After Twitter Rant, Garcia Says Conflict Has Ended
More than a week after an ongoing dispute between poker pro Maurice Hawkins and his former backer, Randy Garcia, was made public, Garcia has announced that the two have arrived at an “amicable” resolution and Hawkins will pay the money he owes.
Garcia took to Twitter on July 15 to tell the poker world that Hawkins, who is the all-time WSOP Circuit ring winner with thirteen, has owed him money from a staking deal for more than two years. Garcia has deleted one or more of the most incendiary tweets, but the gist of the early part of the Twitter discussion remains:
Garcia Alleges He Wasn’t Paid for Two Years
He explained in a series of tweets (again, some have been removed since yesterday) that Hawkins was soliciting backers on Twitter and after they talked, they agreed to a 50/50 deal with makeup starting in March 2017. After some initial success, Hawkins finished third in an event an was allegedly upset that he didn’t win after having been the chip leader and ended up spewing off his bankroll at the blackjack tables.
Garcia said that Hawkins admitted what happened and showed a screenshot of a text in which Hawkins pledged to pay him back. Garcia agreed to keep staking him, forgiving the mistake and figuring that if he gave up now, he wouldn’t be seeing any of his money.
During the 2017 WSOP, Garcia continued, he went to Las Vegas to receive payment after Hawkins made two final tables. Hawkins paid some of it “but then had an excuse on why he couldn’t give it all to me.”
They setup a payment plan, but according to Garcia, Hawkins only paid him about $5,500 and stopped paying in September 2018. Even after scoring large cashes, Hawkins would allegedly just tell Garcia to be patient. For two years, he continued to try to get paid back, but was not able to; Garcia even gave Hawkins personal loans. He said Hawkins owed him $103,000.
Backer Wins in Court
In January 2018, Garcia filed a lawsuit against Hawkins in the Circuit Court of the 15th Judicial Circuit. That case was re-opened in January of this year. In April a judge ruled in Garcia’s favor and in May awarded him the $103,000, $12,377.34 in interest, and $451 in court fees. The total judgment came to $115,828.34.
PokerNews.com sought out Hawkins over the weekend, who said that the situation had already been handled amicably. Hawkins claimed that Garcia was upset primarily because Hawkins would not pay him a lump sum.
Dude had what he presumed I owed him. I was making payments. He wanted a lump sum. He said if he didn’t get 30K he was going to go on Twitter, contact the world and defame my name. By getting people to post about loans as if it is poker news and it’s really not. Had nothing to do with backing. Basically, say shit that Twitter trolls love [like] scum and I am a scammer. Then people run with it.
In a slight twist, Garcia then contacted PokerNews and asked them not to publish the story (he was interviewed by PokerNews, but he essentially tweeted out everything he told the site separately) because he was close to resolving the situation with Hawkins privately.
Today, July 24, Garcia tweeted, “Happy to report that @mauricehawkins and myself have come to an amicable resolution on money owed. He is honoring his commitment to me. Thanks everyone,” which is probably why he deleted some of his previous posts. Most of the tweets remain intact at the time of this writing, as does his recounting of the tale to PokerNews.
Lead image credit: Maurice Hawkins by World Poker Tour is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
