rich.
Sterling Frost Jr.: Yeah, how was it?
Charlie Cale: Easier than being broke, harder than doing just fine.
Sterling Frost Jr.: With due respect, you've had money, never been rich.

Charlie Cale: God. It is crazy the things that people stick up their asses.
Natalie Hill: Yeah. What are you reading?
Charlie Cale: "Ten craziest things people have stuck up their asses."

Sterling Frost Jr.: So, what's it like always knowing the truth?
Charlie Cale: Yeah, no. I only know if something is a lie. And outside of poker, less useful than you'd think. 'Cause everyone, they lie constantly. It's like birds chirping, people lying. Just once you tune into it, it's fucking everywhere all the time. And they usually don't lie to cover up some deep, dark secret, but about the stupid, meaningless shit, you know? So the real trick of it is to figure out why. Why someone is lying.

Charlie Cale: If I pull out of this, would you have to kill me?

Charlie Cale: There's something off here. There's a lie. I just... I need to find it.

Cliff Legrand: Are you on coke?
Charlie Cale: No. Coffee. So I thought this'll be a good thing. I won't have a beer and be a dumbass. I'll have coffee, because that's for thinking. But I never have coffee, and now I'm spazzing out.

Charlie Cale: I asked, "Everything okay?" You said, "Yeah." You were lying... Well, that sounded more intense than I meant it to. I wanted to just casually ask about it. But I've had coffee.

Sterling Frost Jr.: She's sharp, but she doesn't know anything.
Cliff Legrand: No, no, she's more than sharp. She's a human lie detector. And she's asking questions like she thinks something's up.

Charlie Cale: Say bullshit if it isn't true. Look me in the eye and say it.

Charlie Cale: A wise man once told me, you want to hurt someone, you hit 'em where it hurts.

—
On the IMDb
+ Soundtracks