LOS ANGELES (AP) — The stakes. The famous faces. The posh private rooms. The clever cheating schemes.

The federal indictment of a big-money poker ring involving NBA figures on Thursday, in which unsuspecting rich players were allegedly enticed to join then cheated of their money, echoed decades of movies and television, and not just because of the alleged Mafia involvement.

Fictional and actual poker have long been in sort of a pop-cultural feedback loop. When authorities described the supposed circumstances of the games, they might’ve evoked a run of screen moments from recent decades.

Poker in ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ ‘Molly’s Game’ and ‘The Sopranos’

A 2004 episode of “ The Sopranos ” showed a very similar mix of celebrities and mobsters in a New York game whose players included Van Halen

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