The movie even nods at this association by stating Player X had once portrayed a superhero Maguire famously played Spiderman in the mid-2000s trilogy. Player X in Molly’s Game is quite clearly meant to represent Tobey Maguire, who Molly names in her book. Taking that one step further, the only real name used in the movie is Molly’s own. In her book, Bloom only refers by name to the people who the media had already outed, protecting the identity of her players who remained anonymous. Actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, and Macaulay Culkin became known participants in the underground poker scene after a court case turned public the bank sued Molly for the money one of her players, Ponzi scheme runner Bradley Ruderman, had lost in the game.

In the book Molly's Game: The True Story of the 26-Year-Old Woman Behind the Most Exclusive, High-Stakes Underground Poker Game in the World, Bloom is careful about who she names, and who remains anonymous. Where Molly’s Game depicts The Cobra Lounge with a flashy neon sign stereotypical of West Hollywood, The Viper Club’s current exterior is far more downplayed: a simple matte black. The Viper Room, part-owned by Johnny Depp between 19, was a famous celebrity gathering point it is where River Phoenix died from a drug overdose in 1993. The connection between the names is clear, although the movie’s tweak does remove some of the history from the location. In Molly’s Game, it is called The Cobra Lounge, while the real-life poker games took place at The Viper Room, found on the Sunset Strip.

The movie changes the name of the club, though. Like in real life, barring some name changes, Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong) met Molly while she was waitressing and offered her a gig as his assistant at his nightclub. Her father’s overbearing insistence on excellence, her skiing career and accident, and her start as a waitress make appearances both in Bloom’s memoir and in interviews with the ex “Poker Princess”. Everything portrayed up until Molly moves to LA in Molly’s Game is extremely accurate of the true story.

Casino movie cast based on true story