A book exposes that Tobey Maguire led a series of clandestine poker games, to which he invited various Hollywood stars.
If you were told that in addition to playing the best Spider-Man on the big screen, Tobey Maguire was the mastermind behind underground poker games in Hollywood that brought him huge financial returns, would you believe the story? Well, recently a book tells us that this is a reality.
The Billion Dollar Hollywood: The A-List Kingpin and the Poker Ring that Brought Down Tinseltown, is the most recent book by Houston Curtis, former television producer, screenwriter, and card expert, who in the aforementioned work revealed that together with Tobey Maguire organized a series of underground poker games, from which both benefited financially, but how did it all start?
First act:
This story worthy of a movie would begin in 2005 when Houston Curtis and Tobey Maguire decided to organize a poker game with their closest friends and millionaires, from which they would seek to win as much money as possible for the selected participants.
Among the victims were names such as Ben Affleck or Matt Damon, the director Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook), the filmmaker Todd Phillips (Joker), and the founder of Cirque du Solei: Guy Laliberté.
According to the letter, the clandestine games would have taken place between 2005 and 2009, and at first, they took place at Tobey Maguire's house, however, the mania for keeping everything clean from the histrion forced the games to be moved to a nightclub called The Viper Room.
STONKS Rush!
Houston Curtis recounts that during those 4 years he earned 15 million dollars, and revealed that one night Matt Damon lost 50 thousand dollars, while Ben Affleck reached the point of running out of cash and had to write a check to cover his losses later, without However, the writer reveals that the biggest loser was Guy Laliberté, who made him win $250,000 on his first night.
Despite the above, it is narrated in the aforementioned book that the founder of Cirque du Solei was not bothered by the defeat, because after it he invited the entire table that played poker to fly with him to Hawaii.
According to Houston Curtis, Tobey Maguire was in charge of recruiting celebrities to participate in poker games, which supposedly left him a profit of 40 million dollars, and where he was supported by his ex-wife Jen Meyer, and his friend Leonardo DiCaprio: who helped him cover his losses and with whom the Spider-Man actor shared the profits.
As I finish all?
After the above, a question remains in the air: if it was such a profitable business, why did they stop carrying it out? Well, it all started with Molly Bloom, a former high-level skater who was hired by Houston Curtis to serve drinks to participants in poker games.
Curiously it is said in the book that Tobey Maguire tried to manipulate her so that she received fewer tips, however, Molly Bloom ignored him and became the leader of illegal betting in The Viper Room, and for this reason, in 2009, the police would initiate an investigation against him, which in 2011 would cause all his assets to be confiscated after an FBI raid.
In 2013 and along with 30 other people, Molly Bloom would be arrested in New York and charged with having enriched herself by organizing illegal games. She faced the risk of being sentenced to five years in prison, however, she reached an agreement with the authorities in which she would only have to pay a fine and be granted probation.
After being released from prison, Molly Bloom wrote a book recounting her experience, which would be adapted to the big screen in 2017 under the name Molly's Game, and would have a script by Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) and the leading role of Jessica Chastain.
Supposedly what happened with Molly in 2009 would scare Tobey Maguire and Houston Curtis, although the latter claims that Molly was nothing more than his waitress and that he gave up the game for a while because he began to lose money, suffered health problems and his wife left him, for which the Spider-Man actor had to lend him 600 thousand dollars that would have to be paid with interest and percentages of profits.
Currently, Houston Curtis says he has overcome her problems and assures that he continues to play, while Tobey Maguire has not declared anything about it.
