The MagicalGSH Journey – Prologue
May 26, 2025
As the WSOP continued to grow after the Moneymaker Effect in 2003, the odds of winning the Main Event became increasingly daunting or even making the Final Table. What we needed was a bold vision. A $250,000 buy-in, a field capped at 40 players, and a $5 million top prize. The perfect setting? Monte Carlo — the stomping grounds of James Bond himself.
So I went there and launched the Monte Carlo IPPA Poker Championship. Mori Eskandani of Pro Productions got CBS onboard. They agreed to air eight consecutive Saturday episodes and a Sunday finale during the summer of 2010. Everything was in place — the format, the location, the media.
To attract attention, we needed name players and Hollywood cachet. It was 2009 when Larry Gordon, well-connected in Hollywood, introduced me to two of the top fundraisers in the industry. They told me it would be a slam dunk.
But if you’ve seen The Big Short, you know what was coming. Financial institutions had set into motion a series of disastrous strategies that led to the collapse of the entire global financial economy. Overnight, the high-stakes poker world had changed. I had gone from spreading $400/$800 HORSE three times a week with Jerry Buss to not being able to scare up even a $50/$100 game.
To promote the tournament, I filed a patent for a new format: the “Equity Re-buy Tournament.” Mo Fathi would later evolve this into what’s now known as the Multi-day Re-Entry Tournament — now a staple on the circuit.
Jerry Buss told me it’s tough being a pioneer but that if not for the timing and the collapse of the financial market, the idea might have taken off. I took some solace when “Black Friday” hit in April 2010, and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, Preet Bharara shut down the remaining online poker sites in the U.S. Those were the very companies we were counting on for sponsorship. Mr. Bharara was the basis for the composite character played by Paul Giamatti in Billions.
That spring, my situation felt dire. Two years of tireless effort had come to nothing. My health was deteriorating. I had severe arthritis in both knees — Jerry told me there was no cure — and painful neuropathy in my feet. My endocrinologist’s only advice was to keep my feet covered at all time. Not satisfied with only that advice, I subjected myself to foot massages so painful I would squirm and tear up the entire 30 minutes. I remember thinking, “If I’m threatened with torture, I’ll just talk. No question.”
My poker play had declined. I missed things I never used to. I read about a man who lost everything in the crash and came home to shoot his wife and two daughters before also taking his own life. What a coward, I thought — to deny his children the chance to live their lives. I had triplets, 10 years old at the time. No matter how bad things got, I knew I had to man up, some way, somehow and get them through school.
2010 Christmas Card
