From the Sun Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features...,5439548.story

Stories like this is why it sucks to be a poker player who lives in a country that demands you pay taxes on your winnings.

The US is rubbish.

No offense dood, but why the need to air someones dirty laundry?
I realize this is News, views, and gossip, but have some respect for someones private life. This is just of course my opinion.
Lock

If it's in a newspaper then it's hardly private

And electricity comes of the socket.

facepalm.jpg

Sigh......ethnocentrism FTL.

Yeah, it is NEWS, Views and Gossip. Nothing wrong with posting a link to the newspaper article.

Is the writer confused between WSOP and WPT? What was his record breaking World Series of Poker accomplishment in 2005?

umm its in the newspaper

read the story it isn't exactly mike doesn't pay taxes but moreso mike has had a bad few years playing poker and investing in the housing market so now he has a big tax bill and is selling stuff to pay

isn't this just standard swongs for a big tourney grinder why is it interesting

Nobody reads newspapers.

bec we have NVG.

.

he's done pretty well in the SCOOP so hopefully he can pay back some of that...

It's pretty standard for a whole bunch of formerly-rich dudes in the U.S. these days, and doesn't necessarily have all that much to do with poker.

srsly you guys have to know that a guy like this is the kind of guy who has a place thats in someone elses name who the IRS wouldn't think to go after and in said place is about a $5,000 safe with a **** ton of cash in it.

most people are aware when they're going to be up for an audit, or are aware when they are potentially going to have accounts frozen, etc, and they're aware of these things ahead of time, and unless they're broke, they take steps similar to the aforementioned to make sure that uncle sam (biggest crook ever imo, re: printing money, social security, etc) can't get everything they have.

for those that don't live in Vegas; there is a company that offers private vaults. no identification required, no SS#, no ID. i dont know too much more about it than that, but it's expensive to have one and I'd assume that they use a retinal scan/fingerprint scan to allow access.

I believe that this news item is a public service to poker players. If it helps the 2p2 community realize that a bankroll can be here today and gone tomorrow, what better way to demonstrate it to people by showing it could happen to anybody. I liked him because he was going to become a doctor and he seems intelligent, hard-working, and disciplined. It helped me realize that these 3 factors alone do not excuse poor BR management and uncontrollable expenses & costs. Can you imagine how much he wishes he could have one more chance? If he never builds his BR back up, then he will probably wish he did something else with his life. I have kids and I hope the 2p2 community who have children read this article and feel pity for him as a fellow father and how terrible this must be for him. I wish him the best of luck and I think we should respect his private life by keeping the comments constructive. Don't let the NVG-tards (who will have something mean to say) take away from the benefit of the important lesson here. Not all poker players are as financially successful as they represent. Half of poker players probably are hiding debts or over-stating various avenues of income which are too difficult to verify (such as staking, investing, real estate, prop bets, etc...) because poker is just a game, correct? Money is just a way we keep score, correct? Doesn't everyone have an incentive to want respect from the poker community? Can any of us ITT say we have no ego such as boywonder, trex313, or urindanger? I think that these depressing articles are a public service if a few people (especially those of us with children) realize that long-term financial stability is more important than short-term fun, thrills, and living the dream. Like the Dang brothers say, at the end of the day, everything is about BR management. They will never go broke and they will always be happy and their families will always be taken care of.

This

Thats one hell of a mistake by his accountant..."Whoops...didnt see that 339k you owe"

Wow, and I am going to guess he is not the only one in the poker community that people like, see how glorious poker is.
I think his biggest blunder is when he bought that RV for a quater of a million after a win, then his tricked out black humvee that got stolen down in Florida. Why can't players win money and live an average life? Yes some do but most do not, they think the money will always be there like pro athletes.

I do understand what you are saying completely and agree with to an extent. In said article however, does say that he had some really bad accountants handling his affairs, has since replaced acct's, and is in the process of working on a settlement to take care of this. This to me sounds like a guy that used bad judgement in some aspects of his life, not one that is dead broke and is hiding from the IRS to avoid paying up. Whether this turns out to be the case is a completely diff story. The media as we all know has a tendancy to manipulate things from time to time. But to just jump to a conclusion about a guy that has many, many accomplishments in this game, and to use him as an example of what not to do, I think is a little overkill.

Highly doubt it was a total mistake. The accountant likely got creative with things and they didn't work out. Whatever it may be, who knows.

Sucks to hear, but that's life. Must be tough to go through this with a bunch of young kids to support.

Hopefully he'll get a big score this WSOP to get out of this mess. Good luck to him.

taxes are bush league

I guess now is the time to buy property in Florida, Everything is selling at half of what it used to be a few years ago, All the builders getting greedy and trying to sell small properties for way more than they are worth.

pp that use the word "rubbish" are rubbish