It was recently revealed that World Series of Poker Main Event winner, Jamie Gold, is being taken to court by television development executive, Bruce Crispin Leyser.
Gold, 36 from Malibu, California, was offered his WSOP seat by online cardroom, Bodog, in return for finding celebrities to don the sponsor's gear, thereby promoting the name.
According to Leyser, Gold had asked him for assistance in this quest, thereby informally agreeing to 'share' the seat and any potential winnings. This agreement, however, never developed into much more than an 'oral contract', although it is said that there are various answer machine recordings from the latter stages of the tournament that refer to the aforementioned deal.
Of course, as we all know, whilst Leyser was searching for the likes of Dax Shepard (hoaxer on cult TV show, Punk'd) and Matthew Lillard ('Shaggy' in the recent 'Scooby Doo' films), Gold went on to win the Main Event and scoop a massive 12 million dollars - the biggest prize ever won in a single poker tournament.
Leyser's claim is that after keeping his end of the bargain, he is now owed half of that sum, 6 million dollars - a figure which he is yet to be paid.
As a result of Leyser's complaint, Chief District Judge Kathy Hardcastle has passed an order preventing Gold from collecting his WSOP winnings from the Rio until the matter is settled.
Gold has yet to comment.