The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - Molly Bloom On How She Ran The Biggest Underground Hollywood Celebrity Poker Ring & Lived To Tell The Story After Dealing With The Mob, The Law, & Some Of The World's Most Powerful People

Episode Date: May 24, 2021

#359: On today's episode we are joined by Molly Bloom. Molly Bloom is an American entrepreneur, speaker, and author of the 2014 memoir Molly's Game. She had trained for years to become an Olympic skier, but was injured while trying to qualify for the Olympics. What she did next would be made into a Hollywood movie directed by Aaron Sorkin and staring Jessica Chastain in which Molly heads up one of the largest underground poker rings ever established where celebrities and the worlds most powerful people would come to play.  To connect with Molly Bloom click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential  The Hot Mess Ice Roller is here to help you contour, tighten, and de-puff your facial skin and It's paired alongside the Ice Queen Facial Oil which is packed with anti-oxidants that penetrates quickly to help hydrate, firm, and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, leaving skin soft and supple. To check them out visit www.shopskinnyconfidential.com now.  The episode is brought to you by Pete & Gerry's We know it can be difficult and confusing to choose the right eggs, but our sponsor Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs, takes the guesswork out of buying eggs with their best in class organic farming practices paired with the highest animal welfare standards. Right now Pete and Gerry’s is giving away a FREE dozen eggs to the first 100 listeners who go to www.peteandgerrys.com/SKINNY This episode is brought to you by Oshēn Salmon Oshēn Salmon was created for those who longed for their perfect protein match. One that was easy to prepare, packed with protein, and made us glow from within. Hello omega-3s! Ocean raised salmon has more than 1,500 mg of Omega-3 content which is double the Omega-3 contentus versus most wild salmon. To get your box of Oshen visit www.oshensalmon.com and use code SKINNY for 15% off plus free shipping.  This episode is brought to you by Pique Tea Ever since I discovered Pique Tea, I’ve been obsessed. I now incorporate at least a cup of Pique into my daily routine and it’s really been increasing my productivity levels. Pique Teas are made from organic high quality tea leaves and ingredients sourced from around the world, delivering up to 12x more antioxidants than any ofor heavy metals, pesticides and toxic mold so you know you’re getting the best stuff.    Use code “SKINNY” for 10% off piquetea.com. They rarely (if ever) have sales so you’d definitely want to check this out! P.S. This discount does not apply to their fermented pu’er due to their limited quantity.ther tea. What’s better is that they are all Triple Toxin Screened Produced by Dear Media 

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to The Skinny Confidential, him and her. Aha! That was this big moment of like, wow, you can do the thing that is so scary.

And maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, but it was a rush to me. It was such a rush, and it was this majorly empowering moment in my life that eventually I took too far. I start running these games, I'm making millions of dollars a year. I have like, I'm learning about what stocks to invest in. I'm doing art deals. I'm middling, you know, like all kinds of stuff. And all these like incredibly prolific people are playing in this game. And it becomes this brand, Molly's Game. Big, big, big announcement to make, Lauren, right now on the show we are approaching what almost

400 of these and i think lauren this one might be top three of all time i'm gonna say this might be top one for me wow that's a big statement i i wanted to say i mean it's up there this was you know we ended up talking to molly molly bloom who's on the show today for a very long time we actually went over our allotted studio time and just shot the shit because this story is, it's wild. It's out there. It's captivating. She's an amazing storyteller.

It's got so many things. It's got a little, it's got danger. It's got suspense. It's got sadness. It's got pretty much, I mean, it's got everything. This story is so incredible. Michael Bostick's jaw was on the ground the entire time, which is really hard. I had to pick it up off the ground. I asked every single question you can possibly ask to Molly.

She was so open, so cool. And she tells an incredible story. I'm not surprised that her story became a movie called Molly's Game. Background on Molly Bloom. She is an American entrepreneur, speaker, and author of the 2014 and best-selling book, Molly's Game. She trained for years to become an Olympic skier, but she was injured while trying to qualify for the Olympics. So she almost made the Olympics. And what ended up happening after will rock your world. We are going to talk about the Viper Room, Hollywood celebrities, the mob, community service, probation, jail. We're going to go there. And Lauren, her book was made into a movie that was directed not just by any director,

but Aaron Sorkin, Lauren. Aaron effing Sorkin. Might talk about, you know, hitting a home run with a director. And you have to say who played her because I can't pronounce her last name, but the girl that played her is major as well. Jessica Chastain. And yeah, I mean like this her last name, but the girl that played her is major as well.

Jessica Chastain. And yeah, I mean, people are probably familiar with this story. It was in all the tabloids, one of the biggest underground poker rings the world, the US at least, has ever seen. This is one of these podcast episodes that I would turn on with a friend or with your significant other in the background. They will be like, what are you listening to? This is such a wild ride. This is Mr. Toad's wild ride. Well, you think your life's crazy. You start to like, I've lived a pretty crazy life or like we all think that about ourselves. And then you hear a story like this. You're like, oh man, I really like my life's not that crazy. I know. I wish I worked with Molly back in the day. I mean, we would have had fun when I was a cocktail server. Listen, this doesn't work out. We might still, you know, might have to hit Molly up and figure out next move. I want to have Molly back on the podcast, but here is this very long, very in-depth story. That's going to rock your world with Molly Bloom. Let's welcome Molly Bloom of Molly's game to the skinny confidential him and her show. This is the skinny confidential him and her.

You have like such a colorful life. I don't even know where to start. You have one of the longer bios that because we always put bios together and then have a list of questions. It's longer than most. Yeah, this is probably be cut down a little bit. No, no, no. It's not a bad thing. It just means that we have a lot of directions to take this in. Yeah. First, I want to go back to the very beginning childhood. I would love to know how you grow up, where you grew up. Give us the behind the scenes details there. Yeah. So I grew up in a town called Loveland, Colorado. It was as quaint as it sounds. I have two very involved parents, but from sort of different sides. So my mom was, her mantra was, be kind, do the right thing. At the end of our day, we would like,

you know, she would come lay in bed with us and we would look at whether we are a good person, you know? And my dad was like, hard driving, excellence. Like you excel in sports, you excel in school. There are no shortcuts. You're never a victim. And you know, that's how we grew up. And I have these two ridiculously talented little brothers.

We're not so little anymore, but- Are they single? I know some girls if they are. No. Four boys. No, unfortunately, they're not. Oh, bummer. Jeremy was number one in the world in mogul skiing at 18. Oh, wow. Yeah. And then he went on to win three world championships, compete in two Olympics. Both Olympics, he went in as number one in the world and then retired from skiing and went to the NFL, played for the Eagles and

the Steelers. And so like, he was just this athletic phenom from, from the get-go, you know? And then my middle brother is a total genius. He ended up, he's a Harvard professor and a cardiothoracic surgeon at Massachusetts General. So I'm like, this is my dinner table. Jeez, your parents want to adopt me for a bit? Maybe I'll turn out better. Oh, well, you know, they did also raise a felon. So we can...

Smart, smart, smart. All smart kids, I gotta say. Thanks, girl. I was just like, who am I supposed to be in this world? I was like, well, I can be a, I want to be a mobile skier too, you know, because skiing was such a huge part of our life and things were going well. We were competing, doing well. And then everything changed in my life. And I got diagnosed with very severe scoliosis and I had to get this crazy surgery where they took bone out of my hip and fused the top 11 vertebrae together,

basically rendering 90% of my spine, you know, immovable. And then these two like heavy titanium rods and doctors were like, you know, schemes off the table for you, mobile schemes off the table for you. And I was like, but, but I still want to do it, you know? And it was like this really cool moment where I realized that even though these like experts and authority figures are telling you that you can't do something, like you get to decide kind of, you know? So anyway, I went on to, I went back to skiing and ended up making the US ski team and, you know, being ranked third overall in North America and making it to the Olympic qualifiers. Wow.

Can you imagine what it's like to ski with Molly versus what it's like to ski with me? No, this last ski trip we went on, I told her, I said, we are no longer a ski family. I was like, we are. As we raise our daughter, my daughter and I will go skiing

and Lauren, she'll be in the lodge now. I hit him with poles. I threw my helmet at him. I rolled down the mountain. I wore a vintage pink ski outfit that probably isn't for skiing, but it looked cute. Well, listen, I grew up playing hockey and skiing.

Not at the level that you and your brother sit. No, not at the level of Molly, honey. Let's not be like, oh, I used to do ballet. But meaning like I've done it my, like I can get down. I can, I might not be able to go fast, but I can get down anything. Right. So I want to ski when I go skiing and it's fun. And I always tell her like, if you know how to ski and you can have fun out there and

get down, it's a whole different thing than when you can't. It is. It's not a miserable experience for me. It's a great experience. But I told her like, you got to go in ski school or get a lesson or like private. She doesn't want to do it. She just wants to go. And then she gets mad because. No, I just want to do it she just wants to go and then she gets mad

because no I just want to do I like leisure when I'm not working I like leisure and so I want to do a green but I feel like I get that

you know that's why you've now been relegated to the lodge okay I'll drink at the lodge that's fine I mean there's

that's like just as fun yeah so okay so you so go ahead so you're 21 when this happens and it says that

you're ranked third in North America which you you just said. Yep. What, what happens after that? So I, you know, I make it to US nationals that year. It's, it's an Olympic qualifying event. I am at the peak of my game, you know, and, and I get on course and I ski down and I'm like having a rip and run. And then I ski over this like little tiny piece of, of pine bow in the course. And it's such a freak occurrence. And it lodged itself in between my boot and bindings, my ski pre-releases in the air. And I fall like super high crash, super hard. And it leads me to, you know, make this decision to, to retire from skiing. And then I'm just like reeling because my whole life for 21 years, I think I know exactly who I am,

who I'm going to be. And, you know, I'm going to go to law school and I'm going to go to the Olympics and I'm going to follow these paths and then I'm going to get, you know, then I'm going to be like my brothers, right? Like then I will have arrived, I'll have a seat at that table.

And, you know, that was that effing stick in the course was like a major derailment event, more so than I think I even realized. So I decided I was going to take a year off because I was sitting in that classroom in the University of Colorado and I was just like, there are the mountains and my teammates were training. And's just, you know, my heart was broken. So I go to LA just because for the like sole purpose of, man, I've been chasing winter my whole life and I just want to be warm. You know, I just like wanted 365 days of warmth and, you know, leisure, which is something that I had no idea about, right? And so, we go to LA, my parents don't support this decision, so there wasn't much leisure happening, so I had to get

like 90 jobs, you know, it's LA. And I got a job at this restaurant, this fine dining restaurant, and I totally lied that I had experience, because like, you know, I was from Loveland, Colorado, like the Black Steer was the nicest restaurant. You know, it wasn't like any fine dining. Sounds like my kind of place, honestly. Yeah, it wasn't the Ivy. It wasn't the Ivy. That's right. And so, you know, I got fired really quickly from this job.

But the guys that owned the restaurant were these, like, well-connected, wealthy, insane LA dudes, you know? So, they also had a real estate fund and they had all these things going on. And so they're like, yeah, you suck at waitressing, but you should come learn, you know, about deals and real estate and finance. And so I started working for them. And then one day, one of them asked me to serve drinks at their poker game. You know, I was like, okay, what am I like? I remember I went home and i like googled what kind of music do poker players like to listen to what do they eat you know and i was like made this super embarrassing playlist was with like the gambler on it and went to gelson's the whaling jennings gambler

no kenny rogers yeah that's right yeah yeah yeah that's right yeah the gambler's anthem, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. Yeah. The Gambler's Anthem. Like the song. Yeah, the song. I had this like playlist with like the Gambler and Night Moves and all these, you know, these like this curated selection that Google told me that Gambler's like to listen to. Like I went to Gelson's The Gutter Cheese Play. It thought no big deal, you know, and it's, it was in the basement of the Viper Room. I didn't know that. Yeah.

It's cool. Yeah. It's an iconic place. Yeah, it was. You know, then Ben Affleck showed's an iconic place. Yeah, it was. You know, then Ben Affleck showed up and Leo DiCaprio, you know, and like, I'm of the generation, like, I was in love with him in Titanic. Hold on, are you freaking out? You're sitting there with your Gelson's cheese plate and Ben Affleck and Leonardo DiCaprio walking. Yeah, I mean, it's like the most simultaneously mortifying but compelling moment of my life,

right? And at this point, are they saying we're going to pay you a huge amount of money to do this or is it just like a normal job? No, it's just a normal, I'm just bringing people drinks, right? So, you know, I get to be a fly on the wall. And by the way, it wasn't just the A-list celebrities. It was the head of one of the biggest investment banks in the world. And a politician that everybody knows. And someone from the tech world who was doing something huge about to have a huge IPO. What do their names rhyme with? Oh, man.

The multi, multi-million dollar question that I passed passed one day you write a tell-all yeah save it for that so when you're there are there also like just regular joe blows or is it just high celebrity tech people you know there's the regular joe blows were like people who who have like a couple hundred million okay right it was like all people who have like a couple hundred million. Okay. Right. It was like all people who are like moving the needle on the world stage in some way or another. And I am 23 year old girl from Loveland, Colorado. Right. And I'm just like serving drinks and no one's like really paying that much attention, but they're all speaking candidly. And I just have this like realization, wow, this is access, you know, in a big way to information, to capital, to power. And it was super compelling. And then at the end of the night, you know, I was getting tipped in

chips. So people don't treat chips like they treat money. Just look at Vegas, right? And I made like a couple thousand dollars for just refilling Diet Cokes. And that was everything to me at that point. So, you know, I was in and over the next couple months, I was like, man, I don't want to just serve drinks at this game. I want to own this game. You know, this is what an incredible asset to own. Not only is it massively profitable, not only could I see ways to build out the monetization, but also to be in control of these nine seats, who gets to sit there, who gets in, who gets past that velvet rope, what seemed like a really cool position to have. So entrepreneurial. Can I ask you maybe a boring question that some may not get? But when you say it's profitable, were they taking blinds and that's how they were paying?

Or was it like an entry fee that you had to be able to play? Or how does it become profitable to the person who owns it outside of access and putting it together? So as the game was going on and as my role expanded past just cocktail waitress, my boss at the time said, if you want a seat next week, tip Molly. Having no idea what that would ultimately turn into. You would get to say eventually who got to play

and who didn't get to play. That was the suggestion, right? And what it did is it created a culture of who can tip the most. You know? And meanwhile, are you, well, this is two questions. Meanwhile, you can't call your friends and family

and explain you're doing this because they won't understand. Because I feel like it's a different world than where you came from, right? Oh, for sure. Yeah, they were all very confused. And I'm actually asking this, I don't know. Yeah.

Is poker illegal to play underground? You know what a great idea for dinner is, Michael? Maybe you cooking for once or twice? I have been cooking lately and that is because of ocean salmon. You got a couple salmon dishes on lock. I do. It's a lemon salmon and I do it with a chili flake. Don't mean to brag. It's absolutely delicious with a little thyme or rosemary on top and you're addicted. Why I like ocean salmon, okay, is first of all, it's delivered straight to my door. I'm all about time and saving time. And this is a salmon delivery brand that offers ocean raised-loved salmon. You can make it at home. It's filled with omega-3s. My daughter loves it. It's guilt-free, and it doesn't leave you feeling like you have a hangover in the morning. Sometimes Taylor will eat like Panda Express chicken for lunch, breakfast, dinner,

snack, and he feels that greasy feeling that he tells me about. And this is not going to leave you with that. Okay. Ocean salmon. And this is incredibly important to me when I'm cooking fish is free of microplastics, growth hormones, and heavy metals. Taylor get on board. It's also guilt-free for anyone in the family. I personally like to cook mine on like a cookie sheet. I put a little bit of aluminum foil on top of it, and then I put the salmon on it, put a little bit of extra virgin olive oil on top. I add some lemon, a little pink Himalayan sea salt, a pinch of chili flake, add some herbs, whatever herbs you like. I love all herbs besides dill. It tastes so fresh and melts in your mouth. Makes an incredible dinner, a side of veggies,

maybe some rice. Michael just got a rice cooker. That's a different story. Anyways, Ocean Salmon arrives seven days fresher than anything you can find at your local retailer. To get your box of Ocean, visit oceansalmon.com and use code SKINNY for 15% off plus free shipping. That's O-S-H-E-N-S-A-L-M-O-N.com and use code SKINNY. Ocean raised, ocean loved, salmon as it should be. The answer is, so for, I, eventually when I took over these games and I ran them, I ran them for eight years. For seven and a half of those years, I did it legally. In the last half a year, I, I started taking a rake.

So you can, you can go do this completely legally. That's a year, I started taking a rake. So you can go do this completely legally. That's what makes it illegal is taking the rake. I want you to tease us with the story though. Don't tell us the rest of the story until you get there.

So you can play poker legally. That's fine. Yeah. Those LA players? Yeah. Fine to play poker. Okay. The federal statute is

you're not allowed to profit from an illegal gambling. That's why I asked are you taking a blind or is there a fee? Because that's considered taking a rake. It statute is you're not allowed to profit from an illegal gambling. Well, that's why I asked, are you taking a blind or is there a fee? Because that's considered taking a rake. It's like you're charging

people to play. That's why in casinos, they're taking a rake. Yep, exactly. But if you're not a licensed gambling house or casino, you can't do it. Okay, so...

S3 could play poker right now and put money in the... And if nobody's running the game and winning, I mean, and taking a rake, yeah, you're fine. Take us back to like a couple months in. I want to like really tell this story to the audience. Okay. So again, I had this

realization like, you know, I don't want to just serve drinks at this game. I want to own this game. I want to have my own games. But I didn't really know how to manage that because I was working for my boss who was terrifying and this was his game, you know, and I didn't on figuring out how to confirm more value and show up for these people and cultivate relationships. And he was like, you can't do the games anymore. You outshine the master. He said, you can't do these games anymore. You need to go back to the office and pick up my dry cleaning and all that stuff. But there was no way, you know, I had seen this thing that I couldn't unsee. And I was making a ton of money. And I mean, I was obsessed, you know, so I said, I can't do that. And then he went, he took it a step farther and he said,

this girl called me and she's like, this is so-and-so and your boss wants you to send me the list and the ledger because I was keeping track of everyone's numbers because I'm going to be running the game. And then I was like, I got to make a move. I got to make a move. But it was this terrifying proposition because it's like the billionaire boys club is so tight with each other. And my boss was like this very intimidating person. But I was just like, if I don't take the shot, then I'll never know. So I planned a game and I moved it out of the, you know, sort of basement at the Viper. And I moved it to the penthouse at the Four Seasons.

And I bought a Shuffle Master, which is like 17 grand so that you could have like, the cards could get shuffled faster. And I hired beautiful people and had them memorize everyone's favorite drink order i got the cuban cigars i got you know i wanted people to have an experience beyond just the game and so i invited everyone except for my boss oh and that's a ballsy thing to do especially because the guy the guy that is in my mind that you're describing

is like one of the guys in the movies right it's like a scary individual yeah you know that you do that too yeah you gotta look over your shoulder

a little bit yeah am I describing like the right kind of person yeah a little bit yeah but there's a very funny outcome

that I'll tell you so anyway I have the game everyone is like this is incredible. This is like so much better. We're going to play. We're going to play in your game. And then my boss calls me the next morning at like 5 a.m. because he had obviously, you know, they had texted him or whatever. And he's like, get over here. And I'm like, oh my God, I'm actually going to get

killed right now. And I go over there, it's early. He like makes me wait in the guest house, makes me wait. I'm just squirming. And he comes in and he's like, I'm proud of you. Because this whole time he was like, you're just this, like, you're so naive and you're never going to make it in the world. And, you know, he would just like, cause I was always like, you need to be a nicer person and, and just all this stuff and and so in that moment he was like you know you graduated and we became

you know we've been friends ever since but did you guys become partners in the game movie no no i don't want to be fine with you having yeah he's like he's like do your thing i'm surprised he didn't want to sleep with you and get married to you. I was more, I think he thought about me as more like a little sister, like a protege. It was that type of vibe. I'm imagining Tony Soprano in my head. Yeah. So, yeah.

And so, you know, that was this like big moment of like, wow, like you can do the thing that is so scary. And maybe it works. Maybe it doesn't. But it was a rush to me. It was such a rush. And it was this majorly empowering moment in my life that eventually I took too far. Eventually, I became a little too much of a risk taker or just it wasn't calculated. Anyway, so I start running these games.

I'm making millions of dollars a year. I have like learning about what stocks to invest in. I'm doing art deals. I'm middling, you know, like all kinds of stuff. And all these like incredibly prolific people are playing in this game and it becomes this brand, Molly's Game. And are you learning a lot of this just from the access you had and just what you're hearing?

Yeah. So when you think about access, like you're getting to hear some of the smartest and most, you know, successful people talking. You're like, okay, they're doing it. It's like a masterclass in like, you know, every sector you can imagine. Politics, business, entertainment, all of you. I mean, even like when I was getting into art dealing, like I would have games with these like really incredible artists and like the top art dealers in town.

It was, you know, this poker game was like my Trojan horse. You could like infiltrate any subset of society. If I wanted to learn about movies, you know, everyone wanted to play. And then you give them a couple drinks and you get them comfortable around the table. And I bet things are flowing. Yeah. I mean, it was, it was, it felt like a movie, you know, in those days.

It was crazy. And after the games, you know, because I would always have them at the hotels because I liked the different levels of security that it provided. You know, a lot of like underground games are in houses and they're all they're constantly getting held up and you know so i i always felt good even though it was a bit more money to pay pay for that every week like i always felt good that that you know it sort of had that those layers of security plus you had a built-in staff that you didn't really have to pay for held up though meaning like people are coming actually robbing yeah yeah yeah i mean this was one the, this was at the time the biggest cash game in LA. So there was a lot of, there was a lot of risk. What was the reaction from other women

towards you? Like, like for instance, say a huge celebrity comes in, let's use A-Rod for example. This is just my made up imagination. And he's, he's married to J-Lo, let's just say. He comes in, like, is J-Lo, if she sees you, or maybe she doesn't see you, giving you attitude? Is she jealous? Is she texting? Is she calling?

Like, what's the wives situation? Or just so we don't all end up in the headlines, a J-Lo-esque type celebrity. A person on the same level as an A-runner. I'm just making this up. J-Lo, please don't come at me, please. Yeah. Yeah, I've never met J-Lo.

There was actually a period where some of the wives did get threatened and they would start coming to the games with their magazines and the this, and they'd sit in the corner and kind of like... Yeah. With their fucking magazine and their manicured nail peripheraling you with like a knife in their pocket. Right. Exactly. And like, you know, they are sitting in the corner and... But at the time, like... Don't mind me. Here's just my Us Weekly. I'm just going to be over here. Yeah, exactly. But there, but there was many of them, you know, and, and that was what it was. I had a really serious boyfriend at the time.

His family owned the Dodgers. So I was like, listen, I don't, you know, you were good. I'm good. I mean, not, if his family owned the Dodgers or not, but I was just saying like, I wasn't husband shopping at this game. This was my business. And were they trying to hit on you all the time or did they just have so much respect for what you built? You know, it's interesting. In the beginning, when I was a cocktail waitress for the game,

it was like, oh, you're so cute. I want to take you out. But then when it became my game and I was like collecting the money, they were like, I'm not going to pay you. You know, I was like, oh, so like the purses, the dinner's off the table. You know, we're not rolling like that anymore. And let me ask you this.

In this boys club, is there like, do they want like strippers and hookers and all this stuff? Or is this strictly the boys are playing poker, having a couple of drinks, that's it? So I really wanted to keep this brand elevated. I wanted, you know, there were definitely people that sort of made those requests on the side. I got some really good advice early on. Just keep it about poker. You know, make it a classy game. This is your brand. It's high end. Keep the drugs and any kind of, you know, sex out of it. So, you know, I was trying not to break the law when you're breaking the law, people are onto what I'm doing? Or did it not feel like that at all? People as in who? Like maybe feds or cops or anyone watching anything? Nothing. Okay. So the one thing that did happen is I had a bank account at one of these banks in Beverly

Hills. And I went in one day, this was a couple of years into it. And there was a big, because people were using checks to pay these games, right? So, I mean, my account was crazy. Like the amount of checks in and out and the numbers and, you know, it's Beverly Hills. So I couldn't be the only one that, but for whatever reason, they decided that, you know, they were going to kick me out. So I go into the bank and this like really snobby woman who was my personal banker was like, you need, we're closing your account. We don't want your kind of business and you need to go down and get what's the contents

of your safety deposit box. And like, here's a check for your bank account balance. And it was a really frightening moment. I felt like there was going to be like some feds to apprehend me or something, you know, because I like had a ton of cash in that safety deposit box too. Do you think they just stereotyped you because of how you look? I mean, you're very pretty. Like you come in as a young girl, you have all this money. I bet you if you were some old guy with balls down to your knees. They wouldn't have said anything.

You know, I did feel that way. I did feel that way because you're telling me that this bank doesn't have a bunch of men that have a lot of deposits in and out, right? So you're doing it years and years and years. Are you like loving it and wanting to do this for the rest of your life? So I had this plan, right? Get in, make millions of dollars as you know, and, and then create this network and then parlay it into something that that's scalable, that is sustainable and that has likes, but I got caught up, you know? you know i think i mean like you could see why like how do you go from that experience to them like all right well now i might go into like stock trading or i'm gonna go like you know like that's such a fast paced nine to five yeah you can see why people when they get in like something fast paced like that would be like hey

i'm just gonna like it's exciting right And to all of a sudden have this power. It's almost the power that's more addicting, especially as a woman, to come into that boys club. I can totally see. Well, because you probably got to a point where you were comfortable financially, right? You could buy what you wanted to buy, do what you want to do. So at that point, it's like, you're not just like, okay, now I'm going to go do something to make even more because it's not the money at that point that's exciting. It was the power. It was the danger. It was the excitement. It was that something was always new. And it was mine. Things are going, I start to run into an issue. One of

the players in the game, one of the most famous players in the game, celebrity actor, has this strange obsession with winning. And listen, everyone who's sitting at a poker table likes to win. This was almost pathological. Like, he's out there doing these huge movies, and all he wants to talk about is poker. And he's so involved in the process of, like, who's going to be at the game next week. And I need to make sure that I'm going to win and, you know, saying things like, I don't, you know, I like to crush souls and like playing so dirty at the table. And, you know, just, it was just, it was, it was pathological. Like dirty at the table, like not cheating, but like, you know, just berating people. Just like looking at someone in the face and saying like, I swear on my mom's life, like may

she die tomorrow that I have you beat. And then the person would lay down the hand and then he would show the bluff. Just stuff like that. There were rumors that he was colluding with one of the other players. So I started having those conversations. And then he became obsessed with the fact that I was making so much money. And he was constantly keeping track of how much money I was making. And it started to really wear on him because he was the big winner in the game. I kept numbers on everyone because I wanted to see the overall financial health of the game, but also the financial health of the player. Cause I'm on the hook if people don't pay, you know, so I need to really keep track of people. And so he decides. What do you do if someone doesn't pay?

Pay out of my pocket. But if, so you would have to pay and if you can't cover it, then what, then you're just games over. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And how, and, and, but let me ask you this. This is, I know it's a side, I'm going to have a few questions here. Yeah. If you go to someone and they owe and you know they can pay and they're refusing to pay, like what can you do? What hat are you wearing? I'm wearing my new favorite hat from our new favorite partner, Pete and Jerry's Eggs. I finally have made it, Lauren.

We have an egg sponsor. I have arrived. Well, this is so on brand for me because I eat Pete and Jerry's organic eggs. They're from a small family farm every single day. I literally eat eggs every day. We both do. And so does our daughter. This is the only thing, the only eggs, I mean it, only eggs that we're feeding our daughter. He acts like he's Chef Boyardee, but what really is making it is Pete and Jerry's organic eggs. Tell them about the hen's life. A lot of people, they get stuck on this thing, pasture-raised. And of course, that's important, but it's also extremely important to get organic eggs. And not just organic eggs,

but also take a look at how the hens lived, what they ate, how they were raised. And there's so many bad practices in this field. With Pete and Jerry's, it's a local farm, small farm, like Lauren said, and they treat their hens right. It's all organic and it's the highest quality eggs you can get. So when you're in the store looking around, you're like, what decision should I make? Which egg should I choose? Pete and Jerry's is the only way to go. Yeah. Apparently their hens roam as they please on organic pastures. So they're never treated with harmful chemicals or pesticides. This is so important to know where your eggs come from, especially if you're like me and you have eggs every single day. You should also know, and I can attest to this because there's a

huge difference, organic eggs are richer. They're creamier. They're firm. They're delicious. They're that golden color, like the yolk that you want. Another way you can tell that they're organic is they have these harder, stronger shells. I'm all about supporting Pete and Jerry's Organic Eggs. I'm so excited that we're working with them now. Right now, Pete and Jerry's is giving away a free dozen eggs to the first 100 listeners who go to PeteandJerrys.com slash skinny to claim your free dozen eggs. You're going to go to P-E-T-E-A-N-D-G-E-R-R-Y-S.com slash skinny. Pete and Jerry's organic eggs are available nationwide at a fine grocer near you. Make some cheesy eggs with Pete and Jerry's.

Well, what can I do or what do other people do? Both. Okay. So in this business that I was in, there are people that if you can't pay, you're going to have problems. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So they'll sell your debt on the street. They'll have a tough guy. Come and get you. Yeah. But obviously I'm not going to do that. But if one of the other players learns, like, hey, there's a guy over here and he's not paying and he can pay, then they're going to find a way to make him pay. Most other game writers would.

The great thing about my game is that it was social suicide not to pay. Right. If you didn't pay, you're not invited back to the club. And also, your reputation is destroyed. I are, everybody wanted to do business with the people that were playing in this game. So that more than anything was, was what kept. And also I had to do my job well, because how many people are there in LA that drive a Lambo, but have no savings,

no cash, you know? So it's like, you gotta, you had to be a bit of a detective and vet people. And I found ways to do that. I had like employees at banks that paid off to give me information and private investigators and, you know. You were, that's a lot of work what you were doing. This is a lot of work. This is not like you just don't roll, like roll out of bed and is word of mouth and private invites. Like people, you know, going to their friends. Yeah. And so like, you're not like some random, it's not just walking in the street and be like, Hey, like I, like there has to be some kind of warm introduction. Okay. You were telling us the story and Michael, I know you how you're saying to me. Yeah. So anyway, this player says to me,

I don't like how much money you're making, you know, and this is my business. Like I have, and, and I've built this business and I have found ways to, to, you know, and this is my business. Like I have, and, and I've built this business and I have found ways to, to, you know, increase my revenue streams. And, and I'm, I've fed this game with new players. I'm constantly recruiting, constantly vetting players, constantly finding new blood and you know, the whole thing, like I'm conferring massive value here and I'm also guaranteeing the game. So I'm extending credit. So I, I was like, you don't have a position here, you know? And he became

obsessed with it. And he went behind my back and decided to leverage his celebrity, which was powerful. And he took the game and, and, and I, and I refused to acquiesce. You know, I refused to like be the person that was like, okay, well, how can we make this right? And here's part of my tip, you know, here's part of my salary. Like, no, like I'm a businesswoman just like you have your business. I'm not, you know, anyway. So he calls me and he's like, you're fucked. Like, you know, it's not your game anymore. And, you know, there's only so many players you can feed into a $50,000 buy-in poker game and everyone was concentrated here. And so I was just devastated, you know, and this would have been a good time, right, to parlay this into something else or to

go to law school, go back to school or whatever. I had a lot of money. I had great reputation. I had great network, but I was just so pissed, you know? And I was like, listen, I'm not going down like that. This is like some spoiled ego bullshit that like, you know, I don't want to go out like this when it's, I want to go out on my terms. So I just, you know, I, I was just seeing red and I decided like, all right, you know what? I'm, I'm going to build the biggest poker game in the world. I'm going to go even bigger because I have something to prove now. So I decided that I would do that in New York city. I've, you know, we all know that there's a ton of gamblers on wall street. There are a lot of problems. It was 2008. The economy was in the tank. I didn't really know

anyone in New York. And the same game runners had been running these games for 20 years. So I just got focused and I came up with a strategy. and then I started recruiting a lot my ass off. Like I, I, and like you were saying, this isn't the type of thing where you can like have, you know, marketing and advertising and like, you know, it's all underground. So I just started to identify people who would have access to the type of customer I was looking for. And did you know the people running the games out there and have a good thing with them or was it like, okay. No, it was, I knew who they were, but we weren't pals. Okay. Okay. There was like one big game runner and he was like the me of New York city. He did not want me to come to New York. So I just, you know, I hired socialites

who like go out for a living and have access to people who have sort of like hedonistic tendencies and lots of money. And I financially incentivized the concierge at the high end hotels and the majorities in the good restaurants and the casino hosts in Atlantic City and Vegas. And anyway, and I approached one of these billionaires, this guy, there's a billionaire's game. So it's just like a home game, not a professional game. And approach them and, you know know just put it all together and and built the biggest poker game but at that time was in the world and it was a 250 000 buy-in i mean just to give you some context on this game like i saw someone lose 100 million dollars in one night. What did that look like? What did that look like?

Was he throwing up? Or was she throwing up? What did that look like? You know, women are too smart to lose $100 million on a poker game. That's why I said he. It wasn't as brutal as you'd think. I don't know what he looked like when he went home, but I had players that would tip the table over $50,000 and throw cards and have a temper tantrum. And he was pretty even

heel. Well, you assume if you have that type of money to gamble, it's probably not your whole net worth. Yeah. And even though that's just an insane number, he's calculated he just hit the the units that he operates in but still i mean it's you know and he went on to lose like almost a billion dollars in the game and then recently i heard that he's actually won it all back and and is now like the big winner but well yeah so what was New York City like compared to LA was it less celebrity more Wall Street was the vibe different was the place where you did it different what were the similarities and differences New York was a whole different ballgame yeah I'm sure New York was crazy and intense and pretty pretty terrifying at times And it was the real deal. Like, would these New York people play with the people that were playing in LA?

Yeah, sure. But like, you know, the New York game was five times bigger. So you had to be, you know. And so not a lot of the LA players would play in the New York game. But, and like the New York players were like, that's a boring game. It's $50,000 buy-in. And also, the New York players like to play crazy games like Stud No Limit and PLO. And so they're numbers guys. And they're huge gamblers. Huge. So I was just focused. And so not only did I start this

big game, I started smaller games. I started the variants of PLO and Hold'em. I started the, you know, games in different places. And like, I, you know, I had games every day and every night. And I was, I was officially, I wasn't officially in LA. I was officially the bank for New York City Pokers. So I was bankrolling the whole thing. Meaning at the end of the night, I settled everyone and then collected. Oh, that's got to be a little bit nerve wracking.

Yeah, it was crazy. But that was the way that I was able to break in, you know? Because the big problem with New York City Poker is that a lot of the game runners would only pay out if they got paid. So it was like a Ponzi scheme and people had a big like sort of mistrust of everything that was going on. So the way that I sort of, you know, asserted myself is like, look, I'm the bank, you know, and people would trade MDB Inc. checks like cash, like in that ecosystem and in other games.

Did you have to study books and study history and study all different kinds of things to know how to come into this boys club and be assertive like this? Or do you just think it's part of your personality? I am a big learner. I'm not a fearless person. I have anxiety about new ventures and stuff like that. And the way

that I deal with my anxiety is I try to like find as much information as I possibly can. So I read a lot of books and, you know, listen to other people's accounts, but there's no experience like just jumping in the deep end and having to think on your feet. And what I found from these games is that I had no idea what I was good at. Obviously, Jordan was going to be a doctor and he's this brainiac and Jeremy is insane at sports. And I just didn't know what I was good at. And what I realized when I started running these games is that I'm an entrepreneur and I can think on my feet and I can problem solve. And when there's chaos going on around, I can be calm and retain composure. But the way that I got there to do that

is just fake it till you make it. Like when drama went down the first hundred times, I felt crazy inside, but I was just like, I was able to just move through it and then it became like a reality of who I was. What's a micro level of drama? Are we talking fights? Someone's fingers getting cut off? Like is Tony Soprano in the back, like with a gun? Like what's, what kind of drama? Yeah. There's fights. Someone brought a gun one time and pulled

it out at the table. You know, people accusing each other of cheating, people actually cheating. Yeah. I wouldn't cheat in one of those games. I don't think that at the table. You know, people accusing each other of cheating. People actually cheating. Yeah. I wouldn't cheat in one of those games. I don't think that's the move. Cheating doesn't sound like the move. No. Yeah. Cheating's not the move.

Is it just you get kicked out? Yeah. No one respects you. You're a cheat. Like, bye. Then maybe worse. Yeah. Yeah.

But, oh, there were so many, like, con men and professional gamblers and magicians and all these people that wanted to get into this game. That's what I was going to ask you. Obviously, there's the actual poker pros. Did those guys come around and try to get in? Are they allowed to get in? Do the people want to even play with them? Is that a challenge? Or do they keep them out?

So, they only wanted to play with one pro one time, and that was Phil Ivey. Phil Ivey's great. Yeah, he's great. And he just sat at the table. He's got some great books too. And he just gambled with them and like bet on sports and he, you know, he wasn't there. He's not coming to like clean their house. No, he just wanted to, like, he's smart. He probably like knew that these people over time, you know, would maybe useful to him. Yeah. So he wasn't going to be like short-sighted and just take all their money in one time. I think he just did a masterclass. Did he?

Should. He's super short. Molly should do a masterclass. On what? I'm learning a lot. Go on, go on. Okay. So I'm going to give you what you've been asking for.

I'm going to give you some mom stuff, okay? She's been waiting. I love mob. All right. So here I got two, I got two different types of mob situations are a part of the story. So. This is like so easy to talk about because it is my favorite tea and that is peak tea. Okay, there's two that I like. The first one, you got to try it, is the ginger digestion tea. I drink this every single day, usually in the morning, mostly at night. It helps me with digestion. I love the ginger flavor and peak tea just has the best tea because it's not in a teabag that's getting all those toxins in your water, okay? So many of these teabags are

getting toxins sitting in your water, microplastics. Peak Tea doesn't have anything like that. They don't have a teabag. You just open up this little packet and pour it in your water. They also have my favorite Sun Goddess matcha. I'm obsessed with frothing this with a little bit of coconut and almond milk and cinnamon. It's amazing. It's the best matcha out there. You guys are going to be obsessed. It's no GMO soy. It's no refined sugar.

It's natural. It's no artificial flavor. It's no junk, okay? They're very specific about their ingredients. Another thing they just recently launched that I am a huge fan of is their Daily Immune, and this is different than the tea, okay? This is this absorbable liposomal vitamin C that you can take daily. So what I do is I have my cup of tea in the morning, and then I just take a little packet of vitamin C, and their Peaks peaks daily immune is maximized for absorption.

There's so many vitamin C's on the market that don't actually deliver the vitamin C to your cells. And this one does. Their products are legit. You're going to go to peaktea.com slash skinny and use code skinny at checkout to get 5% off plus free shipping on your first order. Get the ginger tea, get the matcha and get the vitamin C packets. That's my recommendation. That's peaktea.com spelled P-I-Q-U-E-T-E-A.com slash skinny and use code skinny for 5% off plus free shipping on your first order. There is a reason that Peak Tea has over 15,000 five-star reviews. Try it for yourself risk-free with their 30-day satisfaction guarantee. You're either going to love it or get your money back. Enjoy. So I'm out there, I'm recruiting, and I got to back up for a second. So

I build this empire in New York City, okay? And something changes in me. And what had been about like in LA and early days, New York, just like being ballsy and being an entrepreneur, but still being who I was, which is someone who cares about other people, who cares about doing the right thing. I just got savage, you know? And I got really overcome like with, I want more money and more power and more games. And I always had all this money on the street. And I started like taking like pills to stay up, you know, for the like games that lasted two, three days and drinking a lot, like, but not like out with my friends, like drinking alone, you know, just to deal with the massive amount of stress and loneliness and all that stuff. And I stopped like talking to my family because they weren't into it, you know? I mean, it was one thing in LA when I was like,

you know, I like bought a Bentley at 25 and like my brothers would come out and hang out with like all my pretty girlfriends, but like New York was something different, you know? And my dad, to his credit, was writing me handwritten letters every year saying like, this isn't sustainable. This is going to crash. You need to do something else. You're, you know, like all this stuff. And I didn't want to hear it anymore. Like, you know, in my mind, I felt like somebody. And that was a huge drug for me. So I started getting sloppy and reckless and getting off on the adrenaline and the danger and also caring less about whether or not I'm putting the right people in the seats. And what I mean by that is like, can they pay? Is this going to ruin their life? Are they just a blatant addict? Are they a good person? Do I

know their background? And I just started putting people in seats to make money. And I had recruited these Russian guys from Brighton Beach. Now, I had them checked out, but there was something a little off. Their stories checked out. They were very sophisticated. They meshed well with the other players, but there was something off. And it turns out that they were running the biggest insurance fraud scheme in New York City history,

125 million, and that they had deep ties to the Russian mob. So Russian mob is sort of like financing their whole thing. And just, I think that's the gnarliest mob of them all. Is that right? I think so too. Yeah, they're brutal. Yeah.

Well, from what I've heard. Yeah, that's from what I've heard. Not like hanging out with the Russian mob, but from what I've heard. I'm like, geez, what have you been doing? That must have scared you a lot. Or maybe it didn't. So I didn't know that yet.

But what the result of that was, is that they are always talking. So the feds were listening to them. The feds were on to them. They had wiretaps and all that stuff. And so all of a sudden, these players or these guys are always talking about this game,

this $100 million game, Molly's game, you know? And so like this creates a real interest with the feds. So that's going on and they're looking at my games. Then in LA, something happens. Okay, so there's this guy that came to the LA games and his name is Brad.

We called him Bad Brad because he literally couldn't win a hand of poker. He would come and he would splash all this money and he would lose all this money. He would never win. And I even pulled him aside one time and I was like, Brad, I don't- The same for you. Yeah. The same for you. Right? Like you're great for business, but this is, this is. Is this Brad Pitt? No. Oh. You never know what

the people you know. How dare you think that. How could Brad be bad at something? I know. How dare you, Lauren. So, but he said, please don't take this away from me. I don't have a lot of friends and I love the guys. And so, and, and he's playing and he's the worst poker player I've ever seen. Like, and, but he starts talking about his hedge fund at the table and everyone and his incredible returns. And everyone's like, oh, bad Brad's a savant at trading oil futures. Right. So they all start to invest in his fund, even though this dude cannot understand like that straight beats, like, you know, like he doesn't know that,

that he doesn't know how to play the game. He doesn't know how to play the game. Anyway, so they all invest with him. Turns out he was running a huge Ponzi scheme. And what he was doing is he was coming to the table

and he was losing a couple million dollars a year, but raising 30, 40 million dollars for his Ponzi scheme hedge fund. So he gets arrested. He starts talking and saying like, well, it all started to go bad when I started playing in this poker game and became a gambling addict, which was not the truth. He had been doing what he was doing for a long time. Anyway, so then we all got sued for the money that he lost in the game. Then we all had to pay that back, but it's in the tabloids now, okay? So

someone leaked the deposition to Star Magazine. Now the tabloids are covering this. So this Seeger game is now on the radar in LA. Now the feds are tracking it because of the Russians. And the next thing that happened is the Italian mob came on the scene. So I had this driver and he doubled as a security guard. When I was delivering or collecting large sums of cash, I had to bring someone with me that was strapped. And I trusted this guy. He'd worked for me for four years. He said to me one day, like, look, I also drive these guys from New Jersey. They're hedge fund guys and they really want to play in your game. I was like, okay, have them meet me at the Four Seasons Bar, you know? And they walked in and it was real clear who they were and they got it, you know, they went into their shtick and they were like,

it's great what you've been able to build, but this is what we do. And you need to give us a piece of your game. And I was like, look, I can't go into business with you. There will be no game if I do that. So thanks, but no thanks. And they were like, what? And then they kept calling me and approaching me or trying to get another meeting or whatever. And I was just like totally ghosting them. And then they sent someone to my house and this guy, you know, I thought it was my doorman bringing packages up. And there's this random terrifying guy outside of my door and he pushed his way in and he put his gun in my mouth. He like beat the hell out of me. And he said, if you tell anyone about this, he took everything from my safe,

pictures, photos, jewelry, cash. And he said, you know, this isn't an option for you to turn down. And he said, if you tell anyone about this or you don't comply, basically, we know where your family lives in Colorado. So just from an outsider perspective to get this clear the mob saw that you were making a shitload of money and because of that they tried to get a

piece of it. Right. And you said no obviously. Right. And then they said no this isn't this isn't a conversation this is a yes and you think that the driver was placed by the mob to get to you? I don't think he was placed, but I'd known him for four years. But somehow they had an in with him. I don't know if he was doing shady stuff on the side. Like, I don't know how. But he was the one that fed me to them. It's why I asked you in the beginning when we were talking about New York, if you knew who was running the games with her.

Because I figured like somebody has the keys to that castle over there, right? Totally. Yeah. So what did you do after that? So I didn't know what to do. It was terrifying, dark. Now I realize like my family's potentially in danger and I can't tell anyone. You know, because this guy who just put his gun in my mouth told me that if I tell anyone, he's going to hurt my family.

And so I don't tell a soul. And I'm just in my apartment. My face is really bruised and my ribs are broken. I mean, I'm just sitting, waiting in my apartment, waiting for their call. And I have no idea what I'm going to say to them. I don't have strategy for this. So a couple of weeks go by and I'm just very confused why I'm not hearing from them. And then I think it was like the third week I got the New York Times and on the cover it said 125 arrested in the biggest mob-related takedown in New York City history. And so I never heard from them again. So you never ended up having to do anything with them? No.

But would you think that they helped put you on the radar of any feds later on? Or do you think that was just nothing to do with it? I think that that was completely separate. I think if there had been more of a, if there had been a longer relationship, longer communication, that would have sort of compounded this thing. But it was a very short amount of time from the time they approached me to the time that they got arrested. And the feds take years to build cases, especially, especially one so big that they needed to rent out a gymnasium to process 125 people, you know? Well, probably if you were in business with them that long, you probably would have been

in that group of 125, right? Because they take everybody. it's not looking good at this point no it's not looking good so the last thing that happened was you know and then after that happened i was even more like down the rabbit hole with drugs and and you know not sleeping and you know just and the la game's still going on or like this is done and you're not the la game's going on but not in the sort of like same way. It was like when they can get it together. And yeah. So the last thing that happened was I, I started taking a rake. I was getting sloppy about who I was getting in the seats. I don't know what that means. Okay. Sorry. No, that's fine. I'm just for anyone that doesn't know what that means. Most people don't. So I had criminal attorneys, defense attorneys on both coasts that analyzed this federal statute and in the federal statute, they looked at the language, right? And what they said to me is,

you're probably good either way because the language in the federal statute says, running an illegal gambling business constitutes running games of chance. So blackjack is chance, right? Poker is a game of skill because if you actually know probability and math, you can win. The same sort of players are at the final table at the World Series. And you're not really playing against the house. You're not playing against the house. You're playing against each other. But they said, if you want to make sure that you're not in this category, do not take a rake. Do not take a percentage of each pot like Vegas does. So if you go to Vegas and you play poker, every time there's a hand,

the dealer is going to take some chips out as a vig for the house. It's what I was saying. Is it a blind, Lauren? How does the dealer know how much money they're allowed to take? You have to put like it goes around the table and each person has to put it. So you started taking a rake like a casino when you're just not allowed to do it at a private game. Right. Okay.

And the reason that I did it is because I was starting to get stiffed a lot and I needed to cover my downside. Now, at the same time this happens, that federal statute in which poker is always thrown out, okay, something different happens. There was a case where a prosecutor tried to indict, throw a poker game runner into this offense. The defense made their case. Poker's a game of skill. The government challenged it and it got upheld as precedent.

So long story short, now the laws around poker are different. Okay. And the feds had put a confidential informant in the game who was able to see that I was now taking a rake and the laws have changed. So in 2011, I got a text message from one of my poker dealers that was running one of my games. And he said, the FBI is here looking for you. And in that moment, I got a text message from one of my poker dealers that was running one of my games. And he said, the FBI is here looking for you. And in that moment, I knew it was over.

What goes to like, what kind of, I mean, I imagine that was a moment of sharp anxiety. And were you waiting for that? A part of me, if I, like, I feel like I would be, it's almost maybe in a weird way, a relief. Or no. I think it was. Yeah. It was, I was in so over my head. There are so many balls in the air. I wasn't happy anymore, but the, but the first emotion was, was fear. And, and I just had this, like, I don't know how to explain this. Like, I was like, I just want my mom, you know? And so I went to my apartment and I like threw a bunch of stuff in a bag, like my ledger and all this stuff.

And I grabbed, you know, like my Beagle. I had a Beagle that lived to be 21. So she was like with me through it all. And I go to the airport and I try to buy a ticket to Denver out of JFK and my credit card gets declined. And then the next card, my bank, my actual bank card gets declined. And I log into my accounts and it shows my balance as negative $9,999,099. So they seized everything. They seized everything. And so, you know, I'm terrified that they're going to be there to apprehend me at JFK, but I make it home to Colorado. My lawyers call the right people and they said, you know, look, this is, in this country, in America, your person has the presumption of innocence. So like you are presumed to be innocent and that's why you can have a case

to hearing, but your property does not have the presumption of innocence. And so if the government decides that you're making it illegally, they can do this thing called forfeiture, asset forfeiture, and they can take it. And they said, if she wants to come in and tell us what she knows about the underground gambling scene and these games and everything, then we can talk about giving her money back. And I didn't. And they were right. I was making my money illegally at that point. And it didn't matter that I hadn't been for the previous seven and a half years. For six months, I was. And they had evidence of that. So I moved back in with my mom. I didn't have any money. I didn't even have any bank accounts. Most of the people I knew wouldn't answer a phone call. I had $3 million on the streets, $3 million of money that was owed to me. It was now a crime for me to collect that, and it was all over. And the Fed said to my attorney, she's not a target of our investigation right now.

So, so they just basically shut you down and took everything. We're like, good luck, but they weren't actually indicting you at the time. That's right. Okay. That's right. So I kind of went on crazy, like bender with some, you know, shady guy that I had met. Sometimes that's what you need. Yeah. I've had a couple of those. Lauren started one of those a couple of years back and here we are. See, mine didn't exactly turn out that well. Okay. And my mom and my brothers found out where I was and they flew in and they staged an intervention and they're like, you need rehab, you know? And I was like, fine,

but I want to go somewhere like bougie and on the beach and I want to fly first class. And my aunt has been sober for like a million years and she used to always say to me like, saving a seat for you in the rooms, you know? She kind of was just like, we'll see you soon. Anyway, she was like, this girl needs humility. So they sent me to this like real deal rehab

that was like a step above like a state funded institution facility. And it was gnarly, but I got sober and I got some perspective and I moved, you know, I was living with my mom in Keystone, Colorado. I was like, I gotta try to get a job. You know, I gotta try to fix this. Like, and so I started trying to get a job,

but this had been the tabloids and there was all these rumors about like feds and mob and all this stuff. No one wanted to take my call. So it took me about two years of just cold calling people. And I finally got a job with this production company with kind of this promise of like, well, I've got a really great story. Maybe I can place it here. I moved back to LA to this small, modest apartment. It's a couple of days before my 33rd birthday. We didn't have

any parties. And middle of the night, seven days later, 17 FBI agents show up. Machine guns. 17 of them. I mean, they were so packed into this little hallway that it looked like it was like an army in my apartment.

Why did they... I mean, was that... They're just... Okay. I mean, fine. No, that's ridiculous. Yeah, it was...

It was insane. It was... Did they think you were with someone or they just knew it was you? And they had to know it was just you. I mean, did you have any inclination that that was going to happen or were you completely

caught off guard? I, this was- You thought it was in the clear, done. They took my money, but like, they don't care. Statute of limitations is a hell of a thing. Right. But I didn't realize that they spend years building these cases and that it can happen like this.

I had no information. It felt like I had lost my mind. I just couldn't grasp the reality that I was living. And they put me in handcuffs and they put this piece of paper in front of me that says the United States of America versus Molly Bloom, because that's what an indictment looks like. And they take me to jail, you know, and I'm in shackles and handcuffs and they're not telling me shit. They're not telling me anything about what's going to happen.

And then I'm sitting there and I see like some of the other people like that they brought in, like other poker players and not players, but like other game runners and stuff. And my mom flies in right before when the FBI arrested me. I was like, one of them let me use their cell phone. And I called my mom. I'm like, mom, don't freak out. The FBI just arrested me and I need you to come here. So she got on a plane and then they let me out. And I had a day and a half to get to New York City to find a badass attorney that's going to represent me in

the fight of my life. Because on the press release, it says I'm looking at 90 years in prison. How do you even, or how are you even able to pay for one of these lawyers? They're so expensive. What do you do? You do, what's it called? What's it called? What's the word with the retainer? No word.

You pay if you win. I forgot the word. Contingency. That's a different thing. But hold on. 90 years for what charge? They had like five different charges. And they just like stacked them all up?

They stacked them, yeah. Okay. And so, but that's an excellent question. And that was my dilemma. I had eight meetings. I got names from people. You know, I had eight meetings that day. And seven out of the eight attorneys said,

you can't, I don't have a dollar. And my mom just bailed me out and put up her house. Like, I don't have a dollar. And my mom just bailed me out and put up her house. Like, I don't have $1, you know? And my dad's like, you're on your own. I told you not to do this, you know? And so I had eight meetings that day and seven out of eight were like, no retainer, no representation, you know? My last meeting of that day was with Jim Walden. And Jim Walden is played by Idris Elba in the movie. And he sat with me and he said, listen, I was a prosecutor in Brooklyn for eight years.

And I went after the five crime families, okay? He's like, this indictment that I'm looking at right now is bullshit and you need help. And so I'm gonna petition my firm because he was at a really big, fancy, prestigious law firm. And he's like, I'm gonna at right now is bullshit and you need help. And so I'm going to petition my firm. Cause he was at a really big, fancy, prestigious, prestigious, you know, law firm. And he's like, I'm going to petition my firm to just let us deal with the money later. And that was a game changing moment for me. You know, I started working with Jim and, and he was like, I was like, all right, Walden, what's our strategy and what's our angle. You know, like I'm from the gambling

world, like we're, we'll do, you know, and he's like, integrity is going to be's our strategy and what's our angle, you know? Like I'm from the gambling world, like we'll do, you know? And he's like, integrity is going to be both our strategy and our angle. And I was like, damn, like, I'm such a piece of shit. You know what I mean? But it was like that reminder, right? That of who you want to be in the world. And he is that and he embodies that.

And, and it was because he had such a stellar reputation in government and, you know, from his time as a prosecutor and because he's a decent human being that he really managed this, this so well, but the prosecutors wanted a meeting, you know? And so like, we went in and we met with the prosecutors and they were like, Molly Bloom, like for the last eight years, you've run what is one of the biggest underground gambling syndicates ever. And, you know, we don't care about the Russians

or the Italians. Like what we want information on are the celebrities, the Wall Street people, the politicians. This is the Southern District of New York. This is where Giuliani got his start. This is a very politically ambitious office. And, you know, in some ways, they probably thought it was a jackpot, you know?

But this is what I don't understand. You guys said it wasn't illegal to play poker. Why are they... No, because she's sort of taking a rake. Okay, but how does that implicate or how does that put the politicians and the

celebrities? I don't get why that part doesn't. So why were they... So they just want information? These people, some of them are up to some

sketchy stuff. Okay. You know, not all of them, but some of them are. But they're like, if you... Yeah, I'm imagining like if they're dropping all that money on gambling, them are but they're like if you yeah i'm imagining

like if they're dropping all that money on gambling one there's probably like a tax question two there's like where's that money coming from three how are you like there's a there's a million different things that you start and also you know i was a bartender and this is obviously a like very different than i was a bartender but i was a bartender at this bar for five years that was like the boys club, you know, most exclusive money spent kind of like not underground, but like it was a small bar and the boys would come in. And what I noticed is that when they would come in and they would talk, it was like I was a picture frame on the wall. It was like I wasn't even there. That's right.

So I got access for five years to see men in their natural habitat without women, which was such an interesting experiment for me because I heard all these things I never would have heard had I been sitting down as his wife. And I think for you... By the way, that's identical. It's identical. They essentially almost thought like, oh, she's a prop. And I don't mean that in a mean way. No, for sure. But it's like they just talked everything. So that's probably why they wanted access to you, I would think. Yeah.

I mean, and I had all kinds of financial records. And they're right. I did know about some things. Listen, I didn't have any Harvey Weinsteins or Epsteins in my game. I would have given them up. That would have been a non-starter. I would have volunteered information on someone like that. But this is stupid stuff, right? Or maybe not stupid. But anyway, so they're like, look, if you're willing to become a confidential informant, this is what that looks like. We could ask you to wear a wire, all this different stuff. We'll give you all your money back and we'll give you full immunity from jail. Wow. Yeah. And I only had like 48 hours to make this decision. And, you know, I said to Jim,

I was like, I don't want to do it. And he said, I don't want you to go to prison. And I was like, but isn't it like a federal prison? Like when I just get good at, you know, backgammon and whatever. And he's like, a women's federal prison is not the same as a man's federal prison. You know, there's not a lot of like white collar, like, and you also don't know the sort of what's going to happen to you, like prison guards. Like he's like, it's not a good situation. It's dangerous. It's a horror show. And you don't want to go.

But I don't know. I sat there and I thought about this. And I'm like, this whole situation I'm in is 100% my fault. Like nobody tricked me into it. It's not like I didn't have opportunities. And I just felt like the way to move forward was to take my medicine, you know? And then it ends. Because if you become a CI for the government, who knows where that ends? And I also just didn't feel like it was the right thing to do to be a part of taking down all these other people just

because I couldn't handle the consequences, you know? So I turned on the offer and, you know, they were pissed. And then I had to wait a year to get sentenced. So I had to wait a year to see what was going to happen. And I got really lucky. I got a pretty young, 41 years old, Obama appointed judge who was like, look, like I'm super not, you know, he was very disappointed in my life choices, but I'd also conducted myself in that year. To rehab. I went to rehab. I did community service. You know, a lot of the people in my indictment were still sitting courtside at the Knicks. You know, I removed myself from the scene and I made sure that my behavior, my action showed major

contrition. And you didn't have any of the money. And I didn't have any money. And I got good, I got my college professors and ski coaches and people to write letters and my whole family was there. And so Jim had orchestrated this whole thing super well and he's humble and he does the right thing. And so I didn't have to go to jail. I had to pay restitution and get probation. And look, not for nothing, when he handed down that sentencing, I lost my knees. You can be as tough and strong and gritty as you want, but when you're looking at losing your freedom, it's just next level. Why did you say felon earlier? To me, you didn't actually have to serve time.

So is that still felon? Yeah. So I became a convicted felon that day. I pled guilty. It's just the sentencing. They didn't sentence to go to jail. How do you go off and get a job with that? Is that...

See, I mean, that's a really... So, you know, what I was saying is like, by the way, you would have been a good lawyer. Don't tell her that. Did you hear that? We're going to,

she loves to argue. Did you hear that? No, no, but she's, you have a very lawyerly mind. He hates that you're saying this to me and not him. He's so mad.

No one's ever said that to me in my life. No, you have good questions. You have good questions. Thank you. I would have made a made a terrible lawyer i don't i do not have the temperament yeah you got to be pretty in control of your emotions huh yeah no i don't want to do that yeah i argue enough i don't want to argue for a living yeah right yeah yeah it'd be too much okay so yeah so like obviously i'm super grateful that I don't have to go to jail, but my life is

fucked. You know, I'm 35 years old, millions of dollars in debt. By the way, can I curse? Yeah. Okay. You can do anything you want to say on your end. Everything we've gone through now, I don't think... I know.

Yeah. It's okay to say fuck. I don't think I slip of a... We can't. I don't know. You might just have to scrap this. I love that Molly I don't think I slip of a We can't. I don't know. You might just have to scrap this. I love that Molly Bloom just asked if she can cuss

on the podcast. That's amazing. I'm trying to be a rule follower these days. I love it. All right. So, but I'm fucked, right?

I'm 35 years old. I'm millions of dollars in debt. My network is destroyed. My reputation is destroyed. The tabloids are telling the story of this like girl in a tight skirt that was like, you know, the madam of poker.

Like, no one wants to hire that girl. You know, I'm a convicted felon. And I'm just like, you know, I remember sitting at dinner with my family that night. And Jordan had just graduated from Harvard. And Jeremy had just got inducted into the colorado sports hall of fame and i'm like god damn it it like brings you back to your childhood yeah but like way worse now and so i'm like i just you know i'm like i gotta make this work i gotta figure this out i got it this may be fucked up to say but like there's very few people that could

have done what you did at this level you i mean regardless my husband wants you to tell him off air how to do it because he wants to go do it. Honestly, when you start telling your story, I'm like, oh my God, Michael's eyeballs are going to have started. A lot of this took place, what, when you were 24 to 30? Yeah. Right? That's a very young age to deal with people in that position of power and authority and manage it for that long and go through all this and also kind of like keep your shit together and not end up being in complete fuck up dealing with that, that amount of stress. Most people have no kind of like they get flustered by the little things in

life. Like, Oh, I lost a little bit of money or my business went over or my, you know what? The amount of stress that you must've been under is so, I mean, even like there's no way that we could relate to it,

but it's must've been so insurmountable at times. It's like, you have to way that we could relate to it, but it's must've been so insurmountable at times. It's like, you have to be a very strong individual to get through any of this. Yeah. I mean, that is a compliment. Thank you. Sitting at the dinner table, people have to, they can look and say, okay, that's not, we don't agree with what you did. Right. But it's very impressive what you did. Well, morals aside. Right. And, and what, what I needed to, to be able to prove was that if I wanted to have a future that like, maybe you don't agree with what I did, but I have this skillset and I, I accomplished something and I need a job, you know? And so I started, I kind of like went home and I was like, all right, the entrepreneurial mission now is how do you save your life? You know, where's the rebrand? Where's the reinvention? And so I thought about it and, you know, I didn't have much left, develop a story in the right way, it has legs and it can, you know,

you can manage the narrative and there's financial gain. And listen, the way that I was, no one was going to hire me, you know? So I was like, all right, so I'm going to figure out how to write a book. And I was like, this has been in the tabloids, and all the publishers will want this, and they did want a version of it, but they wanted that celebrity takedown piece, and I just, you know, I'm like, look, I'm not going to write that story, so most, I got rejected by every publisher except for one imprint at HarperCollins said yes, and it was a really small book deal, but whatever, that's all I needed. I just needed to own some intellectual property. Wrote the book and then I took it to Hollywood. And it was great in the beginning. Like I was getting meetings with everyone, you know, everyone. And

it would, we'd be in the room and it would be, everyone would be so interested and fascinated and having ideas and then nothing. Like I would get ghosted. And so finally someone leveled with me and it was the, this guy's, it's a good dude. He was the head of one of the biggest networks. And he said, look, I'm just going to be really honest with you. We're all going to take the meeting. It's an interesting story. And this is Hollywood lore and it's, it's fascinating, but no one's going to make this movie because there are way too many powerful people, too many billionaires, too many politicians, too many A-list actors. Associated with.

Yeah. That are like, I don't want the story to get told. The tabloid coverage was enough. I don't want the story to get told. And I appreciated his candor and I went back to the drawing board, but that's the great thing. And this is the thing I never want to lose. When you have lost everything, you no longer give a shit. You are fearless. Your ego is on the bench and you're just like, fuck it. I just need a different way in. And that's such a great place to come from. And now coming from where I am now, I always try to leverage that again because it's so powerful. I just went home. you know, I like was pissed and was like, how much more do these people want from me? You know, but like, then I was just like, okay, like what's, what's the way in. And so from all my meetings, what I'd realized is that

there is the short list of like Spielberg's and Sorkin's and, you know, like that don't have to play politics in Hollywood. Hollywood needs them. They need these writers and these directors. They are the gods. Truly, they are what makes it work. And so I made this short list of people like that. And at the top of that list for me was Aaron Sorkin.

He had just done The Social Network. And I thought the way he handled that subject material was just brilliant. And that he wrote with a lot of humanity and would, you know, do this story justice. So I started trying to get a meeting with Aaron and people, I'd be like, how do I get a meeting with Aaron Sorkin? And they'd be like, you don't, you know, Sorkin's not going to write the poker princess, you know, like whatever. And I was just like, okay, fine, whatever you think. Finally, I actually got a meeting with Aaron, this entertainment lawyer, Ken Hertz, who has become my lawyer and my dear friend now. I was like, I know Aaron personally. I can ask him for a favor. So Aaron took the meeting and it's interesting. So in the movie, when in the courtroom,

when Idris is like, just thinks she needs a publicist and he's like, I don't need to represent you. But then he starts asking those questions. That's how Aaron came into the meeting. That Aaron sort of superimposed his experience onto the Idris's character there. Because Aaron's like, but this girl wrote a like book about celebrity, you know, which I didn't. And so at that meeting, you know, I told him my story.

And he had some real questions that he was asking me. And then he said, you know, well, I guess I'm gonna have to finish your book. and he had some real questions that he was asking me. And then he said, you know, well, I guess I'm gonna have to finish your book. And over the next couple of weeks, you know, I didn't think he was gonna do it, but it was a cool experience. And, you know, I had my list that I was gonna go down, but then he would just like randomly email me a question

like Idris asked, like, well, did you have money on the street? You know, who's collecting that for you? Stuff like that. And he started to see this story and see the value in it and see it in this way that he believed he could tell, that could sort of be like this version of the hero's journey, but in a very sort of edgy way.

And so he emailed me about a month later and he was like, I'm going to do it. Holy shit. Are you freaking out? Freaking out. I mean, like, I will never forget where I was standing. I was at my mom's house and, you know, I was like sitting on the deck and like, she lives like, it's like legends of the fall up there. Like, you know, it's like no people, all wilderness. And I just, I'm like reading this email, like chills, you know, head to toe. I'm like, okay, like I'm going to have a second chance maybe. So how involved do you get to be in the movie? Are you helping pick characters? Are you

doing character development or are you just counting over the story and then walking away? So it's really funny because when Aaron, he then called me to tell me he was going to do it. He's like, I have good news and bad news, right? Like I'm going to do the movie and I'm really excited about it. And I'm even going to stop doing the movie that I'm doing right now because he's writing this other script. He's like, but the bad news is, is you're going to have zero creative control. Oh, that's so hard. I don't, I would, oh, what did you, were you like, oh, I thought about it for a while. Right. And I was like, okay, whatever. And then I wrote him back. I called him back and I was like, but I'm your only source material. I mean, cause like normally he writes about Zuckerberg. He gets all these other people can interview. Yeah. All these other interviews,

different, like a million biographies, newspaper articles, whatever. And like, he couldn't construct the story without me. So I actually moved to LA for eight months and worked with Aaron every day, like and his team. And, you know, there's Venn diagrams and like, you know, like the Russians and the Italians and like, you know, constructing this story. And we became really close. And to this day, he's one of my best friends.

And he, you know, every time like he would be like, this, you know, when CAA he would be like this, you know, when, when CAA or WMA would send over the actresses that wanted to play it, he would send it to me. And we would like, you know, I wanted to be really respectful of his process and not be heavy handed, but he brought me along for the ride. That is so cool. It was such an incredible, I mean, and just being privy to someone who's such a genius, being privy to their process. I think you've been around a genius or two, Molly. Well, speaking of that-

I don't think you've been surrounded by geniuses your whole life. And it sounds like you're one too. I imagine though, because of the way you handled that indictment and that whole process, that you also probably won some friends and people that respect you for that. Because there's probably a lot of people that could have had some trouble had you gone the other way. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And you know, you would be surprised how few of them expressed that. Well, I mean, I can understand both sides. Part of it's like, they're probably very thankful, but the other part of that's like,

shit, I probably shouldn't go back. That's right. For round two. Yeah. Part of it's like, they're probably very thankful. But the other part of that's like, shit, I probably shouldn't go back. That's right. For round two. Yeah. And I respected that boundary. You know, I didn't, I wasn't like, you know, a lot of people ask me, they're like, did you ask them for help? And I'm like, I mean, this was my issue.

Like, this was my mess. Like, no, you know, and I had already brought them in enough. Like, there are people that had, there's consequences to their life. They lost positions. Sure. You know, they were turned down brought them in enough. Like there are people that had, there's consequences to their life. They lost positions. Sure. You know, they were turned down for positions in government or whatever, like because of the press around. How much shit are we not,

like how much shit are we not seeing as the public? Like when you think about celebrity and all these rich men and all the things you've seen, how much are we actually seeing? Are we seeing half of it? The tip of the iceberg. I knew it. Yeah. Well, of course. That's not surprising. And that's surprising to me. How with TMZ and everything, I mean, I would say more than tip of the iceberg. That's crazy. Yeah. Well, okay. So that's a good point.

Back when I was doing these games and when I had all this insider information, the presence of social media and the tabloids was not as pervasive as it is now. So I, I do think that actually a lot of people get outed now for a lot of things. So, but maybe it's, but it's more around. Yeah, it, it, it has evolved and, and in our, and we do have this culture now where we have a lot of whistleblowers. Yeah. Yeah. Snitches.

I heard from my assistant that the Olsen twins once came to a game. That has always been a rumor and that was never the truth. It's fake. It's fake. Yeah. Fake news. Yeah. But I would have loved it if the Olsen twins came.

But I mean, like, I think with this, I mean, listen, there's a lot of things when you think, you know, people take a moral stance on this and obviously there was some legalities to it and still... But I mean, like, I think with this, I mean, listen, there's a lot of things when you think you know, people take a moral stance on this and obviously there were some legalities to it, but I don't think a lot of people feel too sorry for a bunch of rich business guys and celebrities gambling with each other and losing their money to each other, right? Like, it's not like, I mean, yes, there's harmful and there's legal implications, but

it's not like you're selling kids drugs or you're hurting people or like, you know what I mean? It's just these people, they're probably doing this with or without someone like you. Yeah, no, they for sure are. There were a couple of them that were really, really bad gambling addicts and ultimately lost everything. And those are the ones that that's why, like when you said you got sloppy with the vetting process, probably shouldn't have been allowed. Probably shouldn't have been allowed. And, and the, and the more that that happened, the more that I started to dislike who I was becoming and making those choices had real consequences for me. I, I didn't,

I did not skate by that. Like I stopped liking who I was inside and from there, everything fell apart. Yeah. I think I just like, for me personally, when I think of like the legal system and what it should protect, obviously people's safety and their children and their financial, all that we have, and this is me going on a tangent, you have people in prison doing long, long stints of time for marijuana right now. Yeah, that's crazy. And something that's completely legal in California. To me, that's insane. That's insane.

Right? And they're just sitting there for something that's completely legal. I mean, even considered essential during the pandemic. Right. I think about things like this. So true. That's a great point. You know, if certain things aren't as harmful and maybe like some of the laws that we have in place are, you know, maybe too strict. I don't know. That's just my take. I mean, look, I have my own opinions in terms of my position. I had to make a really clear choice

and that was to fucking own it because any level of like, this is unfair or like, you know, this shouldn't have happened this way was just going to keep me down. It was just going to keep me stuck. And there was, there was no power in taking that position. So I just stopped going there. That said, I'm with you. Like people serving life sentences for marijuana, it's unacceptable. You know, it is what it is. I hate it when people say that. So scratch that from the record. I was reading this book on the war on drugs. It was told from the perspective of the cartel or the drug dealers or whatever. And they were saying they were so thankful for the federal government because without the federal government putting up these rules and these laws, the prices

wouldn't be driven up as much as they are and they wouldn't profit nearly as much as they do. And I think about that all the time when I think about something like marijuana or the way the drugs laws are set up in this country. It's like, that's what drives the demand and price up. That's what drives crime up. That's what, I mean, listen, I'm going on a tangent, but it's just, I think about that stuff a lot. I think it's an important conversation right now, to be honest. Probably not for me to lead, but. Yeah, me neither. What did your life look like once the movie came out? And what does it look like now? I don't really talk about that that often, but I think it's really important. So during the process of trying to put the movie together and all the things that went down,

I was sober. And then I wasn't, after I got arrested by the FBI, I started using again. And I wasn't like smoking crack. What I was doing was, and by the way, no judgment there. I just, I'm giving context to what my using looked like because I thought it was just a maintenance program. My life is super stressful right now. And I drink a lot, you know, or I like use pills a lot. And I always thought like, I'm a disciplined person, you know, like I can manage this. And my thought process around it was like,

I'll stop drinking alcoholically or taking pills, you know, taking way more pills than prescribed when my life gets put back together. It's situational. And so I'll never forget this moment. The producer on the movie is this guy, Mark Gordon. He's a wonderful human being, but he's so stoic and he does not rave about anything. And the whole way through the movie, he's like, I don't know if it's going to be good or not. Like, we just don't know, you know? And he called me and he said, Molly, I saw the final, the final cut and it's extraordinary. And we're going to, you know, we're going to send you a bank wire. And I had negotiated the hell out of my deal. There were like a lot of like huge

producers that wanted to do it, but they were like low balling me. Why am I not surprised there? Well, I would say, I mean, it was survival, right? No, I mean, that you negotiated the hell out of it. Why? No surprise. But I mean, I did it because like this wasn't a vanity project. Like I, this is my life. Like, and I was broke up until this point for, for seven years, I was broke. I was working at my friend's like clothing factory at one point. Like I was broke, you know? And, and so all of a sudden, I get this bank wire. And now I have a lot of money again. And I have this information that this movie is going to come out about my life, written by Aaron Sorkin. And this should be the moment where it's all OK. And the demons are quiet. And it didn't happen that way. And so it was like this major moment in my life

where I was like, okay, then all my ideas about happiness, about wellbeing, about like, they're all wrong, clearly. So that's when I moved back to Colorado. I got sober again, but this time I got really sober. What does really sober look like? So like I got sober, I put down the drugs and alcohol but then I did the work and what the work is it's encompassed in partially in the 12 steps but I did other work too I started meditating and I read books about you know like neuroscience and

psychology and and you know I did the steps, which a big part of the 12 steps is like looking at the places where you've caused harm and like going and apologizing in an authentic way and looking at your behavior and taking ownership of it. And, you know, just all the inside work that people talk about and starting to live in this, in this honest way where like I run from nothing, you know? I sit with it all and I face it all and I find a process for dealing with it all instead of like men, money, drugs, poker, whatever, you know? And I guess just like sitting with it all and facing it all is what I mean by like really sober. And at what point did you meet your now husband? Yeah. So I met him about eight months into, so I moved back to Colorado. The movie's coming out in eight months. I have eight months to get sober. I meet Devin the first month I'm sober. I see him speak at a meeting and I'm like, I love him.

I love him. I want to marry him. We're going to do this. And he's like, no. He's like, you need to get sober. You know, he's like you, like anybody who is one month sober is a hot mess. And this is your time to find out who you are because he's about it, you know? So he wouldn't talk to me for like 10 months. And so, but that forced me also to finally get to this place where I could be okay without somebody in the wings, right? Giving me attention, adoring me, expressing love to me. Like I had to just like be with no, like I have this sponsor and she's like this Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx and she's like terrifying, but also awesome. She's like half Tony Montana, half like mother Teresa, but she like lets you get away with nothing. And she's like, you can get a plant. We'll see how

you do with that for eight months, you know? And so for the first time in my life, like I don't have anybody to, to, to like validate me in that way, which was huge. You know, that's part of like getting sober, taking out all the, the distractions. So, so then the movie comes out. First of all, the producer and Aaron were like, you need to sit in a, in a room by yourself and watch this movie. And I was like, no way, no way, because I will pick that thing apart. It'll be so uncomfortable. And if it's bad, I'll have to sit knowing it's bad for eight months before whatever. So I'm like, I will see it for the first time at the premiere. So we all go to

Canada, my family's there, 2000 people in a theater. And I see this movie for the first time. And it was like, I mean, the 10 minutes before the movie starts, I'm like, well, you're such an idiot. Like, why did you do it this way? This is the worst moment ever. You know, like, what if it's bad and 2,000 people are just going to be watching you while this, anyway. But the movie starts and, you know, I'm sitting there with my family and I'm sitting there with 2,000 people and they're crying in the theater and they're laughing and they're cheering. And man, it was a moment, you know? Wow. It was a moment. That is such a moment. And you're sober, so you can enjoy every second. And I'm sober, which by the way, never in a million years did I think I was going to have to sit through the first time watching

my movie sober. And did you love it? I mean, it's a beautiful movie. I did. I loved it. I was so honored by it. You know, just so grateful. What an amazing story. I have to say, I think this is one of my favorite podcasts. Yeah, I mean, we've been chopping it up here for a while. No, you're a very, very talented storyteller amongst other things. Well, you can see why this... I mean, obviously, it got made into this amazing

movie. And so, I mean, this is like, this is a not, this is not something that happens to everybody. Thank God. That was exhausting. I mean, but I mean, like, honestly, what an incredible life experience. I mean, obviously you had to go through a lot here, but the story you have to tell now, it's incredible. It is. And I didn't know what was going to come of the movie. What I was very sure about is where there had been zero opportunities, there would at least be a few. And I really needed that. And so one of the greatest outcomes is that I get to, for the last four years, I've been traveling the world speaking, like going to crazy places like the Congo and Nigeria and Kuwait City. I mean, you know, like all over. And I get to wherever I am impart this message of hope of like, if you're in it right now or if you're going to be, you know, like you have a second chance, you have this power inside of you, you get, and especially for women, you get to make mistakes.

Yeah. You know, you get to not be like this perfect person who hasn't made mistakes. You get to do that. That's why I love bringing all different kinds of people on here because no one's perfect. And if we start just talking about what makes you human and the mistakes you make, it makes it less taboo. A hundred percent. And when I was in that place of deep shame, I needed to hear someone say it was okay. And one thing that I had to start doing was like, just decide to forgive myself. Stop searching for the evidence that tells me like, well, this is why you can forgive yourself or stop looking for that data or stop looking for someone else to say like, it's okay. And just fucking do it.

You know, not to say don't be accountable for it, you know, face it, learn the lesson, but to forgive yourself. Like it is the lowest like energy, the worst energy to like walk around holding yourself with like to this incredibly high standard and just having shame, you know, like I was going nowhere if I didn't forgive myself. That was a pivotal moment. This is maybe a message for anyone out there that's listening that feels shameful for something.

Take this moment and forgive yourself. Yeah. I think that's a great message. Yeah. And it's not an overnight matter. You can choose to forgive yourself, but you're going to have to stay consistent with it because that's how the brain works.

Okay. So every day, maybe do some kind of meditation on it. Yeah, you can do a meditation on it or just like whenever it comes into your mind, be like, I'm going to forgive myself. Yeah. It's that easy. It's the mindset. Yeah. It's just consistency. Who's running the games now in LA? There are so many games now in LA. There is. There are so many games and like I've met like. There are so many games. And like, I've met like some- Do you have one here in Austin yet? I don't know. I'm going to go read my ass weekly while you play.

Can I pick your brain for a second after this? Just kidding. Just kidding. Yeah, there's so many games in LA now. Wow. Where can everyone find you? Pimp yourself out. Tell us where to get your book.

I'm sure everyone's seen the movie. Give us all the details. Okay. So I think my book's on Amazon. I haven't checked lately. I'm sure it is. I am not so active on Instagram, but the things that I do post, I care a lot about and I use it as a place to sort of share solutions. And as my second book comes out, which is about the way back, both the external and the internal, it's I'll share more. Anyway, that's I'm Molly Bloom. And that's Twitter too.

When you are ready to come out with your second book, come back on the podcast. I love it. Open invite. Okay. To come back on anytime you want. I would love that. Thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you. That was an incredible story. Thank you for doing this. Thanks for making the trip in person. love that. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. That was an incredible story. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for making the trip and doing it in person. Yeah, of course. It's so much better that way. It's way better in person.

And by the way, like, I'm telling you, you guys are really good at this. I've been on a million podcasts and you guys are seriously so good. Oh, thank you. Like, I've loved this conversation.

Like, it's been so, I mean, I talked about myself probably the whole time. But like, so. That's what this is about. But I mean, like, your questions are great. They're unique. They're thoughtful.

They're interesting. Well, you know, I don't think it's necessarily, I mean, thank you so much. But I think the way we try to, like, we are genuinely interested in the people we bring on. But you're real, too. Well, that's what, like, it's not, there's not, like, you are genuinely interested in the people we bring on. But you're real too. Well, that's what, like, it's not,

there's not like, you know, we have, if you saw this, it's like, it's a quick bio, but like, this is the type of conversation,

I hope the audience knows, like, this is the conversation we would have if we were at an intimate dinner. And that's what it felt like. I'm very interested in this story. Yeah. You know,

it's Lauren. That means a lot. Thank you very, very much. I think that we got to go because we got to go play poker in the other room. We have a poker

thing set up in the other room oh my god thank you molly yeah wait before you go we are giving away a copy of molly's book it's called molly's game all you have to do is tell us your favorite part of this wild story on my latest instagram at lauren bostick and one of you will win her book it is juicy it is good i cannot take my eyes off of it. Literally last night, I was up until 11 p.m. reading it. Thank you so much as always for your support with The Skinny Confidential.

And with that, we'll see you next time.