[seemorenuts]

El Diablo and TeddyFBI's posts were right on, with bustedromo achieving two great streaks of accurate posts with a couple of faltering ones when he gets mad at Tom.

I didn't have the benefit of reading Tom's site, so I'd appreciate if someone could reproduce the text, I don't have the whole story, especially the part about phone calls from NY.

TeddyFBI is spot on about how silly it is that people are mad at Tom.

Re Tom's statements, we can't have expected him to reveal the truth even when he claimed, "yeah, I cheated him" because in the end, he'd have to face the authorities if he had to provide proof of any crimes he was involved with. He had to simply calculate that the pressure he put on Phil on whatever the situation they had (and believe it or not, it doesn't really matter what happened*) would hurt Phil more than it would hurt Tom. Of course, this is just perception, Tom has a smaller stack than Phil, but getting busted means they're both out of the 'tourney.'

Both had to calculate how much was enough to make Tom go away without returning for a repeat performance, so that's the pressure for a fair settlement.

*Nonetheless, if indeed there was a contract for a hit, I see absolutely no problem re the amounts because the consequences of blackmail could far exceed the initial monies involved (pointed out by Bill Rini and a few others on this thread).

People who feel cheated over relatively small amounts, if misunderstood, could generate enough fear that threats and exaggerations would warrant the concept that a hit would be the 'only' solution.

Lastly, given the NYC story I find it trivially easy to believe that someone in Phil's position would attempt illegal activity (no personal slight to Phil specifically, I found him to be a nice guy, lol, irrelevant here).

The nuance that no one has mentioned is the subtle twists that were available to Tom when he may have communicated his threats to Phil that would convince Phil that Tom had various outs--ways of explaining his side of the story that would leave him free of accusations of any wrongdoing, notwithstanding the email exchange with Rini, which would not carry much weight as evidence (he just has to say, well, I was just putting pressure on any way I could...to do the job).

I still think this may not be over for Phil, and I'm not saying he has to worry about Tom ... rather, the authorities and for his reputation (lol, in the poker world, oh that's rich, like he's the only baddie and anyone cares).

I would guess the feds would look into any money transfers, it isn't easy satisfying Tom without a trace, maybe JT has some buddies, etc.

Or maybe neteller traffics in simple apologies.

AGAIN, THOUGH I'VE SPECULATIVELY OPINED ON THE DETAILS, THESE ARE NOT THE ESSENTIALS. THEY HAD A DISAGREEMENT, AND PHIL DID SOMETHING NAUGHTY ENOUGH TO WARRANT SATISFYING TOM IN THE END, OR FOR NOW... (LDO).