SPIDER-MAN’S EVIL HOLLY WOOD HUSTLE!
The incredible REAL story of the world’’s most exclusive high-stakes poker ring!
THE movie version of a real-life highstakes Hollywood poker ring told in the film “Molly’s Game” whitewashed a shocking Tinseltown hustle that played both billionaires and superstars for patsies!
In a bombshell worldwide exclusive, The National ENQUIRER has learned “Spider-Man” star Tobey Maguire was involved in a massive rigged game that swindled millions and ultimately crashed and burned after an FBI probe!
Shockingly, Maguire sucked three of his closest A-list pals — Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Affleck — into his web without their knowledge, who were then robbed blind!
That’s the claim of Houston Curtis, a TV producer and card shark who said he secretly forged an alliance with
Maguire to dominate the tables at their underground card games with “Poker Princess” Molly Bloom.
Curtis has written a tell-all claiming he helped cook up the poker game as a “pure money-making scam” from the very beginning — long before busty brunette Bloom entered the picture!
What’s more, we’ve obtained a series of photos of Curtis and Maguire showing their close friendship.
“Tobey and I made Molly rich beyond her wildest dreams,” Curtis wrote in “The Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist: A Tale of Monumental Excess, Sex, Greed, the A-list Kingpin & the Shakedown That Brought Down Tinseltown.”
“How did she thank us for it? We were the first two names she gave to the FBI when she struck a deal to save her own ass from the feds.”
Bloom — played by actress Jessica Chastain in the Oscarnominated 2017 film — was eventually busted as part of a $100 million money laundering and illegal sports gambling operation in New York City. The movie “Molly’s Game” was adapted from a memoir written by Bloom, who had been a promising competitive skier before retiring
WHISTLEBLOWER MAKES SHOCKING CLAIM THE MOVIE HERO IS REAL-LIFE VILLAIN!
from the sport.
A Colorado native, she relocated to Los Angeles and began hosting unlicensed no-limit Texas hold ’em poker games with a $100,000 buyin that Maguire and Curtis helped set up.
“Bloom became nothing more than a pawn for others to rake in millions from unsuspecting suckers they lured into their collective web,” a source who played in the game told The ENQUIRER. In one excerpt from his tellall obtained exclusively by The ENQUIRER, Curtis explained the super select poker club used secret passwords to play at celeb-friendly venues like the Four Seasons, The Beverly Hills Hotel and the notorious Viper Room on Sunset Boulevard.
“Right out of the gate, the entire game was designed to empty the pockets of the uninitiated, the celeb-loving, rich Los Angeles suckers,” Curtis wrote.
“Millionaire trust-fund types and heirs to offshore fortunes. Guys who’d made a killing on Wall Street, or in tech startups, or on the internet, or by lucking out on the back of someone else’s talent.
“In short, men with more money than they knew what to do with. Men who weren’t necessarily very good at poker — but who wouldn’t mind writing a six-figure check every now and then for the thrill of getting to sit next to some genuine Hollywood big shots.”
Incredibly, the whole scam came crashing down when one gambler’s losing hand triggered a monster lawsuit! The government caught wind of the game while looking into the finances of Beverly Hills hedge fund manager Brad Ruderman, former CEO of Ruderman Capital Partners. Ruderman, who was recently released from jail, bilked investors out of $25 million — which he dipped into to settle debts run up at Bloom’s poker table from 2006 to 2009. Maguire — who starred in three “Spider-Man” films between 2002 and 2007 — was subsequently sued for $311,300 in a bid to reclaim some of the funds.
But Curtis claimed before that happened, he and Maguire paid “ridiculous amounts of money” in tips to Bloom so she would “pretend the game was hers!”
In his most staggering revelation, Curtis has divulged he led a secret double life as a highly skilled card mechanic — and deliberately rigged the game he organized with Maguire!
“Even though we had a shuffle master and a dedicated dealer, I knew I would still be able to use my card mechanics throughout the course of any given night,” Curtis wrote in his book, which is being shopped to publishers.
“There’d always be a little side action going on, and so, for example, if anyone ever wanted to gamble to see who could cut the highest card, it was child’s play to me to make sure I was a guaranteed winner every time.”
Maguire, 43, was not aware of Curtis’ card-rigging abilities nor was he complicit in any scheme, The ENQUIRER has been told.
“He helped me cover a million-dollar loss, but I was