If you thought Molly Bloom was the real hero of the highstakes underground poker games that featured in blockbuster Hollywood movie Molly’s Game, then think again. TV producer and confessed card cheat Houston Curtis claims he was the main driving force behind the games that Tobey Maguire ran in California, and Molly Bloom was merely an extra.
Curtis claims Molly Bloom was not the mastermind behind the high stakes game
Curtis’ recently published book – Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist – tells a tale of how he joined up with Spiderman actor Tobey Maguire to “empty the pockets of those rich, celeb-loving LA suckers.”
It includes claims of Leonardo DiCaprio unwilling to pay a $5k buy-in despite his $80million fortune. There is another story of Matt Damon (seen below in his iconic Rounders role). Damon lost $50k to Curtis and asked Ben Affleck to write a check to cover it.
As for Molly Bloom, the former Olympic skiing hopeful played by Jessica Chastain, seen below, in the eponymous movie from 2017, Curtis says she “had nothing to do with anything,” adding: “Initially, she just served drinks and we gave her numbers to call the guys.”
In the book’s opening pages, Curtis admits: “The movie got a few things right. Molly Bloom was certainly beautiful, smart and driven.
It continues, however: “But was she the true mastermind behind the most exclusive multi-million-dollar poker game in Tinseltown history? That, as they say in the biz…was pure Hollywood, baby.”
His own version?
“What if I were to tell you that the whole thing was designed entirely as a shuttle from the very beginning? That Tobey and I planned every last detail to give ourselves a huge advantage?”
That Curtis and Maguire poker scam ‘love-affair’ began back in 2004. He claims it started with an invite to a private game at the Spiderman star’s Hollywood Hills home.
“I dumped chips to guys who played badly and would lose them back,” says Curtis. He noticed he’d “never be invited again” if he had used his cardsharp skills.
“I hustled my first hand of poker aged ten”, claims Curtis. Even though how accurate his book is nobody can really tell, given that it is co-authored by Dylan Howard.
“Joker” director a regular in high stakes games?
Howard, author of several previous books, formerly ran the National Enquirer, and was exposed as working with Harvey Weinstein ‘to run damaging stories about his accusers’.
Ousted just this week from his Enquirer role, he also reportedly ‘played a central role in burying stories damaging to President Trump’ as the now-President ran for the White House office.
Nevertheless, suspending disbelief and the characters of the authors, the book if true paints an ugly picture of greed in the highstakes underground poker world.
Unlike Bloom’s account of the underground games, which saw many names hinted at but never expressly revealed, Curtis’ version doesn’t seem to mind who it calls out.
‘Joker’ director Todd Phillips is claimed to have been a regular. He scared off when the stakes hit $200/$400, while Guy Laliberte of Cirque Du Soleil fame reputedly lost $millions.
“The first time I won a quarter-million dollars was Guy’s first night in the game,” said Curtis of the One Drop poker charity founder.
He also tells a tale of Laliberte flying players out to Hawaii on his private jet for a poker game. He lost $2million to them and then sent them back again.
It’s likely to be a riveting read, but don’t expect anything you haven’t heard a version of before.
The $15million Curtis claims to have won is long-since gone. His wife and kids, home and pretty much everything he once owned are also gone. A sensational ‘tell-all’ book that puts him in Molly Bloom’s rather famous shoes may well be his only way back.
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