Posts Tagged ‘Ben Affleck’

Is Molly Bloom Finally done being the “Poker Princess”

Monday, December 16th, 2013

She hasn’t won a major tournament, been a high stakes player or done anything else significant in poker. Still, Molly Bloom has found a way to grace poker headlines off and on for the past few years.

Known to many as the “Poker Princess,” Bloom has been running some of poker’s most high-profile games. But she took things way too far in helping the Russian mob organize underground poker outings at New York’s Plaza hotel. Seeing as how the ring raked over $100 million, Bloom and the other 33 inductees were facing some serious charges.

You might say that Bloom got off with a pretty light sentence because she recently pleaded guilty to the charges against her. The 35-year-old will now face up to six months in jail, and must pay $125,000 in fines. Given that she was facing decades in prison, this is a much more favorable deal.

So now the question must be asked, is Molly Boom finally done with this whole Poker Princess thing? She first burst into the limelight after a major celebrity poker ring was uncovered. Bloom had been organizing games for such A-Listers as Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio. Prestige and millions were a plenty at these glamorous poker nights.

However, this got busted up when a hedge fund manager named Brad Ruderman was found to have lost $5.2 million in the poker ring. Ruderman was guilty of running a Ponzi scheme, and he used a good portion of his clients’ money to play poker with. That said, the investors leveled a lawsuit at members of the poker ring so they could recoup the losses.

The Hollywood operation earned Molly Bloom fame. But the Russian mob gambling ring put her through a lot of legal trouble. Given the myriad of legal troubles she recently dealt with, we can only hope that Bloom has put the poker world behind her.

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Rounders Sequel may hinge on “Runner, Runner”

Thursday, October 10th, 2013

Ever since the 1998 cult classic Rounders was released, many poker players have been interested in seeing a sequel. After all, there are some burning questions that fans of the first movie have, such as the following:

– How did Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) do at the WSOP?

– Did “Worm” (Edward Norton Jr.) do anything worthwhile with his life?

– Is Teddy “KGB” (John Malkovich) still hustling players in his card club?

– Did Joey Knish (John Turturro) ever grow the “stones to take a shot?”

Well our chances of having these questions answered may all depend on the success of a more current movie in Runner, Runner. The thriller, which centers on the shadier side of the online poker industry, has currently grossed $31,106,712 – just above its $30 million production budget. When its subsequent weeks and DVD sales are factored in, Runner, Runner could end up showing a profit against the $30m budget and undisclosed advertising/promotion costs.

If you’re wondering why a Rounders sequel hinges so much on Runner, Runner, it’s because writers Brian Koppelman and David Levien have a hand in both films. This duo wrote the original Rounders, and they also came up with the script for Runner, Runner. Assuming this anti-online poker flick takes off, it could convince investors that Koppelman/Levien’s Rounders II concept is worthwhile. The pair commented on this matter by telling PokerNews the following:

We do, however, have the story for Rounders II worked out, and all the actors and the director of the first film are ready to come do it. It’s a matter of the companies who control the rights getting behind it and allowing it to happen.

What’s really cool is to hear that the guys who made the first Rounders so great – Damon and Norton – would be ready to come out and do a sequel. Now we just have to wait for the Hollywood politics and financials to play out before Rounders II becomes a reality.

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AGA to use “Runner, Runner” as Fuel for Poker Regulation

Monday, August 26th, 2013

Online poker and casino gaming insiders are worried that the upcoming film Runner, Runner will have a negative impact on the game. As the trailer shows, Runner, Runner deals with corruption and cheating within the poker world.

Justin Timberlake stars as a college student named Richie Furst, who unfairly loses his tuition through a poker site. He then travels to Costa Rica to convince the poker room’s owner, Ivan Block (Ben Affleck), to return his money. Block instead makes Furst his righthand man which leads to a world of quick money and fast cars.

The overlying theme here is that internet poker is run by sketchy guys who’ll do anything for millions. This much is clear from the scene where Affleck pushes some bound guy into the alligator-infested waters below.

That said, you’d think organizations like the American Gaming Association (AGA) would fear the worst with this film. After all, the AGA is a casino lobby group tasked with convincing more states and the federal government that online gaming is a good idea. But the AGA is actually hoping to use Runner, Runner to fuel their lobbying efforts and send an even stronger message to Washington.

As Reuters reports, AGA President Geoff Freeman plans to argue that Runner, Runner is a perfect example of what can happen in an unregulated online poker environment. Assuming the federal government were to legalize internet gaming on a national basis, it could cut out the “seedy” offshore sites.

Runner, Runner hits theaters on September 27th and is expected to be a pretty big box office draw. The film seems to be a takeoff on sites like Absolute Poker and UB Poker, which were both rocked by cheating scandals. Eventually, these rooms went offline along with millions of dollars in player deposits following Black Friday.

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Dan Bilzerian Craziness continues: He loses $2.5m in One Night

Wednesday, August 21st, 2013

Dan Bilzerian is known as one of the wildest and craziest poker players in the game today. The son of wealthy corporate takeover guru Paul Bilzerian, Dan first became well known after the lid was blown on Hollywood poker games involving Tobey Maguire, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. Bilzerian was interviewed about his participation in these high stakes poker games and even called Maguire a “cheap bitch.”

The poker playboy has also gained notoriety for having three heart attacks and bragging about his use of steroids. With all of this being said, the latest chapter in his wild life is pretty easy to believe.

While playing at the Aria poker room recently, Bilzerian tweeted a picture of $2.5 million worth of chips (see below). He added the following message that explained what happened to the money:

I dusted off all this last weekend in Vegas.. My dad said, stop gambling. I told him, no one likes a…

It’s likely that Bilzerian participated in the big $2k/$5k NLHE game that’s currently running at the Aria. Some of the notable players involved in this game include Andrew Robl, Tom Dwan and Richard Yong. There’s a good chance that at least one of these guys got a piece of the $2.5 million that Bilzerian spewed.

What’s sad is that, just last month, he tweeted about dropping $3.1 million in a single night while playing poker and dice. Assuming the numbers are correct, he’s lost a combined $5.6 million in two gambling sessions over the past couple months.

Bilzerian must have made a lot in other high stakes poker games if he can afford to drop this kind of money. After all, he’s tweeted pictures before of a $9 million-plus chip stack he had at the Aria. Plus it’s possible that he might have gotten an initial bankroll boost from his father in the beginning.

Whatever the case may be, Bilzerian continues to be one of the most entertaining poker pros in the game today. He’s somewhat of a throwback to the early and mid-2000’s, when poker was dominated by big personalities/personas like Mike Matusow, Sammy Farha and Scotty Nguyen.

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Tobey Maguire – Biggest Poker Winner Ever?

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

If you’re like 99.9% of the rest of the world, you didn’t realize that Tobey Maguire was a serious poker player. Sure he had shown up to events in the past just like other poker celebrities like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck – who are more celebrities than players – but you’d have never guessed that he was actually a force in the high stakes scene.

But the secret is out now after Maguire was named in a lawsuit involving many other celebrities. And what’s really shocking are the stories that have come out after the lawsuit, such as one claiming Maguire may have earned enough to be the biggest poker winner ever! Before we talk about that though, let’s get to the heart of the matter.

Maguire and several other actors like Damon and Affleck are caught up in the L.A. poker scene, which sees games played around many of the city’s hotspots. But actors aren’t the only ones who show up to these games since pros like Dan Bilzerian and “rich” businessmen such as former hedge fund manager Brad Ruderman also come calling. Ruderman is of particular interest in this story because he recently went to prison for bilking investors out of millions of dollars.

And this directly affects Maguire because he supposedly won around $311k off of Ruderman before he went to prison. With investors having lost their life savings to this hedge fund conman, they have come after Maguire for some of the winnings.

After this story broke, RadarOnline.com reported that Maguire had been winning around $1 million every month for three years in these games. They then estimated that Maguire may have won anywhere from $30 to $40 million playing high stakes poker. And while this number is completely unverifiable, assuming it was accurate, the Spiderman actor could possibly be the biggest poker winner of all-time!

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