We find our way into that world via Molly as she watches and learns, picking up the language and rituals of the game and googling googling googling until she (and we) are fully inaugurated in the poker world. Which takes us to a second advantage of Molly’s Game– there’s a definite frisson knowing that, even if they’re not named in the film, among the players in Molly’s games were the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Tobey Maguire.

She does so with aplomb, entering a big money world of business leaders and Hollywood big-wigs, running the most exclusive poker rooms first in Los Angeles and then in New York City. She’s introduced to the world of high stakes poker by her bully of a boss and realises pretty quickly that if she wants to succeed there she needs to become the ultimate (unattainable) accessory – a blur of curves and hair shine with an unimpeachable smile. Bloom is a former elite freestyle skier who once hoped to compete at the Winter Olympics – someone used to (and driven towards) succeeding. One thing it most certainly has going for it is that it’s based on (or at least ‘inspired by’) a true story. It’s written by Hollywood darling Aaron Sorkin ( The West Wing, Moneyball, The Newsroom, The Social Network) and is also the writer’s first turn in the director’s chair.

Molly’s Game, for its part, is an adaptation of the autobiography by disgraced ‘poker princess’ Molly Bloom.

Molly’s Game and Rounders are two of the all-time greats. The stakes, the drama and the tension all lend themselves perfectly to the big screen, especially where great actors who can communicate the often-unspoken tides pushing and pulling their way around the table are involved. Poker is, simply put, great fodder for films.

In the poker game of life rounders