Phil Ivey Gossip

[Schmo]

Heard the following the other day from a friend of Ram Vaswani, who plays golf regularly with Phil Ivey in Vegas:

Marc Goodwin, a very self-regarding semi-successful tournament player (and ex double-glazing salesman) plays off scratch (zero handicap) and has been very boastful of his friendship with Ivey and how he has made lumps of money playing golf with him over the last year or so.

He, Ram Vaswani and Eric Sagstrom (Eric123) arranged to play a round with Ivey in Australia. Vaswani plays off around 5 I believe and Sagstrom is a decent player. Whilst arranging the strokes Ivey was to be given and the bets to be wagered Ivey was asked how much he had been playing in the few months since they had last been able to play together. He claimed he hadn't been able to play much at all due to all the poker he was playing and was accordingly given a generous advantage and off they went.

After 7 holes Goodwin was down $450,000 and suddenly erupted in fury at Ivey, claiming he had cheated them and stormed off the course. Sagstrom was similiary infuriated but carried on for another 2 holes before getting to the same amount down and he too left the course with a lot of animosity. Vaswani(one of the more fearless gamblers in the world and an honourable chap) finished off the 18 holes and ended up owing $900,000. Apparently he hasn't got that kind of money and so negotiated some sort of settlement with Ivey with the intention of paying.

The other two have no intention of playing and there is now bad blood between them.

Phil had omitted to tell them that he had spent the last few months practising around 3 hours a day and getting the best coaching.

Is this one of the great hustles? Goodness knows what the total could have been if all three had continued to play all 18 holes (all tilted up)

Should they pay up?