Teddy KGB, the underground poker boss played by John Malkovich in Rounders, was clearly a swine, but he grasped the underpinning of gambling.
When Mike McDermott, the up-and-coming poker kid portrayed by Matt Damon, beat the hell out of him during a high-stakes freezeout, Teddy uttered the memorable words:
“Pay him. Pay that man his money.”
Poker Player Brought Down After Players Couldn’t Withdraw
If the “pay that man his money” part of it had been heeded by the French poker player Grégoire Auzoux and his colleagues in running the poker site Crésus Casino, Auzoux might not have been arrested, and released, and slapped with charges that include illegally offering online gaming.
Operating out of Cypress and Curacao, the site came to the attention of EU authorities after players complained about not being able to pull out winnings. Whoops!
A poker player helped run a site that broke the unwritten gambler’s compact. If you owe money, pay the other guy. In fact, paying with grace is a takeaway that gamblers should learn early on.
Don’t Be A Baby
Lessons of morality and financial responsibility get driven home by gambling at poker, in the pit, at sports. You owe money and you pay it without dodging the other guy or acting like a baby.
Don Johnson, the horseracing genius, won a ton at high-stakes blackjack by beating the house at its own game. But he also lost on plenty of occasions.
James Grosjean, one of the guys who played on Don Johnson’s team and was integral to his heavyweight wins, paid a serious prop to the guy.
“Don has a stomach of steel. He can lose a million dollars and get up from the table with just one question: ‘Where are we eating tonight?’”
Money Beefs Gone Public
If everyone took the process of paying off so well, we wouldn’t have to read social media posts from one poker player complaining about another – and basically taking the financial beef public – over money lost or borrowed and not made good on.
This past July, on Twitter/X, the high-stakes player Jason Mo called out Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier for allegedly not coming through on paying off seven-figures of debt. I do not know the particulars, as the allegations were briefly visible before being made private.
Casinos can disappoint players as well.
There is the 73-year-old penny slots gambler in Atlantic City who claims that she did not get paid off on a $1.2-million dollar jackpot. The casino maintains that the machine suffered from “reel tilt” (which basically means it displayed an outcome other than the one produced by the random number generator).
A Midwestern sports bettor had some $800,000 in winnings held back due to what the casino alleges was structured betting.
They both lawyered up and want to be paid.
Prepare For Problems, Look For Solutions
Maybe everyone will do well to take the advice of poker streaming superstar Lex Veldhuis.
“My mindset, coming from poker, is [that] you always consider that things might not work out,” he told Spadepoker in March. “And if they don’t, you look for a solution.”
Let’s all aim for solutions that get players paid off and do not result in legal action.
Michael Kaplan is a journalist based in New York City. He is the author of six books including Advantage Players, and has worked for publications that include Wired, GQ and the New York Post. He has written extensively on technology, gambling, and business — with a particular interest in spots where all three intersect. His article on Kelly “Baccarat Machine” Sun and Phil Ivey is currently in development as a feature film.
