Molly Bloom – The Woman Who Played the Big Game
Few people today have not heard of Molly Bloom. Her life story takes us through sports achievements, sickness, addiction, and become one of the top organisers of games in the underground world of poker. We will tell you her story in this article, and then you will see for yourself what made her so special.
Today, Molly Bloom is still a glamorous persona, who no longer lives in the shadows of the unauthorised gambling dens. Instead, she had turned her attention to making other women successful. Read on to find out how she achieved it all. Before we go in depths of her poker games involvement, we will tell you how she started.
Who is Molly Bloom?
Molly Bloom is an incredibly strong person who overcame the challenges life gave her with finesse, intelligence, and courage. Sounds like an inspirational character from a book or a movie, and she is, but before all this, she was a smart little girl. She does not share much about her early life in her memoirs “Molly’s Game”, but we know that she was born into a competitive family and raised to be a winner. It is fair to say that the first thing Molly learned was never to give up.
Her devotion to skiing ranked her third in North America and opened the path to Olympic qualification run. This is where fate sent a tiny twig to trip Molly’s ski. A dark cloud fell over the young girl’s life as she had to give up a promising sports career and think of getting normal jobs. It got worse when her brothers excelled in their fields and became a professional athlete and a surgeon. No doubt it was tough for her to be happy for their success and at the same time look for a bright future for herself.
As if to escape the darkness and put skiing behind, Molly moved to sunny Los Angeles. She decided to take a year under the sun and think of what she is great at before fulfilling the long term dream to study law. LA proved to be an incredible place to live as long as you have money. Molly’s empty pockets and desire to win lead her to get various jobs as a waitress. This is where fate put another twig on her path (more like a spiky shrub) that changed her life forever.
From Cocktail Waitress to a ‘Poker Princess’
Today, Molly Bloom is a famous woman with an incredible gambling story to tell. But years ago, when she made her first steps towards the world of poker, she used to serve the drinks to the players. Back then she was far from thinking about big money or if she will ever break some of California’s gambling laws.
Molly Bloom’s First Steps in Underground Gambling
It’s a spreadsheet. – Molly Bloom
The Molly Bloom poker life started when her boss appointed her to organise the poker game for the night. At that time, she knew nothing about the game or the underground poker rooms in Los Angeles. As Molly told in her book, she had to Google and learn everything from scratch. Her persistence and drive to excel in every task helped her learn the psychology of gambling and set up the best gaming environment.
For the first game organised by her, Molly prepared the food, drinks, and chose the music. The evening was a success and she pocketed $3000 in tips. With every new game, the young girl’s confidence grew. She observed the players and memorised what each of them liked. The most important lesson here was that the men around the poker table were not just gamblers; they were excessively rich gamblers. From that point on, Molly aimed to deliver the best possible gaming environment for them.
Her efforts were noticed by two people – her boss and Player X, and each of them approached her. Her boss did not like that she runs the game in a way he can’t understand (like using spread sheets). He accused her of having an affair with the players and even for taking his money. Molly was sure that she will be fired and not long after her prediction became true. She lost her job as a poker game organiser and as an executive assistant. Molly predicted this move and took countermeasures.
Excellence Has No Limits
The Molly Bloom film and book show us that there was a time when she did not worry about breaking any of the US gambling laws. At that time, Molly aimed to provide comfortable environment for the players and stood away from the gambling part of poker.
Once she was free from the boss no one liked, she opened her own game room. The first thing she did was to take the players from the shadowy clubs and set the table at luxurious hotel rooms.
She upscaled the environment and offered seats at the tables. Soon, the players chose her as a host to their games and abandoned all other locations. Thесе were her first solid steps up to status the tabloids will call ‘Poker Princess’.
That is when Player X’s offer dropped. He knew that people wanted to play with celebrities like him, so he stayed at the table. His fame of a nasty and merciless player was outshined by his even worse personality. The only good part was that he was bringing in money and people wanted to brag that they have played with him.
The cooperation between Molly and Player X continued until he became greedy and requested part of her tips. She had no intention of giving him anything and found another celebrity player. This was not difficult considering that at that time, she was already known as an excellent game runner and operator. Many of the players that sat on her tables were celebrities like:
- Leonardo DiCaprio
- Ben Affleck
- Tobey Maguire (Player X)
- Alec Gores
- Macaulay Culkin
- Matt Damon
- Alex Rodriguez
- Nelly
- Andy Beal
- Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen
- Phil Ivey
- Rick Salomon
The bankers, businessmen, and the multiple celebrities raised the level of the game, and Molly Bloom raised the bar to $10,000 and later $250,000 to enter the game. As she shared in her book, “Molly’s Game”, the games went so crazy that at a certain point a player lost $100 million in a single night and paid the next day. It did not take long, and she began to report personal earnings of over $4 million per year. By the looks of it, Molly was on the path to glory and immense riches.
Molly Bloom’s Breakup with Poker
The entre Molly Bloom poker organising career skyrocketed in a few years, and eventually, she became the bank. Loaning money and vouching for players was easy at the start, especially when the players were able to pay their debts. Here once again, fate joined the game. Player X took away the game from Molly, and she had to leave LA. The sense of failure and loss of employment pushed her towards alcohol.
The only path to health, sanity, and wealth was Molly Bloom’s wise decision to get busy working. She wasted no time and opened a gambling room in New York. This time, she added sports betting to the poker games. As she quickly discovered, there were no movie stars or singers here. New Your offered her MVP athletes, businessmen, and even royals from far away lands. Her games ran better than in LA, and this time there was no one on her path.
As time went by, her high-stakes game drew all kinds of people, and one of them brought the biggest problem. The greed of one man who ran a Ponzi scheme and lost over $5 million on her tables opened the eyes of FBI for her.
Unknowing about this, Molly Bloom continued to run her games and act as a bank. The first time when she broke the federal and New York gambling laws was when she decided to take a fee from the pot that would cover the losses.
As we know, evil rarely comes alone. Running the high stakes games drew the attention of the Russian mafia and other shady characters who offered her “protection”. The result of such meetings was that Molly got beaten and robbed. The little consolation was that soon after the attack, there were over one hundred arrests of the mafia members. The involvement of the mafia once more drew the attention of the FBI, and this time, Molly Bloom could not be ignored as a person of interest.
Molly’s Life After Poker
From “Molly’s Game” we learn about the events that followed after she was attacked. Molly decided to get back on the saddle and organise another game. The FBI raided her gambling den and arrested everyone there. Molly received information on time and went to her mother. The feds did not waste time, drained her accounts, and summoned her to give testimony for their investigation. She got a deal and did not face charges but could not get her money back.
Once again, Molly Bloom had nothing in her pockets and had to start all over again. The first thing Molly did was to enter a clinic, and get cleaned up from the drugs. She spent the next two years with her mother and took the time to write her book, “Molly’s Game”. This was her way to cope with the past and answer questions no one dared to ask.
Molly Bloom and the FBI
Molly head back to Los Angeles in search of publishers for her book. This seemed like an amazing opportunity for the FBI to follow and arrest her in 2013. Just like the publishers, the federal agents and the prosecutors were interested only in the names Molly could give them. Their intimidation tactics did not frighten her at all. Instead, Molly found an excellent lawyer who represented her even though she could not afford to pay him.
In 2014, Molly pleaded guilty for breaking the gambling laws by taking a bank fee. She was sentenced to 1-year probation, 200 hours of community service, and had to pay a $1000 fine. The entire time she denied giving names of her players, besides the ones that were already known, and she never gave details about their conversations or messages with her.
Molly’s Game (2017)
The Molly Bloom poker story is described magnificently in her book. The noise around the scandal drew the attention and soon publishers offered her profits in millions. Not long after, she received an offer from the director Aaron Sorkin to make a movie adaptation of her memoirs. Molly agreed and actively worked on the script with him.
The Molly Bloom film is currently one of Netflix’s best gambling movies. The lovely Jessica Chastain played Molly, and the support roles were entrusted to incredible actors like Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, and more. The excellent cast, top story, and master screen adaptation of the book doubled the movie budget worldwide and in the USA.
In 2018, the movie received an Academy Award nomination in the category Best Adapted Screenplay. Molly’s Game (2017) has an IMDB rating of 7.4 stars. Rotten Tomatoes critics give 82% on the Tomatometer and an 84% audience score. The rest of the critics also pour good words for the cast performance, screenwriting, and director’s work. All we can say is, if you still have not seen the movie, do it as soon as you can.
What’s next, Molly?
Now, Molly Bloom is focused on new projects. After the commotion around her movie and book, now she has turned her eyes towards entrepreneurship and business. As Molly states in the latest interviews, her future projects are oriented towards helping other women become successful. She has a strong presence in social media and expands her network even more.
Today, the Molly Bloom net worth is about $500,000. We are sure that this will soon change and once again she will be on the top of the game. We can only wait and see how she will change the world by helping more women grow in career and status.
Frequently Asked Questions About Molly Bloom
Molly Bloom has proven to be an amazing person, capable of achieving everything she puts her mind into. In our article, we told you her story in short. Now we will answer the most frequently asked questions about her and her relation to poker.
