The story of the queen of baccarat, Kelly Sun, is getting a feature film produced by the team behind box office smasher Crazy Rich Asians
The producers of 2018 hit movie Crazy Rich Asians are now onto a new exciting project that involves putting the story of one of the world’s most talented baccarat players on the silver screen.
Ivanhoe Pictures and Jeffrey Sharp of Sharp Independent Pictures have partnered to finance and co-produce The Baccarat Queen, a feature film about Cheung Yin “Kelly” Sun, known to be one of the most successful players of the highest grossing casino game in Asia’s gambling mecca, Macau.
The movie is inspired by a 2017 article by Vegas insider Michael Kaplan, titled “The Baccarat Machine” and published on Cigar Aficionado.
The Baccarat Queen (a working title) will tell the story of Sun, the daughter of a now deceased wealthy Hong Kong factory owner, who mastered an elaborate technique known as edge sorting that gave her advantage at the baccarat table.
Sun infamously amassed tens of millions of dollars within a short period of time playing baccarat and using the technique. She used her impeccable vision and uncanny memory to spot the tiniest discrepancies on the backs of playing cards, memorize those, and thus improve her odds against the casino.
Sun helped poker pro Phil Ivey win millions playing baccarat at Crockfords Club in London and Atlantic City’s Borgata back in 2012. Their winning sessions at the two casinos got them embroiled in two of the most expensive and most highly publicized lawsuits in the history of gambling.
A Story of Revenge
Ivanhoe Pictures President John Penotti said that they are thrilled to partner with Sharp and “tell this exciting, high-stakes tale of cunning and revenge.” The Baccarat Queen will feature “strong Asian characters” but will be told mostly in English as it will be targeting the worldwide market.
In previous conversations with journalists, Sun has said that she had been playing baccarat and slot machines in gambling dens around the world, and while learning she had blown more than $20 million of her father’s fortune.
In 2007, Sun got arrested for a gambling debt of nearly $100,000 owed to Las Vegas casino giant MGM Resorts International. The player spent three weeks in prison, where she was attacked by fellow prisoners and was bullied by guards. She lost 25 pounds while serving her time, until a relative paid what she owed to the casino and she was released.
Her trials in jail motivated Sun to master the edge-sorting technique and take revenge on MGM by playing baccarat at its properties (the Borgata is owned by the Las Vegas gambling powerhouse) and gaming millions of dollars out of the gambling venues.
A release date and more details about Ivanhoe’s feature film are yet to be announced.
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