How much have you been burned for?

[phish]

Me, I've always been very cautious and have probably not lost much more than 2k or so total to scumbags.

But even scumbags sometimes get burnt by bigger scumbags. A couple of years ago, I was in a 75 game with one fairly well-known scumbag pro and an unfamiliar face + plus others.
All thru the game, the new guy kept needling the pro until they started challenging each other to play HU 300/600. They both left the table to set up their own game, and this is what I heard happened later:

The newbie say he didn't have enough money to play that high, but he did have a cashier's check for something close to 25K. He eventually was able to convince the pro to cash it for him. They then played for a little while and he then talked the pro into going to another casino to play, claiming that the present casino was too crowded and noisy with too many railbirds watching their game.

Well, needless to say, he never showed at the other casino, and the cashier's check was not honored by the bank. (Many people think that a cashier's check is good as cash, but it is not. You can claim you lost it and the bank will put a stop payment on it.)

And for those of you who think that legal action is warranted here, the reality of the matter is that trying to chase someone halfway across the country for $25K is not really a feasible option. Usually when you get screwed in a casino, you just have to write it off.

Moral of the story: trust no one you don't know extremely well when it comes to money in a casino.