In an age where there seems to be no shortage of poker content or poker controversy driving the online discourse, two poker documentaries have emerged that take a much deeper dive into what it takes to succeed in the game.
To Be Determined from the creators or Solve For Why and High Stakes: A Woman's Seat in a $200,000 Poker Tournament from Americas Cardroom both take the longform approach to poker storytelling and highlight two paths to two very different kinds of poker success.
High Stakes, released earlier this month, follows Ebony Kenney's journey to a massive $200,000 Super High Roller on the Triton Series in 2022. The first 20 minutes of the documentary takes the viewer behind the scenes with Kenney as she travels and prepares for the biggest tournament of her life. Spoiler alert: it goes pretty well.
To Be Determined is a much different journey. It chronicles low-stakes grinder Oscar through northeast underground games and Atlantic City casinos on a $1/$2 hold'em journey that, by his own admission, isn't going anywhere. The 90-minute docu-grind finds Oscar making his way to the Solve For Why Academy in Las Vegas where he hopes to find a way to make it to the next level. The results might not be what you expect.
