Review by hintzde1

Overall, this is a good film, not great as it has to struggle with the depth it needs to explore. I think that people with a working knowledge of the subject will enjoy it, but many will not be interested.

My background does include statistics, amateur bridge playing, and professional level blackjack play with a full knowledge of card counting and some (intellectual only) knowledge of cheating schemes. This helped me enjoy the film, but left me a bit frustrated.

Another reviewer correctly pointed out that they needed to explore the statistical angle further. I fully agree and can say that the statistical expert in the film was highly unconvincing as he was comparing apples to oranges. The issue here is, not unlike blackjack, you do not and will not cheat (or be shown as a legal card counter) on every hand. There will be pivotal times where this will be needed and will be used. Ergo, the statistics will be applied to less than the total amount of hands filmed. And they may not have had enough hands to examine. Full data and full tournament bridge understanding would be needed with the statistics.

I will say as a blackjack expert that can spot skill levels in other players quickly, that the other bridge players' vague quotes that 'they just know' does have more of a ring of truth to it than many would expect. In blackjack, we make cover plays that are not the optimal moves so that the casinos will not bar us. Because we know we can be spotted by people that know. It is a cat and mouse game and it goes in in all kinds of other competitions.

So thank you Dirty Tricks filmmakers for working my brain a little bit here. I wish more clarity was there, but as in life, you don't always get a clarified and obvious truth revealed.