Rounders (1998)

Martin Landau: Abe Petrovsky

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mike McDermott : [sitting across from each other in a bar]  If you had it to do all over again, knowing what would happen, would you make the same choice?

  Professor Petrovsky : [Smiling]  what choice?

• Professor Petrovsky : [to mike sitting across from him in a bar]  The last thing I took away from the Yeshiva was this: we cant run from who we are, our destiny chooses us.

• Professor Petrovsky : [in his office]  You're in trouble?

  Mike McDermott : Yes sir, I am, not with the law, I owe

  Professor Petrovsky : Gambling debt?

  Mike McDermott : Yes, it's not mine, I vouched for the wrong guy, now it's on me

  Professor Petrovsky : I understand, what will it take to be free of this?

  Mike McDermott : I need fifteen thousand tonight

  Professor Petrovsky : you know I want to help you but I'm not a wealthy man

  Mike McDermott : I know, it kills me to ask you this, I don't have any other play, if you can help me at all...

  Professor Petrovsky : I hate to see you like this and I want to help you, if it must be tonight, ten is the best I can do

  Mike McDermott : Will you do that?

  Professor Petrovsky : when my mother let me leave the Yeshiva, it nearly broke her, but she knew the life I had to lead and to do that is another mitzvah and for that: I owe.

  Professor Petrovsky : [writes a check]  so you take this money and get yourself out of this trouble, you hear me?

  Mike McDermott : I promise I'll pay you back

  Mike McDermott : [nods]  I know, good luck

• Professor Petrovsky : [during Moot Court]  Mr. McDermott, perhaps we can begin now.

  Mike McDermott : I'm so sorry I'm late

  Judge Marinacci : Come to order in the matter of Slater v. New York State Higher Education Services.The facts have been stipulated, the briefs have been read. Lead counsel for plaintiff, Mr. McDermott, please proceed with oral arguments now. If that is convenient for you

  Mike McDermott : [sensing the judges are irritated that he disrespected them by not arriving on time]  Yes, it is, and again, I'm sorry that I'm late. The case which controls the issue at bar would be Texas v. Johnson...

  Judge McKinnon : [interrupts him]  Texas v. Johnson?Mr. McDermott, that is a Supreme Court free speech case that has no bearing in the premises

  Judge Marinacci : Each group was apprised to ignore that aspect of this matter and focus instead on the idea of de facto segregation

  Mike McDermott : Right. Um, well...

  Kelly : [interrupts him by standing up to continue the oral arguments]  Mr. McDermott has been unreachable so I'll take over, if it pleases the court

  Judge Marinacci : Someone saying something "meaningful" would please us a great deal.

  Kelly : What we have here is a clear case of gerrymandering, impacting schoolchildren and schools in the district that was created solely to separate students by race. Although not dispositive, the student body is more than ninety percent white.

• Professor Petrovsky : [sitting across from each other in a bar]  For generations, the men of my family have been rabbis in Israel before that in Europe, it was to be my calling. I was quite a prodigy. I was the "pride" of my Yeshiva. The elders said I had a forty year old understanding of the Midrash. By the time I was twelve by the time I was thirteen I knew I could never be a rabbi.

  Mike McDermott : Why not?

  Professor Petrovsky : Because for all I understood of the Talmud, I never saw God there.

• Mike McDermott : [In bar]  Mind if I sit?

  Professor Petrovsky : Please, have a seat

  Professor Petrovsky : That was a nifty trick the other night

  Mike McDermott : Thank you

  Professor Petrovsky : Marinacci and the DA were ready to cut cards for your services, of course it was altogether a different trick you pulled today, the disappearing act at your meeting.

  Mike McDermott : Yeah, I figured I owe you an explanation.

  Professor Petrovsky : No, not to me, I'm sure there was a good reason you left, you just have to work harder, prepare and smooth things out with the others, I'm sure there was a good reason why you left.

  Mike McDermott : [nods] 

• Professor Petrovsky : [sitting across from each other in a bar]  I know a magician doesn't reveal his secrets

  Mike McDermott : I'm not a magician

  Professor Petrovsky : If it wasn't "magic", how did you know what everyone held?

  Mike McDermott : It's a combination of things: I was watching when the cards came out, that's just an old habit with me, it's like breathing

  Professor Petrovsky : Watch the cards?

  Mike McDermott : I watch the cards but I also watch the player react to the cards. That's how I knew the DA made his two pair and judge Kaplan missed the flush, I was watching their eyes when they checked their river cards, their faces tell you everything

  Professor Petrovsky : [Confused]  you watch the man? I never knew you had to calculate so much in cards

  Mike McDermott : here's some advice, just play premium hands, you only start with jacks or better if its good enough to call you've also got to be in there raising, tight but aggressive and I do mean aggressive, you've got to think of it as a war

  Professor Petrovsky : [Jokingly]  you're officially never invited to our game again

  Mike McDermott : I don't blame you, put a guy like me in that game, cards don't even matter I'll play it blind

• Mike McDermott : [sitting across from each other in a bar]  You have a respectable profession

  Professor Petrovsky : Not to my family my parents were devastated, destroyed by my decision my father sent me away to New York to live with distant cousins I eventually found my place, my life's work

  Mike McDermott : What then?

  Professor Petrovsky : I amerced myself fully, I studied everything I could about the law I felt deeply inside that it was what I was born to do

  Mike McDermott : Did your parents get over it?

  Professor Petrovsky : No, I always hoped that I would find some way to change their mind, but they were inconsolable, my father never spoke to me again

• Professor Petrovsky : [seeing Mike after he knocked on the door]  Oh, Michael. You got some things for me?

  Mike McDermott : [while carrying file folders]  Yes, I do.

  Professor Petrovsky : Put them on the desk, it's all right

  Judge Marinacci : Kid, is he paying you for this late night shift?

  Mike McDermott : Oh, well, knowledge is my reward, sir.

  Judge Marinacci : Let me tell you, it ain't worth it. Why don't you become a jockey, do something useful.

• Professor Petrovsky : [to his coleagues during the judges game]  Michael is lead counsel in the Moot Court you're presiding over next week. Besides, he could use the background if he's gonna clerk for one of you fellas this summer, right?