You just have to watch out for those small town girls from Colorado. They can be dangerous.
That was Molly Bloom. She grew up with two younger brothers who were aspiring Olympics gold medalists and aspiring professional athletes. She skied. She had dreams of competing in the Olympics herself. It never happened.
Instead, she ended up running one of the biggest poker games in the world. It operated in Los Angeles and New York. It drew top poker-playing celebrities like Ben Affleck and Tobey Mcguire and they attracted millionaires and even billionaires who were attracted to the million dollar pots, the cocaine, and the sizzle of fame.
Molly claims she was just a small town girl who got caught up in the bright lights, the celebrities and a card game she knew nothing about. I like to believe people are honest when they tell me something, especially when they put it into a book called 'Molly's Game' that was made into a movie. But I strongly doubt it was really that simple.
Bloom says she was working in the Viper Room, a prestigious nightclub, when her employer asked her to host a no-limit poker game for some top celebrities. She said she carried out his instructions, hired Playboy Bunnies to serve the drinks, and made $3,000 in tips that night.
She said that hooked her.
The games that followed got bigger and bigger. The word got around about the celebrities playing in the games and people with a lot of money, including some mobsters, heard about the and started showing up.
Molly Bloom was more than willing to host the games. As they grew in size -- one night one of the players lost $100 million -- Molly made up to $50,000 in tips for an evening's work.
She lost her small town's girl innocence and lost herself in a world of alcohol, cocaine and thousand dollar chips.
Her family didn't know about her drug addiction. They only knew she was involved in hosting poker games that would last up to three days at a time.
Her brothers began attending the games. They saw the players and the millions of dollars in chips and they started worrying about their sister. They thought she was in over her head. Molly was on a cocaine high and the euphoria made her ignore any outsiders and their advice, including her brothers.
After a while, the tips weren't enough for Bloom. She began cutting the pots of the illegal games and her earnings increased to around $4 million. Somebody, probably one of the losers, notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The world of the small town girl from Colorado came crashing down. One morning in April 2013 FBI agents raided the game and Molly and more than a dozen other persons were arrested.
She frantically called her mother. When her mother arrived at the cell where Bloom was held, she was in handcuffs.
Since then Molly Bloom has gone through a lot of changes. While awaiting trial she wrote a book and managed to find a producer who decided to make a movie about her life. It was released around Christmas. I haven't seen it but it's supposed to be a good film.
She borrowed money from her mother to pay her attorney's fees. Today she lives with her 90-year-old grandmother near Denver, CO. She is working her 12-step program and has kicked her cocaine habit.
In dozens of interviews she has done about the movie and her book, she claims her life is back to normal and that she is in bed every evening at 8:30 p.m. Excuse me if I don't totally believe that. But it's Molly's story and I guess she deserves the benefit of the doubt.
She did have some nice things to say about Ben Affleck. She calls him a gentleman and a nice guy. She doesn't have anything nice to say about Tobey Maguire. You'll have to read the book to see what she thinks of him.
She loves Jessica Chastain who plays her in the movie. And she says she is through with poker.
That's Molly's Game and she's sticking to it.
Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.
(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).
