Gossip Column: Curtis Claims Maguire Was the Mastermind Behind Molly`s High-Stakes Games, Galfond Continues to Gain in HU Challenge!

If you are a fan of Marvel movies, you’d definitely know Tobey Maguire of ‘Spiderman’ fame. Maguire isn’t the most likable of Hollywood celebs, and he’s been rather off-the-camera in recent times, turning to production instead. Despite this, the latest allegations against the actor just knocked the breath out of us!

Maguire has been known for his gambling habits. Still, if recent revelations by his former partner and Hollywood producer Houston Curtis are anything to go by, it looks like Maquire was the real mastermind behind a series of illegal high-stakes private poker games where he and Curtis won millions off wealthy actors and businessmen.

According to a New York Post article, Curtis has made these damning allegations in his new book titled ‘Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist.’ There’s a lot more spice in this story, what with Curtis claiming that Molly Bloom was only a pretty front for the operations that were the handiwork of Maguire.

Our Gossip Column cannot be complete without an update on the ongoing PLO Heads-Up Challenge between Run It Once (RIO) Poker founder Phil Galfond and online phenom ‘VeniVidi1993.’ The duo has played two more sessions since our last update on April 3, rounding up 21,337 hands of the 25,000-hand challenge, and Galfond continues his march towards breaking even in the challenge. He is presently down just about two buy-ins or €40,422.39, to be exact, setting up an exciting finale to this long-running match!

Card Cheat & Hollywood Producer Houston Curtis Makes Grim Allegations Against ‘Spiderman’ Tobey Maguire in New Book

Toby Maguire is a Hollywood A-lister having starred in several flicks through the ’90s and the 2000s. It was, however, his lead role as Spiderman in the 2002 blockbuster hit that catapulted Maguire to global stardom. The baby-faced actor has had a tumultuous acting career and has not been seen in movies for some time now. Reports indicate that he has done well for himself as a producer since. Maguire has now managed to make his way back in the news and this time for some really troubling reasons.

Former card cheat, Hollywood producer, and Maguire’s old friend, Houston Curtis, has leveled serious allegations against Maguire in his latest book ‘Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist.’

Remember the 2017 movie Molly’s Game, where Jessica Chastain had portrayed the role of the main protagonist Molly Bloom; a former Olympic-class skier who ran an underground high-stakes poker empire and allegedly made a fortune hosting games for Hollywood celebrities, athletes, the mafia and business tycoons!

According to Curtis, Molly has been depicted incorrectly in the movie. According to him, she had nothing to do with the game, and only handled the operations. It was instead, Maguire who was the real mastermind behind running the illegal poker games!!

“Molly had nothing to do with anything. Initially, she just served drinks, and we gave her numbers to call the guys,” Curtis said.

According to his book, Curtis had met Maguire in 2004 at a poker game in Los Angeles. Unaware of Curtis’ reputation of scamming high-stakes games, Maguire invited him to his home game. The two decided to run a private poker game for themselves and Maguire’s rich celeb friends. The next few sessions took place at Maguire’s place where it was his then-wife Jen Meyer, who acted as the dealer. Later, they decided to move the venue to The Viper Room located on the Sunset Strip in L.A. and struck an arrangement with club co-owner Darin Feinstein.

Curtis has confessed that the sole purpose of running these high-stakes games was to siphon money off the attendees. These poker sessions were either hosted at The Viper Room or the Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel. Some of the famous actors who attended the games were

Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck. As Curtis puts it, Bloom was just a pretty face, which was the front for running the game, while it was really Maguire calling the shots.

“Poker was blowing up big, and we found young, wealthy guys who wanted to play with Tobey. They didn’t even know how to shuffle a deck of cards.”

Maguire called upon his good friend Leonardo DiCaprio for the game as well. “Tobey said that he and I would have to stake Leo,” Curtis wrote, recalling that Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté and hedge-fund manager Brad Ruderman had also come in as guests.

For four years, till 2009, Maguire and Curtis ran the game successfully, earning millions off their wealthy friends and acquaintances. It was all going right, and even Curtis claims to have won close to $15 Million in those games.

But misfortune fell on Curtis when he lost $100,000 in Las Vegas in 2008 and went on to drop another $1 Million in a single night at The Four Seasons. Unable to pay the debt, Curtis turned to Maguire for help, who agreed to loan him $600,000 but on preposterous terms. Left with no choice, Curtis agreed to Maguire’s terms.

The same year in April, he recalls, Ruderman was busted for running his hedge fund as a Ponzi scheme. Players were chased for recovering Ruderman’s gains, and Bloom was one of them. Though she was deposed in the bankruptcy case that followed, she got sentenced to a year’s probation, along with other fines.

Claiming that Maguire often misbehaved with Bloom and wasn’t a pleasant host at his home game, Curtis estimated that Maguire must have won at least $30 Million in these games over the years.

Not very heroic of ‘Spiderman,’ eh?

Phil Galfond Fast Catching Up to ‘VeniVidi1993’ in Galfond Challenge

It was last Saturday when we had reported how Phil Galfond booking a profit of €113,680 against ‘VeniVidi1993’ on Day 32 of the challenge had cut his deficit down to €40,607.06.

The duo has played two more sessions since with ‘VeniVidi1993’ winning €27,339 in the first one. Nonetheless, the PLO legend managed to recover that and some more in the most recent session.

In the latest session that took place on April 4, Galfond booked a profit of €28,772 after 680 hands. This leaves him in the red for €40,422.39, with 3,661 hands left to complete the challenge.

We’re guessing it’ll be another 5 or 6 sessions before we see who’s winning this one, as well as the side bet. If Galfond manages to come out ahead, ‘VeniVidi1993’ will have to dish out an extra €100,000 while on the losing end, Galfond will have to shell out €200,000 to his opponent.

Check out the session 34 action in the video below.