Maurice Hawkins, the all-time World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner, is unfortunately no stranger to staking deals gone bad. The latest has been brought to light by a man named Randy Garcia who tweeted about an alleged staking arrangement gone bad on Monday.
“PSA no one ever stake @mauricehawkins,” Garcia wrote. “He has owed me $103k for 2 years now. Have proof of him confirming this. Keeps saying to me ‘be patient’ after he has cashed for over $1m yet still refuses to pay. Have filed a lawsuit against him. Please retweet this to help spread the word.”
He continued:
Let me be clear. For 2 years I have kept this private out of respect for him and hoping he would have some integrity & be a man of his word. However he clearly has no respect for me so I feel obligated to let others know so they don’t make the same mistake I did but trusting him.
Haley Hintze over at Flushdraw unearthed the lawsuit, confirming what Garcia tweeted. The first filing was at the beginning of 2018 and it was re-opened exactly a year later. There are text messages included in the documentation to backup Garcia’s claims.
In one of those texts, Hawkins says, “Going to be completely honest. Due to both of our situations. I’m asking if it’s possible to combine the cash I have with what I owe you and if you are able to back me in future. We can start back up. It really only takes one tourney but sometimes life [throws us] a curveball. Either way, I will pay you back along the way. Numbers are as follow when we start back up. Makeup 42,846. Owe you 108,666.”
To clarify what that last part means, “makeup” is an amount of money that a poker player must repay a backer before winnings are shared. To illustrate, let’s say a backer buys a player (the “stakehorse” in poker terminology) into $20,000 worth of tournaments and the player wins absolutely nothing. If the player then wins $100,000 in the next backed tournament, the staker receives $20,000 in makeup first and then they split the remaining $80,000 based on their agreement.
Last year, Hawkins was in the news for another staking agreement gone bad, but this one was resolved amicably. He was staked by Hal Lewis, a partner in a law firm. Hawkins wasn’t playing well at the time and allegedly told Lewis that he wanted to cancel the backing deal after a series of losses and just return the $22,788 left in the arrangement. Lewis claimed that even after Hawkins turned it around and started cashing big, he came up with excuses to avoid payment, even texting Hawkins that he lost the money he owed playing blackjack.
Last June, a year after the lawsuit was filed, the two men figured out that their disagreement was the result of a miscommunication.
