Do you believe the rumors that Tobey Maguire is a compulsive gambler? While it’s no secret that Maguire enjoys playing poker, there is no evidence to suggest that he has a gambling problem. This article provides the truth about Tobey Maguire and gambling.
Maguire has been quoted as saying, “I don’t have an addictive personality.” So why do people continue to spread false rumors? Learn more about Tobey Maguire and gambling and you will get the truth.
Tobey Maguire and gambling
In 2005, the “Spider-man” star teamed up with Houston Curtis, a former card cheat turned TV producer, to create a regular poker room for themselves and their wealthy friends. The game allowed them to play for as much as a few million dollars every night.
According to Curtis’s book “Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist,” co-authored by Dylan Howard, the alleged goal was for Maguire and Curtis, to make as much money as possible from their hand-picked victims.
They pulled it off until everything fell apart, creating the greatest game Hollywood has ever seen. From 2005 to 2009, bold-faced stars like Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Leonardo DiCaprio flocked
Curtis explained to The Post that the stakes were so high that winning $20,000 felt like losing.
If this story sounds familiar, it’s because it inspired “Molly’s Game,” which stars
Curtis
Curtis claims that Bloom wasn’t the mastermind she claimed to be and that she was only there to divert attention so that Maguire and he could win millions of dollars without disturbing their friends.
Curtis stated that Molly had nothing to do “with anything.” “Initially she served drinks and we gave her numbers for the guys to call.”
“The guys” were billionaires with nothing but fame.
Rich men returned home with plenty of stories and a little cash. Like the time Rick Salomon, a film producer who is famous for his sex tape featuring Paris Hilton, quizzed Affleck about Jennifer Lopez.
Salomon asked, “Did [her] behind have cellulite, or was it nice?”
The table was stunned into silence when Affleck said, “It was nice.”
Maguire and Curtis met at a Los Angeles poker game in 2004. Maguire didn’t know that Curtis was a long-time sleight-of-hand expert who swindled high-stakes poker games in Los Angeles.
Curtis was polite and careful not to win
He said, “Or else, I’d never get invited again.” “I gave chips to bad players
Maguire’s former wife, Jen Meyer, was the dealer. Maguire pressed guests to tip Meyer who is a successful jewelry designer and former Hollywood power agent. Meyer is now vice-chairman at NBCUniversal.
Curtis stated, “He wanted her to feel included.” “At the end, she could count her profit alongside Tobey — almost always winning.”
Maguire was not comfortable with players in his home. Maguire claimed that he made the players take off their shoes and give them Crocs to protect themselves from germs.
Curtis said that Kevin chewed tobacco and spit in a cup; Tobey resent this.
(A Washington representative did not comment.)
In
Maguire and Curtis worked with Darin Feinstein, club co-owner.
Curtis described their introduction to Bloom, who was then an employee at Feinstein’s, by saying, “He said, “I’ll have my poker room set-up downstairs and get a hot part of ass named Molly, to serve drinks.”
Curtis stated that poker was booming and that he found wealthy young men who wanted to play poker games with Tobey. “They didn’t even know how to shuffle a deck.
Maguire quickly recruited DiCaprio as a lure.
Curtis recalled that Tobey stated that he would have to stake Leo. This would mean they would pay cash for DiCaprio’s play, covering his losses, while also sharing in his winnings.
“[DiCaprio] has a net worth of $80 million, and he didn’t want to pay $5,000 for the buy-in. Tobey assured him, “Don’t worry.
Matt was invited by his friend Affleck to attend a party one night.
Curtis said that he lost approximately $50,000 to me and didn’t have any money on him.
(Reps for Maguire Meyer, Affleck Damon, and DiCaprio didn’t return requests for comment. Bloom had no comment. )
Todd Phillips, director of “Joker”, was a regular.
“But when we went up to $200/$400 blinds,” which made it a no-limit game in poker where you could easily lose six figures per evening, “Todd backed away for a while. Some people simply couldn’t stomach those stakes”.
Guy Laliberte, Cirque du Soleil founder, and Brad Ruderman, hedge-fund manager, were two of those who did. Curtis stated that Ruderman was both inept and rich, which was why he was called “a godsend.”
Curtis said that Guy was Guy’s first night playing the game and that he invited Curtis and his poker crew to fly to Hawaii with him.
“One morning, a bunch of men took him up on it. They beat him for $2 million [in Hawaii] and then he flew them back in his jet.”
He
tried to make [Bloom] bark look like a seal [for $1000].Curtis on Maguire
(Laliberte didn’t respond to requests for comment. )
Curtis estimates that he won $15 million throughout the four-year game. His wife, Curtis, and their two daughters lived in an LA home worth $3 million. He bought a dream home for his mother, a musical instrument store for his father, and a dojo to train his old karate instructor.
Curtis became friends with Maguire.
Curtis claims in the book that Maguire was a snob and would take home as much as $30,000 per night in tips. According to him, the actor tried to make her
He gave her a thousand dollars that night, but she wouldn’t do it. His insult tip was one-thousand dollars.
Curtis was facing a trio of problems by 2008. His $3 million home’s value had dropped by two-thirds, his $4 million TV distribution deal had gone south, and he had lost $100,000 to Las Vegas. The Four Seasons was his worst night, and he lost $1 million.
Curtis was driving home on autopilot when Maguire called him. “He wanted to make sure that I wasn’t driving off the cliff,” he said. My daughter ran up to me and I burst into tears as I walked into her house.
Despite his earnings, the million-dollar debt was beyond what he could afford.
Maguire agreed to lend him $600,000.
Curtis said, “I thought that was reasonable.” Maguire, who according to unnamed sources in Curtis’ introduction “could have earned up to $30 to $40 million from the games”, had reportedly earned $36.5 million plus back-end earnings on “Spider-Man,” thought otherwise.
He wanted Curtis to be his principal and 50 percent of his wins. There was no downside.
Curtis stated that the deal was “impossible to overcome”. He accepted it because he had no other option. Salomon owed him $500,000 and a few other players the same amount.
Curtis wrote that the deal was done. Maguire laughed and exclaimed, “I now own you!” And I’m going to make sooo much f–king money at poker this year!”
It didn’t work out this way.
Months later, Ruderman was caught running a Ponzi scheme-funded hedge fund. The game collapsed as bankruptcy lawyers pursued players to recover his ill-gotten profits.
Bloom was deposed in a bankruptcy case. However, no one was arrested for the LA game because
Curtis’s wife, along with their children, moved to the East Coast. His home was placed under a lien by creditors. During a biopsy, he went into cardiac arrest. He was also held in LA County jail for a month because of an unpaid Las Vegas casino debt.
Broken, abandoned, and beaten, Curtis received $15,000 from Moonves to help him find a ride to Illinois where he would live with his mother.
He said, “The dream home was sold.” “I moved into her tiny home and a doctor said that my heart was at 25%.
He lost weight in desperate attempts to change things. The heart condition was reversed. Curtis now resides in Phoenix, where he is writing his next book about his exploits playing card cheats — and launching a sleight of hand website, kardsharp.com.
Maguire has not spoken to Curtis in three years.
He said, “I don’t have all of my money back.”
Conclusion
So is Tobey Maguire a compulsive gambler? The answer is no. So, do not pay attention to those false rumors about Tobey Maguire and gambling.
While he may enjoy playing poker games, there is no evidence to suggest that he has a gambling problem.