Molly hosted several most exceptional games on the planet with the participation of Hollywood celebrities, business sharks and money bags from Wall street. She was always in sight of the FBI, she started to play with the drugs and was threatened to be killed by the mafia from Russia. In 2014 Molly published a book with her reminiscence which lately was used as a base for the plot.
A beginner becomes a poker queen.
In 2003 Molly decided to wait some time before continuing her education and went to Los Angeles. She changed many places of work to earn her living, she even tried the job of a bar waiter. The most extravagant activity was the post of manager assistant. You may read about her employee in the book, she called him Reardon, she mentioned that once he asked her help in organizing poker games. These activities were carried out at the Viper Room club. The initial stake was $10.000, so famous people very frequent guests, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Toby Maguire among them. Molly gained all her knowledge about poker from internet resources. In a short period, Bloom was a hostess to private poker games which gathered dozens of rich people. And within some time she opened Molly Bloom Inc.
Toby Maguire was mentioned in her hook. He used to win millions in her club but was very greedy to give a tip. Once he demanded her to imitate seal barking to get $1000. The other time he was gloating the other player had taken over her game. And Molly finished this relationship.
New York Struggle
In 2009, after finishing with Los Angeles, Molly started her way in New York. She was operating prestigious poker games for very rich people. But unfortunately, drugs came into her life. She developed alcohol addiction to kill her nervousness. She was suffering from depression and anxiety. But the really dangerous time began when Molly began to request a part of the profit. This was not legal anymore.
She writes about her acquaintance with the Russian Mafia. It happened in 2010, they offered to protect her for cash payments. Molly refused and it was a fatal decision. She was attacked by a gangster in her home, beaten and robbed. They took all cash and jewelry and threatened with a gun. But it does not stop Molly, she could not resist running the games. She was telling about this terrific time in the conversation with the press.
“I lost myself when I started making a lot of money and became consumed with greed. It’s a sad thing to see yourself so spiritually bankrupt.”
-Molly Bloom
Further Misfortunes
Times were just becoming harder in 2011. FBI raided one the games privately held by Molly. They demanded to stop the activity as it was related to the Ponzi scheme investigation. Bradley Ruderman, a player from Los Angeles was among the suspects. He was actually the reason how the illegal games were known to the FBI. Later it was advised Ruderman spent over 5 million dollars of stolen money for poker. During the investigation, they revealed details of some other influential people engaged in unlawful gambling. Very famous participants like Dan Bilzerian were called to court by bankruptcy guardian concerning the costs received from Ruderman.
The arrest took place in 2013. Molly and nearly thirty other people were accused of money laundering and underground gambling. She was risking to spend long years in prison. All her belongings were arrested too. They announced her guilty 2014, but luckily under an easier charge. So the potential imprisonment term reduced to 6 months only as her role in poker gambling activity was considered to be minor. At the end of the story, Molly manages to escape jail at all getting only a year of probation period. In addition to this, she had to cover 200 hours of community work and pay a fine of $200.000.
The Movie and the Memoir
When announcing the verdict, the judge mentioned the book Molly was working on. He expressed hope that Molly made a proper conclusion from her story. Especially because of the condescending sentence she received. And then Bloom called her memoir a warning tale.
But in no way she agreed to make public the names of poker players who were often guests in her private games. She only mentioned those famous people whose names had been already disclosed in connection with the gambling process earlier. Molly managed to keep this position otherwise she believed she would be destroyed.
The purpose of presenting all her reminiscence in a book was partially a way to pay of a huge fine and debts she had grown during the investigation and court proceedings. It was her who persistently approached the director of the future film about her. She finally managed to sell the idea to shoot a movie based on her story.
The film turned out to be very true to life. It depicted all major happenings and events of Molly’s life but still remained quite confidential. No names were ever disclosed, only certain character traits could reveal resemblance with Toby Maguire. The gaming place was shown as a lounge for poker named the Cobra Club. Sorkin also introduced some fictional characters like Molly’s lawyer. Some critics compare this character to a movie director. As the role demonstrates a change of attitude to the protagonist of the film from skeptical to respectful.
The movie proved to be very successful bringing to Sorkin Oscar nomination for the best screenplay adaption. The story tells us clearly that no one can ever know where the truth is.
