For Mike McDermott, filling an inside straight is a better bet than finishing law school. There are differences, though.
Worm is an amoral hustler who'll deal off the bottom to take pots from rubes in over their heads.
Mike is more of a poker purist with a phenomenal head for the odds and a psychologist's skill at reading opponents' minds. The mob, by the way, is a strange mix of Russian and more conventional American hoodlums, operating big-time poker games in an underground network of apartments and tavern back rooms. If you're going to come out on top in this poker world, you're going to have to call Teddy's bluff. And The Cincinnati Kid simply adapted The Hustler's pool-shark saga to the world of flushes and full houses. Damon's portrayal adds a complex level of moral conflict.