Question: When Gondorf produces four Jacks as the winning poker hand, how does he know four Jacks will be good enough to win? The most likely way he can produce the four Jacks is that he has that hand hidden somewhere and can get to it anytime he needs it. Wouldn't it have been smarter to have four Kings or four Aces or a straight flush available?
The Sting (1973)
1 answered question since 25 Mar '25, 05:01
Directed by: George Roy Hill
Starring: Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Charles Durning, Robert Shaw, Dana Elcar, Robert Earl Jones
Plot hole: Doyle attends Gondorff's betting shop three times, and he listens to the announcer calling three races from three different race tracks - Narragansett in Rhode Island, Belmont in New York, and Riverside Park in Missouri. He cannot possibly miss the fact that the same announcer calls all three races! J.J. Singleton, the race caller, has an instantly recognisable voice, and Doyle wouldn't be fooled for a second. Each race track would have had its own announcer.
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Suggested correction: There are a lot of things Doyle is processing when he's in the shop. There's a lot happening, and he has a lot on his mind, and increasing pressure and stress each time. It's quite possible that he wouldn't notice the accent of the announcer, something he has no reason to doubt.
Rubbish. During his first two visits, he sits quietly listening to the race announcements. On his second visit, he would recognize J.J. Singleton's distinctive voice and would realize something was very wrong.
Henry Gondorff: Pleased to meet you, kid. You're a real horse's ass.
Trivia: Doyle Lonnegan's limp was a result of Robert Shaw injuring his ankle. Rather than working around it, Shaw incorporated the limp into his performance.
Question: Lonnegan killed the Currier and Luther, and was trying to kill Hooker. How come nobody was looking for Joe Erie? even Snyder knew he was involved.
Chosen answer: Snyder only knew that Erie was friends with Hooker, and he wasn't on Lonnegan's payroll, just a run-of-the-mill corrupt policeman, so he didn't know Erie was involved. The Courier barely saw Erie and so may not have been able to identify him as well as he did Hooker and Luther, so Erie was unknown to Lonnegan.
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Answer: He knows (from intelligence gathered by JJ) that Lonnegan's go-to cheat is to stack a deck to give himself (Lonnegan) four nines and his opponent four threes. Therefore, he knows that giving himself four jacks will beat it.