A series of articles in a top entertainment magazine trains the spotlight not on what some of the biggest players in the entertainment industry do in front of the cameras, but on what they do in their spare time with America’s original national pastime.
The Hollywood Reporter offers several articles that expose the high stakes poker world of the entertainment industry and names the players who make up those games. The first piece, written by Kim Masters and Daniel Miller, tells the story of why some of the biggest names in Hollywood partake of high stakes poker games by examining the fall of former hedge fund manager Bradley Ruderman.
Ruderman, who was able to talk his way into the Hollywood poker scene in 2006, was convicted in 2009 of running a Ponzi scheme through his investment firm, Ruderman Capital Partners. After he was sentenced to ten years in jail, Ruderman’s company fell into bankruptcy and trustees taxed with retrieving money for bilked investors filed lawsuits that went after such high profile celebrities as actors Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Gabe Kaplan for the money they won from Ruderman.
For many of the celebrities in Hollywood, the allure of poker is in its risk taking. In discussing his private home game, former Warner Brothers president Alan Horn is quoted as saying, “This Texas Hold’em stuff can get pretty serious.” He compared his smaller home game to the type of high stakes games played by the above mentioned gentlemen, saying, “(Their game) is another animal. We’re all animals, but we (his game) are playing the gazelle version and the guys across the watering hole are playing the lion-and-tiger version.”
Another draw for the Hollywood poker elite is the opportunity to discuss business and commiserate with fellow industry professionals in a relaxed atmosphere. Masters and Miller quote actor Joshua Malina, who co-created the Bravo show Celebrity Poker Showdown, as saying, “Poker is the millennium’s golf course. Over poker, a lot of friendships and business relationships are made.”
The series continues with an examination of what the Hollywood Reporter calls the “upside” and the “downside” of poker in Tinseltown. Malina is the focus of the “upside” article, reflecting on how several New York poker sessions with Academy Award winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin led to him being cast in several of Sorkin’s projects. Those games led to Malina’s move to Los Angeles, where he continued playing in actor Hank Azaria’s home game until Azaria asked him to stop coming to games because he was “too serious” about poker.
The “downside” of Hollywood poker is detailed out by an unnamed actor who was a regular on a television series in the 1990s. In that article, the unnamed actor talks about how he started playing at “higher and higher” stakes, cashing his wife’s paycheck to get in a game and how he would lie to his wife about going on auditions when, in fact, he was going to Hollywood Park Casino to play.
Finally, the series concludes with a list of some of the biggest home poker games in town, who hosts them and who attends the games. For Horn, the game is Dealer’s Choice with a buy in of $1000. Former Warner Brothers chairman Bob Daly and his wife, songwriter Carole Bayer Sager, host CBS Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves and DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, among others, in their $1000 game. Record producer Jon Landau goes for the Texas and Omaha versions of Pot Limit Hold’em, but with a much lower $300 buy in.
The series of stories only serves to show something that is true when it comes to poker. While the stakes may be higher, the “accessories” (such as masseuses for player) may be more luxurious and the names may be bigger, the American game of poker appeals across all spectrums of people because of its competitive nature and psychological complexities.
