Abe Petrovsky We can't run from who we are. Our destiny chooses us.
Mike McDermott
Matt Damon · 26 quotes
Lester "Worm" Murphy
Edward Norton · 21 quotes
Teddy KGB
John Malkovich · 7 quotes
Most scenes together: Mike McDermott & Lester "Worm" Murphy (11), Mike McDermott & Teddy KGB (3)
Rounders quotes
Page 1 of 3 Abe Petrovsky O yea one more thing, I got a feelin'....
yea, what feeling is that?
i know you know this feeling..you know this feeling very well..i mean you got you table all set up, your fork, your knife, your A1 sauce..
[together]
all you need is the steak.
[mike reaches for money]
Busboy
Call.
Busboy
I..I only got a pair. Jacks?
Manager/Tacky
What did you think he had? Does he look like a man beaten by jacks?
Customer
Jacks are a monster compared to the crap you play, Tacky.
Manager/Tacky
Eh, **** you. **** you!
Customer
**** me? **** you!
Hooker
Hey, boys.
Hi.
Hooker
You cops? You look like cops.
No, we're not cops.
Hooker
You want a twirl then?
No, no. We're just here to see "Grandma".
Joey What do you need? 500? 1000?
I need 15,000.
Joey 15?
Yeah.
Joey I need a blow job from Christy Turlington..get the **** outta here! Fifteen thousand dollars?!
I was trying to give us an edge.
I had them.
Look, I'm sorry we got banged up, I took a shot and missed. It happens.
Happens all the time around you.
And it doesn't happen to you? You're the one that flushed his whole bank roll on one hand.
Oh, **** you, man, that was different.
How is that different? What makes you so **** special? Why are all your moves so smart and noble and I'm always the idiot piece of shit? You act like you're only one with any ambition.
Then what's your ambition? I don't know, you tell me.
I don't know, I don't think like that.
No, you don't think.
No, I don't think like you, you always think you can beat the game straight up. That's not me, and I'm always going to look for that edge, always.
Alright, what's the edge now? We owe fifteen grand in a day and we're broke, what the **** do we do?
That's easy, we get the **** outta Dodge. We go on the road, we stay out of the city for a bit, this will all blow over.
Not a chance am I gonna live that way. You call Grama, you get him to stake me.
...we're not just dealing with Grama.
You said Grama was on his own. You said Grama was on his own!
KGB bankrolled him.
Yeah. So no fooling around, it's highway time.
Alright, I'll call the two grand. I'll gamble. Don't splash the pot.
You're on a draw, Mike? Go away, this one not good for you. And in my club, I will splash the pot WHENEVER THE **** I PLEASE.
Fifteen grand in five days, I can do that. I've gone on rushes like that before.
Ah, under optimum conditions with a bank roll. Maybe, maybe. But..what do you got on you?
I got like 350.
Nah, that's only 1200 between us. We mind as well play the **** lotto.
It was a real blood game over at KGB's place.
You sat down with the mad Russian and he emptied your pockets??
So, uh, Nick the Greek, what's with kiting my checks?
I'm on empty.
How much was the hooker?
Mike, please! "Relaxation therapist!"
Uh, you know what? I got my five grand here. That's just fine by me. I'm going home.
Fine. It's a **** joke anyway. After all, I am paying you with your money.
What did you say?
Your money... I am still up twenty grand... from this last time I stick it in you.
[Narrating]
They're trying to goad me, trying to own me. But this isn't a gunfight. It's not about pride or ego. It's only about money. I can leave now, even with Grama and KGB... and halfway to paying Petrovsky back. That's the safe play. I told Worm you can't lose what you don't put in the middle. But you can't win much either.
You comin' up?
No, I've been standin' out here all this time just to say hi.
All right, listen. Things haven't been so smooth on the home front, so tone it down a little, all right?
Tone down what, mother****er?
Great. Never mind.
Petrovsky For generations, men of my family have been rabbis. In Israel; before that, in Europe. It was to be my calling. I was quite a prodigy, the pride of my yeshiva. The elders said I had a forty-year-old's understanding of the Midrash by the time I was twelve. But by the time I was thirteen, I knew I could never be a rabbi.
Why not?
Petrovsky Because for all I understood of the Talmud, I never saw God there.
You couldn't lie to yourself.
Petrovsky I tried. I tried like crazy. I mean, people were counting on me.
But yours is a respectable profession.
Petrovsky Not to my family. My parents were destroyed, devastated by my decision. My father sent me away to New York, to live with distant cousins. Eventually, I found my place, my life's work.
What then?
Petrovsky Well, I immersed myself fully. I studied the minutiae. I learned everything I could about the law. I mean, I felt deeply inside that it was what I was born to do.
And did your parents get over it?
Petrovsky No. I always hoped that I would find some way to change their minds, but they were inconsolable. My father never spoke to me again.
If you had to do it all over again, would you make the same choices?
Petrovsky What choice? The last thing I took away from the yeshiva is this: We can't run from who we are. Our destiny chooses us.
Joey Look who he's treatin' to a free meal. Don't let that MSG **** up your head more than it is, Mikey.
You know what? You keep grinding out that rent money, Joe. That's noble work you're doing.
C'mon. I'll play you "Horse". Fifty bucks a letter.
[tosses basketball to Mike]
Yeah? When I win are you going to pay me back with my own **** money?
[throws basketball back to Worm quite hard]
Woah, woah. Easy. Relax. Don't wing it, you know? Just step and throw.
[tosses ball back to Mike, Mike purposefuly tosses it away from Worm]
You need to work on your accuracy, you know that?