Released in 1998, Rounders was a seminal artifact from the poker boom. You couldn't step into a card room anywhere in the early 2000s without someone quoting from the cult classic gambling film or impersonating Teddy KGB with his ridiculous Russian accent.

Brian Koppelman said he penned the first draft of the script in 1995, and it was loosely based on people he knew or played with in underground rooms in NYC. A friend of mine was really tight with Joel Bagels, who was the real-life person that inspired the Joey Knish character.

We're fast approaching 30 years since Koppelman and David Levien scribbled out the first draft of Rounders. Both screenwriters and many of the primary actors have been asked about a sequel. According to Matt Damon, all parties are open to revisiting the characters, but there's a lot of red tape involved with a potential second flick.

In 2019, I shared the 14 rejected sequel ideas for Rounders 2. There is currently no sequel to the legendary poker movie in development, but here are seven more half-baked sequel ideas that I came up with that will never get made...

Rounders 2: Round Harder

Mike McD married a Ukrainian woman named Kateryna and they live in a brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He plays high-stakes poker in NYC with a hefty portion of his winnings donated to fund the Ukrainian war effort. For every big pot he takes down, that's a couple of drones he can buy for Ukraine. Of course, Worm re-enters his life after being AWOL for a decade. While living in Budapest, he knocked up a cam girl named Anya who took their son named Mikey back to her home country of Russia. Worm enlists Mike McD to help him get back his son, Lil Mikey. They fly to Moscow and hijinks ensue. Mike McD has a run in with his old nemesis Teddy KGB, who runs an underground casino in Moscow's red-light district. Teddy KGB wants a rematch for $1.6 million. If Mike McD wins, then Worm gets Lil Mikey back. If Mike McD loses, then Worm gets whacked, and Mike McD gets thrown in a gulag for his support of Zelensky and the Ukrainians.

Rounders 2: Unstuck

Mike McD is a five-time WSOP bracelet winner with two appearances at the WSOP Main Event final table. He's been living in Las Vegas but been stuck in a rut and hasn't won a bracelet in over a decade. He lost his house and his entire bankroll in a messy divorce that was a harsh reminder he should've stayed in law school. He owes Joey Knish $500K in makeup, and has limited options. He moved into a hype house with a bunch of online pros who are nearly 30 years younger than him, and he struggles to connect with the Gen Z kids. He's become the old guy at the tables that the whiz kids make fun of.

Worm shows up with a Pitbull named Melo and quickly gets arrested for illegal dog fighting in North Las Vegas. Worm convinces Mike McD to play in a private home game in L.A. run by a Russian oligarch. He arrives and sits down to play with the oil billionaire along with Teddy KGB, David Benyamine, and the all-grown-up kid from Malcolm in the Middle. Teddy KGB reveals that he bought up Mike McD's marker from Joey Knish and that Worm also ran up a half million in debts betting on DFS and baseball. They'll play heads up for $2.5 million. Mike McD beats Teddy KGB, but his thugs drown Worm in the pool anyway because Teddy is an animal lover who hated the fact that Worm was breeding dogs for illegal fights.

Rounders 2: Mikey Goes to Hollywood

Mike McD lives in a pool house in the Hollywood Hills, which is owned by a big-time director who also happens to be a raging cokehead and degen gambler. The director lost so much money to Mike McD, that he gave up his Tesla and let Mike McD live in the pool house for free. Mike McD is a regular in different Hollywood home games in Beverly Hills, Hancock Park, Malibu, Calabasas, and even in a few illegal rooms in Koreatown. Worm shows up one day with a screenplay that he wrote in prison. It's based on his life with a main character named Bug and other characters named Charlie McC, Billy Babka, and Boris KGB.

The director loves the script and gets Worm an agent. They begin shopping the script and sell it to Brad Pitt's production company. The movie is greenlit and they cast Tom Holland as the Charlie McC role, Shia LeBouf as Bug, Vince Vaughn as Billy Babka, Jack Black as Boris KGB, and they even landed Sydney Sweeney to play Charlie's annoying girlfriend from law school.

When Teddy KGB finds out about his unflattering portrayal in Worm's poker movie, he holds up production and threatens to kill Worm unless Mike McD plays him heads-up for $2.5 million. If Mike McD wins, he secures cash, Worm lives and Teddy KGB quietly returns to Brooklyn. If Teddy KGB wins, then he gets an executive producer credit, final script approval, and his aspiring actress daughter is cast as the girlfriend law student.

Rounders 2: Crypto Kings

Worm convinces Mike McD to invest his money in a cryptocurrency start up, which was a sophisticated money laundering operation run by the Russian mafia. When the shit coin tanks, Worm and Mike McD owe the Russians over $25 million. Mike McD must come up with the cash in less than 60 days or they both get killed. The two embark on a gambling binge that takes him all over the US, Canada, Bahamas, and Mexico. Mike McD wins $10 million playing PLO against a cartel head and ships another $10 million playing in private games against Silicon Valley crypto nerds. He has three days left but he's $5 million short.

Teddy KGB agrees to play heads-up for rolls but in a 48-hour marathon session at the old Chesterfield. Mike McD is about to win the final hand when they're raided by the FBI. Teddy KGB is shot by a trigger-happy fed during the ruckus, Mike McD goes to jail and Worm manages to sneak off and flee to Canada just before the raid. Due to his unpaid debt, Mike McD gets shanked in prison while awaiting trial.

Rounders 2: Felt Bots

Mike McD lives in Costa Rica where he works as a security consultant for Moon Poker. He spends his days trying to catch online treats and only took the job to support his hippie wife and twin daughters, Piper and Reba. He loses his cushy gig after the site is shut down due to a massive cheating scandal involving a superuser account and 300 bots. Mike McD gets implicated in the scandal as the inside job superuser. He flees back to NYC and hires an online pro (played by Jimmy O. Yang) to analyze the data. Mike McD finds out he's framed by Teddy KGB, who is the mastermind behind the whole thing.

With no one to trust and completely out of options, Mike McD turns to Worm and asks him for help. Worm had started his own tech company in India training chat bots, but they've really been targeting lonely incels and bilking them out of millions in different catfishing rings and blackmail schemes. Worm launches a cyber war involving his chatbots and enacts revenge by stealing millions from Teddy KGB's popular online poker site Oreo Poker. Mike McD eventually gets his old job back, but Worm is murdered when one of the incels discovers that he was catfished and blackmailed by Worm's bots.

Rounders 2: The Ghost of Joey Knish

Mike McD works in a tedious corporate job as an attorney for tech companies in the Bay Area, but he flies home to NYC for the first time since 9/11 to attend the funeral of Joey Knish. He falls in love with Knish's estranged daughter, Lola Challah, and decides to stick around Brooklyn and help Lola raise money for her food truck idea about popular Jewish foods which is named after her father. Mike McD rekindles his love for poker and returns to grinding in NYC underground clubs. He's happy for the first time in decades until he bumps into Worm in a bodega at 4am. An emaciated Worm is barely recognizable and in the middle of an epic bender. Worm reveals that he owes Teddy KGB several million in a ketamine deal gone bad. There's a contract out on his head so he's going on one final bender before he's eventually clipped by a Russian bounty hunter.

Mike McD agrees to help Worm despite protests from Lola Challah, who has become a viral sensation after a popular TikTok influencer gushed about eating the dankest knish in history at the Joey Knish food truck. Lola Challah breaks up with him, but Mike McD is more concerned with winning as much money as he can to pay back Worm's debt before he's whacked. Mike McD banks $2 million in private game with Goldman Sachs traders, and now has enough to pay off Teddy KGB. They arrange a meeting, but when Mike McD drops off the cash, Teddy KGB goads him into playing heads-up for double or nothing. After a marathon session, Mike McD defeated Teddy KGB again who called off the contract hit. When Mike McD cannot find Worm at the safe house, he discovers Worm had OD'd in the bathroom in Penn Station.

Rounders 2: Degens, Alligators, and the Sun Bear

Mike McD went broke in the FTX scandal when he foolishly put all his cash in crypto on SBF's crooked exchange. He moves to a shitty condo in Las Vegas where he spirals into a deep depression by shooting dice at local casinos and getting crushed at the sportsbook. He gets hooked on popping painkillers and snorting Adderall, but drives Uber to pay for his drugs and avoid getting dope sick. He plays poker every night, but he's so running bad and can't post back-to-back winning sessions. He starts selling his sports betting picks on TikTok as Mike "Sharp" McD, which is how Worm finds him.

Worm reaches out and offers Mike McD a chance to get unstuck if he helps him cheat in a high-stake poker game in the L.A. suburbs that is run by Vietnamese gangsters. They get caught and punish Worm by chopping off three of his fingers. Mike McD is lucky, and they spare his fingers if he joins Phong the Sun Bear's cheating syndicate. Sun Bear's nephews and Mike McD hit up smaller casinos in California and Florida. They're eventually busted by a crooked sheriff in South Florida and two of Sun Bear's nephews are fed to alligators. Mike McD discovers that Teddy KGB tipped off the cops.

A distraught Mike McD asks Joey Knish for help, who puts him into rehab and then loans him money to get back on his feet. A year later, a sober and cleared-headed Mike McD makes the final table of the WSOP Main Event. He won enough money to pay back Joey Knish, but now he's gunning for the bracelet and championship. Teddy KGB's son, Teddy Jr, advanced to the final table as well. While on the rail, Teddy KGB proposes a side bet with Joey Knish. It's a $3 million last longer bet with Mike McD vs. Teddy Jr. Joey Knish turns him down, but Mike McD accepts the prop bet after Phong the Sun Bear vouches for him. The Sun Bear wants revenge for Teddy KGB ratting out his nephews in Florida.

Mike McD finds himself heads up against Teddy KGB Jr. Seven-fingered Worm tracks him down in the bathroom on one of the breaks, and the two have a vicious argument. Worm sends Mike McD on mega tilt and he spews off 90% of his stack. On another bathroom break, Mike McD snorts Adderall for the first time in over a year. He gains his confidence back and goes on a heater to storm back and regain the chip lead. The two go back-and-forth for another six hours, before Mike McD gets knocked out in second place on a nasty cooler. He and the Sun Bear lose their side bet with Teddy KGB. A dejected Mike McD leaves the casino a sunrise without cashing out his winnings.

Don't forget to check out other rejected ideas for a Rounders 2 seuqel.