Hello twoplustwo,
I have been a professional poker player for 3 years, playing online and a little bit of live here and there. I keep a PG&C called "Grinding Past the Fries" which has had thousands of replies and hundreds of thousands of views. I have sold action for live and online tournaments many times in there. I have been staked once by a friend for online, and once by a large stable. I have made them both aware of this thread and I'm sure they will be able to confirm that I have a 100% squeaky clean reputation, and have never done anything remotely untrustworthy in my years as a professional.
In January 2017 I ended a deal with the above stable. We had a slight disagreement about something, and we agreed to go our seperate ways. I ended the deal in approximately $3,500 of makeup, and paid it back over three weeks or so after we split. Our relationship is still very healthy, and I regularly talk with the guys that run the stable. Around that time I also moved to London. I spoke to my then good friend, Remco (o_0remco), about staking me for live 1/2. He is a successful 500z reg and has strong live results. I met Remco in the Dominican Republic in November 2015. We spent a month together in Las Vegas in 2016 for the World Series of Poker. He bought action in at least one of my tournaments. We have both paid for a room in a house for June 2017 in Las Vegas.
Remco agreed to stake me for live poker in London. We didn't draw up a contract, it was an agreement between friends. At the start of the agreement I told him that if he wanted to end the live stake at any time I would happily switch to online to recover any makeup. Within the first week of the stake I won approximately £800. We chopped, and I sent him his %. The deal was 70/30 in my favour, and he gave me an extra 5% on one of the chops because it was my birthday. After we chopped I started to lose, and I needed Remco to send me more money. He sent me more money, and I continued to lose. Around the 15th March the total stake was £2,200, and I had £220 left. I asked him to send more money. He said he would do so in a few days. I asked him consistently for more money for approximately 3 weeks, to which he always said he would send soon. On 1st April he said he wasn't sending more money, we argued ever so slightly about it, and he then told me he was just making a bad April Fools joke. I continued to ask him for more money.
On 10th April I sent him another message asking for more money. I'm not sure if it is all that relevant but I know that Remco was going through a really sick downswing online at this point. He said that he had "done some calculations", and that the rake was too high. I replied with "so we just wait until Vegas?" He advised that I was doing well online and therefore he wanted me to pay him back. I amicably explained that staking doesn't work like that, and that I wasn't going to just pay him back out of my own pocket. I encouraged him to send me more money for live poker and offered to put in a lot of hours to recover all the money and get us back to even. He advised that it would take too long to grind it back at 1/2, and that he had lost 14k staking people, and was stressed, and wanted his money back. I told him that I wasn't prepared to pay him back out of my own pocket, and that staking doesn't work like that. We went back and forth for a little while, but I ended the conversation by saying I didn't have anything to say, and that I wasn't prepared to pay him back out of my own pocket. Please note that Remco believes that by giving him the option to switch the stake from live to online I was allowing him to end the deal and ask for the money to be repaid. I did not and would never agree to that (obviously).
We spoke again on 19th April. He messaged me asking if there was a solution yet. I was firm in my stance (whilst trying to remain amicable) that I wouldn't be paying him back out of my own pocket. At this point he claimed that this was not a stake but in fact a loan. We had chopped and I advised him it was in no way a loan. He then became confrontational, saying that he would start acting like a dick. He called me a few names (I'm a 27 year old man, I am not bothered about that), and said...
"Oke i will see you in Vegas then
"
"But one thing what i know, i will get the money back
"
"I always sound nice, i always act nice. But if people act like this and try to rob me they have the wrong person in fromt of them."
I think it's fairly obvious that this was an attempt at intimidation. I did not back down, and continued to state that I would not pay him back out of my own pocket, as staking doesn't work like that.
All of the above doesn't concern me. I have been staked more than enough times in the past to know that I am not in the wrong. I offered to grind out of makeup either live or online, and Remco insisted that I pay him out of my own pocket. The reason I have detailed everything above is that Remco has contacted somebody out of the blue to tell them this story. Without going into detail, this person is in a position of power in my poker career. I spoke to the person in question and he advised that Remco left out "75%" of the details, and asked him not to tell me Remco had spoken to him. It is clear to me that Remco is now trying to tarnish my reputation, as it makes absolutely no sense for him to contact this person. As somebody who sells action for live tournaments, posts in the HS transfer thread etc, my reputation is very important to me. I believe that by making this whole sorry affair public he can no longer contact important people within the community and pick and choose what parts of the story he tells them.
Remco has tried to freeroll me, he has called me a thief, tried to physically intimidate me, and attempted to tarnish my reputation by messaging people who are important to my poker career that he doesn't even know. By reluctantly making this public I believe I take that power away from him.
I absolutely despise confrontation, and this whole debacle is thoroughly embarrassing, but it's gotta be done.
Edit - I have given Remco notice that I intended to make this public. A courtesy he unfortunately did not extend to me.
Last edited by orange; 04-28-2017 at 01:51 PM.