Celebrity Poker: Eric Bana

Eric Bana says he is a hotshot celebrity poker player. He was once feaured in a poker movie as professional poker player Huck Cheever in "Lucky You" helped him pick up some useful tips. Eric Bana told the USA Today newspaper: "I got pretty good at poker. You can tell when someone is bluffing by how they place the bets more than any mannerisms or tics. It's whether they are confident or not when they're placing them. That's how you can really tell." This poker movie stars Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore and Robert Duvall. Not well received, the movie shows the life of a son and father Las Vegas poker pros who compete in the WSOP main event.

The 38-year-old "Munich" star can relate to his character's competitive streak. Eric Bana said: "I can get pretty competitive when I'm in the moment, yes. But this is a father-son love story. I like the scene where he lets his father win. It goes against the mythology where the father lets the son win."

Eric Bana on spending time with poker pros

“It lifted our game because it’s impossible for it not to rub off. For instance, a scene that might only be a minute onscreen could take us days to shoot, so that’s hours and hours sitting around with these guys, and all you’re doing between takes is talking poker. It definitely elevated my ability to sell my character as someone who knows his way around a poker table.”

Eric Bana meet and played with several poker pros like Jack Binion, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Hoyt Corkins, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Farha, Maureen Feduniak, Chris Ferguson, Ted Forrest, Phil Hellmuth, Chau Giang, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman, Dan Harrington, John Hennigan, Karina Jett, John Juanda, Jason Lester, Erick Lindgren, Minh Ly, Mike Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, David Oppenheim, Max Pescatori, Matt Savage, Erik Seidel, Huck Seed, Mimi Tran, Cyndy Violette, Marsha Waggoner and Robert Williamson III are all involved in the movie.

About Eric Bana: Eric Bana's career has two distinct periods: his time working in Australia and his latest stint working in Hollywood. While at home Down Under, Eric was known as a comedian, performing stand-up as of 1990, and expanding to sketch comedy work in 1992. The Australian TV series Full Frontal and Eric showed off Bana's skill and then he scored his own program, The Eric Bana Show Live, which only lasted eight episodes.

Eric Bana's feature film debut came in The Castle in 1997, an Australian film where he was relegated to a small supporting role. It was in 2000's Chopper that Eric morphed from a steady comedy actor to a great dramatic thespian. Portraying the notorious Australian killer Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read, Bana gained 30 pounds, shaved his head and transformed himself mentally for the film by interviewing cult figure Read.

Opinions on Eric's efforts in Chopper were universal: he was great. This one appearance led to his Hollywood debut in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. Bana then took on The Nugget, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, before putting in months of work in Hulk, where he played main character Dr. Bruce Banner.

Though the high-profile Hulk was considered a bomb by audiences and critics, Brd Pitt still remembered Bana's performance in Chopper and recommended the Aussie for the role of Hector in the 2004 blockbuster Troy. With this latest big-budget film under his belt, Bana is locking up performances in Lucky You, set for release in 2005 and co-starring Drew Barrymore and the next Steven Spielberg project, based on the 1972 Munich Olympics Israeli hostage crisis.

His latest movie was Startrek and Time Traveler's Wife – a Chicago librarian suffers from a rare genetic disorder that sends him hurtling through time whenever he is under extreme duress; despite the fact that he vanishes at inordinately frequent and lengthy intervals, he attempts to build a stable future with the beautiful young heiress he loves. Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams star in this dramatic fantasy, which is directed by Robert Schwentke and based on the best-selling book by author Audrey Niffenegger.