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You've just won $12 million dollars in the largest poker tournament in the world. You're elated and thinking about how you will spend your money. Then the lawyers arrive. You have a friend who seems to think he is entitled to half of your winnings. There was no contract, but there was a phone call and a message left on an answering machine. This is why they say you should never drunk dial. Jamie Gold, the winner of the World Series of Poker tournament recently held in Las Vegas, is being sued by Crispin Leyser, a television development executive and instructor for the World Poker Tour Boot Camp. Leyser claims in the suit that he should be receiving half of Gold's first-place prize money in the WSOP's main event because of an arrangement Leyser says he and Gold had made prior to the start of the tournament. Now the court is withholding Gold's $12 million dollar win. Gold wasn't drunk when he left the message, by the way. That was me being sarcastic. He was, however, being extremely foolish. Here's the message as left on Leyser's voice mail: "Hey, it’s Jamie. Thank you for your message. I slept pretty well so we should be fine. I have a real good plan on what to do for today. Thank you for all your help. I wanted to let you know about the money. You’re obviously very well protected. Everything will be fine. But nothing’s going to happen today, that’s for sure. I have the best tax attorneys and the best minds in the business working for me from New York and L.A. And what we’re probably going to do is set up a Nevada Corporation and it’s going to… I have to pay out of the corporation. I can’t just pay out personally because I could get nailed. So it might take a few days, so please be patient. I promise you, you can keep this recording on my word. There’s no possible way you’re not going to get you’re half after taxes. So please just be with me. I can’t imagine you’re going to have a problem with it.” Gold continued, “I just don’t want any stress about any money or any of that sh-- going on today, or even after the end of the day. I’m sure you’re going to be fine. You’re going to be very well taken care of, absolutely fairly. We’re just trying to handle this properly and after now I don’t even want to talk about it or think about it. But please just trust me. You’ve trusted me the whole way. You can trust me a little bit more. I promise you there’s no way anybody will go anywhere with your money. It’s your money. All right, I send you love. Thank you for your support.” There's no denying through the message that Gold is going to give Leyser some money. What isn't clear is half of what amount is Gold referring to. No where does he say he's going to give him half of his winnings from the tournament. There's another point which is being ignored by Leyser. Leyser is asking for $6 million dollars, but even if Gold promised him half of the winnings, he stipulated that it would be half after taxes, not before. As such his total would be considerably less, as the US government gets their share first. Even still, Leysers team is being optimistic. "As evidenced in the complaint, our presentation is strong," Leyser's attorney, Richard Schoenfeld, said. "The judge preliminarily found that we are likely to succeed on the merits of the case and therefore granted the temporary restraining order and the hearing on Sept. 1." Leyser did a job, so he deserves to be paid. I just don't think he deserves $6 million dollars for the job he did. Gold's entry to the main event was paid for by Bodog.com, an online poker site. According to the lawsuit, Gold, approached Leyser asking for his assistance in finding celebrities to play under Bodog's name. An ABC article stated the following, "If any celebrities were found, Bodog offered either Gold or Leyser one seat to the main event. He and Gold agreed, the lawsuit says, that whoever received the seat would give 50 percent of the winnings to the other." That makes no sense to me. Bodog never offered the seat to Leyser, they had a contract with Gold, who is a better player. Gold may have asked Leyser for help in securing celebrities to promote Bodog, but that has nothing to do with his winnings. From all of the research I have done on this situation, there was no contract between Bodog and Leyser stating that this request was made in their name, nor was there a formal contract between Gold and Leyser. I can't blame Gold for not directing the Rio to share his prize money. I also don't think the going rate for getting Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard to sit in a tournament wearing Bodog.com t-shirts is $6 million dollars. Neither of these guys are household names where I live. Lillard played Shaggy in the two Scooby-Doo movies (ok, I do know who he is and he is pretty cool, but still) and the most memorable part Shepard has played in was the guy who faked his own death in my favorite TV show – My Name is Earl. I hope Gold's phone message doesn't end up shooting him in the foot. Leyser wants his money direct from Rio because he doesn't trust Gold. Leyser apparently has issues with the fact that Gold is a gambler and feels that he might run off with the money. Gold has the option to split the money before so that each individual would be responsible for their own taxes. According to Gary Thompson, the director of communications for Harrah's, which owns the Rio, once Gold won the main event, he had the opportunity to go to the cage at the Rio and give instructions to split up the money on the spot. "When a person wins a cash prize, whatever the amount is, they can designate that part of it can go to a different individual," Thompson said. Posted on: August 28, 2006
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