'We can't run from who we are,' the professor tells him, even characterizing his support of Mike's poker-playing as a 'mitzvah' (a Hebrew word casually understood as 'good deed'), as if gambling and the law are equally worthy fields.
In the movie's most stupefying relationship, a mensch of a law professor (Martin Landau) relates to Mike how he grew up in a family of rabbis and was expected to follow suit but instead pursued the field he loved: the law. His driving forces are his ego and the saying: 'It's immoral to let a sucker keep his money.' Thus 'Rounders,' which at first looks to be a gritty portrait of gamesmanship and compulsive gambling, winds up as a ludicrous ode to self-actualization.
