{"id":61041,"date":"2017-10-17T17:03:11","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T00:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=61041"},"modified":"2024-08-19T10:26:48","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T15:26:48","slug":"judge-rejects-part-of-poker-players-2m-lawsuit-against-casino-owner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/judge-rejects-part-of-poker-players-2m-lawsuit-against-casino-owner\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Rejects Part of Poker Player\u2019s $2M Lawsuit Against Casino Owner Leon Tsoukernik"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Las Vegas judge dismissed eight of the 10 claims in poker player Matthew Kirk\u2019s lawsuit against Leon Tsoukernik, a fellow high-stakes rounder and owner of King\u2019s Casino in the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

\"Leon
Leon Tsoukernik is being sued by poker player Matt Kirk, who alleges he refused to pay back $2 million loaned at the table in Las Vegas. A judge ruled the debt \u201cunenforceable,\u201d but didn\u2019t dismiss its collectability outright. (Image: HighStakesDB)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

District Judge Linda Marie Bell said the $2 million that Kirk is seeking amounted to an “unenforceable gambling debt.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether in the form of casino chips, cash, or gold bars, Mr. Tsoukernik received a loan for wagering against Mr. Kirk,\u201d she wrote in her ruling. Bell did not dismiss the case outright, however, as defense attorneys requested, saying that Kirk could still pursue money he believes he is owed on grounds of fraudulent inducement and unjust enrichment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Attorneys representing Kirk told the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> that they were pleased with the decision as the case moves forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pleased with the court\u2019s ruling that we are able to maintain our lawsuit and seek damages from the defendant,\u201d attorney Richard Schonfeld said.<\/p>\n

Tsoukernik is in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, where his King\u2019s Casino is preparing to host the World Series of Poker Europe<\/a>, which begins on Thursday. His lawyer wrote in court papers that the entire lawsuit should be dismissed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe alleged gaming debts are void and unenforceable and do not give rise to any administrative or civil action,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

High Stakes Gone Awry<\/h2>\n

Kirk and Tsoukernik were playing a high-stakes, heads-up match at the Aria in Las Vegas last May. The owner of the King\u2019s Casino didn\u2019t have the cash on hand, so as is often customary in such high-stakes matchups, Kirk loaned him money at the table so they could keep on playing. According to the lawsuit, Kirk made four separate loans totaling $3 million, with Tsoukernik agreeing to pay the money back following the session.<\/p>\n

To keep a record of the transactions, Kirk followed each piece of the loan with a text message between the two confirming the amount. Video surveillance in the Ivey Room, a special high-roller area of the Aria poker room, also confirmed that the peer-to-peer transactions took place.<\/p>\n

Kirk, who resides in Australia and is known in poker circles by the nickname \u201cAussie Matt,\u201d says he hounded Tsoukernik for a week and was eventually paid $1 million. But the European casino owner, who was in town for the WSOP and to promote the WSOPE that he was hosting in October and November, refused to pay the balance, saying via text, \u201cNot valid. 0 now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirk filed lawsuit later in June for the unpaid $2 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant has committed a fraud upon the plaintiff,\u201d Kirk\u2019s lawyers wrote in a brief submitted to the court at the time. \u201cThose text messages indicate that defendant never intended to pay his loans.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Second Welching Allegation<\/h2>\n

High-stakes poker pro Elton Tsang from Canada also recently came out to publicly say he was a victim of Tsoukernik. He asserted in August that a year earlier he loaned and did not receive payback of nearly $2.4 million at a cash game in Barcelona, attended by several notable players, including Dan Cates, Antanas Guoga,\u00a0Fedor Holz, Richard Yong, Peter Chan,\u00a0and\u00a0Winfred Yu.<\/p>\n

Tsang also alleges that efforts to collect were met by associates of Tsoukernik attempting to intimidate him to stop trying to get paid on an invalid debt.<\/p>\n

Tsoukernik has denied Tsang\u2019s allegations, claiming these losses were invalid because the game was \u201cstrange and not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Las Vegas judge dismissed eight of the 10 claims in poker player Matthew Kirk\u2019s lawsuit against Leon Tsoukernik, a fellow high-stakes rounder and owner of King\u2019s Casino in the Czech Republic. District Judge Linda Marie Bell said the $2 million that Kirk is seeking amounted to an “unenforceable gambling debt.” \u201cWhether in the form […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":61042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,60,14],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJudge Rejects Part of Poker Player\u2019s $2M Lawsuit Against Casino Owner<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Las Vegas judge ruled that a poker player's $2 million claim against casino owner Leon Tsoukernik is unenforceable, but he's not totally out of luck.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/judge-rejects-part-of-poker-players-2m-lawsuit-against-casino-owner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge Rejects Part of Poker Player\u2019s $2M Lawsuit Against Casino Owner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Las Vegas judge ruled that a poker player's $2 million claim against casino owner Leon Tsoukernik is unenforceable, but he's not totally out of luck.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/judge-rejects-part-of-poker-players-2m-lawsuit-against-casino-owner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-18T00:03:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-19T15:26:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/LeonT.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"705\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"365\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/judge-rejects-part-of-poker-players-2m-lawsuit-against-casino-owner\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/judge-rejects-part-of-poker-players-2m-lawsuit-against-casino-owner\/\",\"name\":\"Judge Rejects Part of Poker Player\u2019s $2M Lawsuit Against Casino Owner\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/judge-rejects-part-of-poker-players-2m-lawsuit-against-casino-owner\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/judge-rejects-part-of-poker-players-2m-lawsuit-against-casino-owner\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/LeonT.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-18T00:03:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-19T15:26:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"A Las Vegas judge ruled that a poker player's $2 million claim against casino owner Leon Tsoukernik is unenforceable, but he's not totally out of luck.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/judge-rejects-part-of-poker-players-2m-lawsuit-against-casino-owner\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/judge-rejects-part-of-poker-players-2m-lawsuit-against-casino-owner\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/judge-rejects-part-of-poker-players-2m-lawsuit-against-casino-owner\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/LeonT.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/LeonT.jpg\",\"width\":705,\"height\":365,\"caption\":\"Leon Tsoukernik is being sued by poker player Matt Kirk, who alleges he refused to pay back $2 million loaned at the table in Las Vegas. 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