+1 to suing them.

I would look for any and all reasons to ban these scumbags from your poker room.

Even if op doesnt sue, just the threat of sueing could still win concessions. Theres not much harm in trying.

Pretty easy to send a text like.. i have consulted an attorney and am fully aware of my legal rights.. its not too late to grab a coffee and work this out before it gets messy

If you really are just going to let this go OP, then thanks for wasting our time. Please don't ask for advice when you inevitably get freerolled again!

If the others are looking at suing, then I see no reason not to join up. My issue with these types of suits is that the lawyers are the only ones who win. Trying to collect is the biggest issue. I spent almost 4 years sending garnishments to recover a suit win. The person changed jobs 4 times while that was gong on as well and I had to chase and chase.

Best try to get a settlement before it goes to court. This person may not want their name in public record. With this being beyond small claims you are typically required to hire a lawyer and it will go into public records if it gets to the judge/jury. GL

I would discuss with your boss as well so that you know where that stands. I've seen plenty of Players call the owner of a room when a Floor does something they don't like.

Yeah, I'm player #5 (hypothetically).

I got all the monies. I gave players #2, #3, and #4 $17K each, but they're suing me because they want $8K more each.

I gave player #1 a big fat zero, but now he's going to sue me (separately, not jointly with the others) because he wants $20K.

So what do I do? I tell my lawyer to make a settlement offer to #2, #3, and #4. I'll give each of them an additional $4K provided they sign an affidavit attesting to the fact that player #1 is not entitled to anything—either because he was never part of the deal from the start or because his early departure ended his participation.

You think #2, #3, and #4 are ever going to get a better outcome than that? Nope. They will readily agree. Meantime, #2, #3, #4 and I are all going to tell everyone who works and plays where #1 works what a greedy scumbag he is and how he's now suing me/us, can you believe that ****?

There is just no way a lawsuit works for the OP. It's four people's words against his. He will waste money on legal fees, he will cause himself a lot of unnecessary grief without gaining anything, and his reputation in his workplace will be ruined. (Who sues their own customers? Who makes up a story to demand a share of someone else's once-in-a-lifetime jackpot score?)

OP wants to know what his next move should be. My answer is he doesn't have one.

So, you're for a lawyer advocating perjury?

He cannot join the other three, they are contemplating suing to recover their portion of his share. OP needs to consult his own attorney.

I think you got this wrong. I think you forever agree to chop with these dickwads and freeroll the **** out of them forever until it's you that hits a promo or whatever. Then you obviously stiff em.

I know they wouldn't be getting any slack from me for sure. Got to be careful though with this one.

The other three would be idiots to hire a lawyer to get another $8k each. After the lawyers cut they get about $4500. Not that they could find a lawyer that's worth a damn to take this case. Better to team up with OP as far as affidavits and sue in small claims for another $3k each. They can commit perjury and try to ace out OP, but it's hard enough for one person to hold to a lie in court, much less all three of them.

if anyone can find me a lawyer who will take this case on contingency let me know as I have had much larger sums of money with much better claims be deemed not actionable by every attorney I asked.

Can go to small claims court but verbal contracts even in states where they're binding will probably not help in this case for a variety of reasons. I think this is over limit for small claims court anyways but that might vary by jurisdiction... i remember it being 5k.

+1 on taking them to court and not letting it go

the poker world is filled with scammers who scam because nobody ever does anything about it

Find out the limit for small claims in the proper jurisdiction. Then file in small claims for that amount. Just because you could claim more doesn’t mean you have to.

Full share to player 1

--klez

There's been some pretty good responses here IMO. It would be interesting to see how things would go in small (usually capped at $1-2K, maybe $500) claims. Higher suits usually require representation in most states.

The main issue with the whole agreement was there weren't enough conditions applied in the first place. What if someone did go broke? What if someone took a break and hit a slot jackpot?

There was a similar thread 'long' ago where two guys had an agreement to chop 'all profits' and the first guy busted his three cash bullets, but he then went on to take down a tournament. He was (maybe surprisingly) willing to chop the tournament profits, but only after reclaiming his bullets, which was never clearly defined in the 'profit' agreement. The other guy survived playing cash on his first bullet but had a meager showing of profit.

If the judge sees this similar to a BBJ share, where you have to have not missed a blind when it hits the table, then the Player who gave up and went home wont have much to stand on. Not so sure about requiring the other players to agree to exclude as part of their settlement. GL

We have some small claim courts with 5k limits. Inflation.

I guess the moral of the story is don't participate in chopping promos. After all, you would hardly lend these guys 20k, but you are in effect putting them in a position where you must trust them with 20k, which is something you should not be willing to do.

I am not recommending it or not. But you can always represent yourself. Small claims is much more lax on procedures. But if you know the procedures and proper filings you can represent yourself. But you will likely face a lawyer who has trained to be there. He will take advantage of your errors and omissions.

There are 20 different daytime judge shows. If you are in LA or NYC reach out to them. imo.