MOLLY BLOOM ‘I’M GRATEFUL TO THE FBI’
THE REAL-LIFE ‘POKER PRINCESS’ TELLS NEW IDEA WHAT REALLY WENT ON AT THOSE GAMES AND WHAT IT’S LIKE TO SEE YOUR LIFE ON THE BIG SCREEN
At 26 years of age, Molly Bloom found herself running the world’s most exclusive, high-stakes underground poker game, which attracted Hollywood’s biggest celebrities, athletes and mobsters. But it went wrong for Molly, who was arrested in the middle of the night by the FBI. And since then, her life has been turned into the hit film, Molly’s Game.
A lot of money was thrown around at the poker games you were running, what was the largest pot that you saw?
I don’t remember the largest pot, but I remember the largest loss and that was $100 million in one night. And he paid the next day!
How did it feel to rub shoulders with celebrities?
It was kind of shocking being from a small town and just accidentally being in this room with these people, but that wore off pretty quickly because what was so much more compelling to me was building a business around that. So, then the celebrities became friends if they were nice people or huge assets to me in a business.
Did you have relationships with any of your clients?
In the movie I didn’t have any relationships, but that’s not true to life. I wanted to be there in a professional sense, but over time I got a little bit lonelier. When I got to New York, I did get involved with some people that were peripherally in that world.
When did you realise that you had to stop running these games?
It started to be very dangerous. I was making terrible decisions, but I think I was pretty addicted to the money, the power – by that time drugs – and I had just really lost myself. I don’t know if I actually would have ever gotten out on my own will, so in a strange way I am very grateful to the FBI and the IRS that ultimately ended my career.
Now it has all been turned into a film, was it an accurate portrayal?
Aaron Sorkin didn’t have a lot of source material. There were no biographies about me, so he only had me for the information and it really did closely follow the real story.
What are you doing now?
My life is very peaceful and mellow now. I meditate a lot. I hang out with my family, and I’m doing a lot of speaking engagements, which is a really amazing opportunity to share my experience.