Plot
Molly Bloom is a world-class mogul skier, trained from a young age by her overbearing father, until a career-ending injury during a qualifying event for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Postponing her law school plans, she moves to Los Angeles where, working as a bottle service waitress, she meets real estate developer Dean Keith. He hires her as his round-the-clock office manager, and soon orders her to run his weekly underground poker game at The Cobra Lounge. Molly learns how to appeal to the rich and famous players, particularly the movie star “Player X”.
Frustrated by Molly’s large tips, Dean fires her, but she poaches his players for her own lucrative and technically legal poker game. After the skilled but risk-averse Harlan Eustice loses a hand to hedge fund manager Brad Marion, a notoriously bad player, Harlan makes increasingly desperate bets on tilt until he owes Molly $1.2 million he cannot pay. Player X loans Harlan the money in exchange for half of his ongoing winnings, revealing that he has been staking Harlan for years. Bitter over Molly’s disapproval and lack of romantic interest in him, Player X spitefully draws her players to another game, and her poker ring collapses.
Moving to New York City, Molly enlists models to recruit wealthy players as she establishes a new underground poker empire. With millions at stake, her dealer convinces her to take a percentage of the pot to offset potential losses, making the game an illegal gambling operation. When Brad’s hedge fund is exposed as a Ponzi scheme, he points law enforcement to Molly, who pays $500,000 in restitution to his victims rather than testify. The stress of her high-stakes life takes a toll as she becomes addicted to drugs, and allows wealthy members of the Russian mafia to join her game.
Molly's driver introduces her to the Italian mafia, but she declines to let them extort her players. In retaliation, a gunman attacks Molly in her home, stealing the contents of her safe and threatening to kill her and her mother. Unwilling to go to a hospital, Molly spends two weeks recuperating alone in her apartment, only to learn the mobsters have been caught up in unrelated arrests. Douglas Downey, a player infatuated with Molly, warns her that he has been forced to inform on her to the FBI. Her game is raided while over $4 million is seized from her bank account, and a penniless Molly moves home with her mother.
Two years since running her last game, Molly has published a memoir to pay her debts, and is arrested by heavily armed FBI agents for her former inadvertent ties to organized crime. She meets with high-profile attorney Charlie Jaffey, who unexpectedly takes her case after realizing that she refused to work with the mob. Charlie negotiates for Molly to receive immunity and her seized funds in exchange for her hard drives, but Molly refuses to risk destroying her players’ lives and tarnishing her own name.
Skating recklessly at an ice rink, Molly is shocked to see her estranged father, and they share an honest conversation about their difficult relationship. Asked why he treated her differently than her brothers, her father explains that Molly knew he was cheating on her mother, and he expressed his shame as anger. Shaken after learning about her attack from her book, he reconciles with his daughter.
Molly pleads guilty, taking responsibility to preserve the integrity of her name. The judge, deciding that she never committed any serious crime, sentences her to 200 hours of community service, one year of probation, and a $200,000 fine. Remembering her skiing accident, Molly considers her future and her own resilience.
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