If you haven’t rushed out to see the new Warner Bros. poker yarn well, then, lucky you.

It’s not that the poker-boom inspired flick doesn’t give an earnest effort – it has its moments – but, unfortunately, “Lucky You” is flush with too many clichés and predictable scenes to qualify as an above-average poker movie.

Worse, the lead character isn’t exactly easy to root for. Huck Cheever (Eric Bana), which sounds like some sort of discount lawnmower sold late night on the QVC, is a downtrodden Las Vegas rounder who has more ambition and bad habits than skill. More often than not, he is left with high hopes and empty pockets.

Whatever poker skills Huck brings to the table are counterfeited by his impulsive and self-destructive nature. What’s more, Huck can’t escape the shadow of his semi-estranged father L.C. Cheever (Robert Duvall), a two-time world champion who shows up at every turn – and river for that matter – to remind his son that the old man still has his number.

The film starts with Huck getting all his money in with trip 9s against his father’s straight and flush draw, and our hero loses his whole bankroll when a river diamond brings H.C. Cheever a winning flush. It’s just a sign of things to come for our esteemed protagonist, who just can’t seem to win for losing … and more losing.

As he desperately tries to win a seat into the 2003 Main Event, Huck starts a romance with an aspiring lounge singer named Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore). But Huck’s true love is risking it all and going broke and, like most degenerate gamblers, he just can’t help himself.

Our hero suffers a gauntlet of unfathomable bad beats, including having his victory in a super satellite recalled when a misdeal on the river was declared. What do you know, the new river card was an 8 that let his opponent’s pocket 8s crack Huck’s pocket 10s.

If a two-outer on a “do-over” weren’t bad enough, Huck loses a $10,000 prop bet when his 50-foot par putt sinks into the cup 2 seconds after his allotted 3-hour time limit to run 5 miles and complete a round on the links.

Clearly, his luck couldn’t get any worse … or could it? As the plot builds to what seems like an inevitable climax, you wonder if there will be some sort of twist creative yet believable enough to steer film off the road toward turning the Cheevers into the Beaver Cleavers.

There’s a twist, all right; let’s just say our hero finds an, um, unorthodox way to play the biggest hand of his life. We’re led to believe that this final hand shows that Huck has redeemed his character flaws and shown the heart of a true champion.

Whatever.

Aside from the bizarre conclusion and a barrage of poker clichés (“Money is just a way of keeping score” … “Are you trying to run over the table?”), “Lucky You” does have some worthwhile scenes.

The opening is among the best. Huck hustles an extra $50 out of a pawn shop dealer when he catches her bluffing about owning the manufacturer’s box for every digital camera she has for sale. There are scattered cheap laughs and clever lines as well.

From a poker purist’s perspective, it mostly passes the test. There are no glaring errors in rule enforcement or behavior among the players, although the one-player-per-hand rule seems to be in violation when Huck receives advice from his father on the rail during the play of a big hand.

The close-ups of flops ripping across the felt and exclusive peeks at the player’s hole cards gives the aura of big-time poker, but the level of play does not. For no-limit hold’em, there sure is a lot of min-raising going on.

Perhaps to add credibility to its cash game and Main Event scenes, the film boasts a who’s who of top professionals making cameo appearances. They include Barry Greenstein, Chau Giang, Ted Forrest, Jennifer Harman and Daniel Negreanu.

John “World” Hennigan even makes the final table of the Main Event as a player named Ralph Kaczynski (insert Unabomber joke here). His ridiculous name says something about the film: a couple of Cheevers and a Kaczynski do battle for poker glory.

Lucky us.