‘Secret’ Poker Ledger Shows Who Tom Goldstein Won and Lost Against

A few of embattled lawyer Tom Goldstein’s most high-profile opponents had been named in court docket this week, together with two-time Poker Gamers Championship winner Dan “Jungleman” Cates and billionaire Silicon Valley investor Chamath Palihapitiya.

Goldstein’s high-stakes heads-up matches, which started in 2016, are the topic of a January 2025 indictment accusing him of tax fraud and mendacity to mortgage lenders. A few of his poker opponents had been recognized earlier within the trial, together with billionaire Alec Gores, actual property mogul Bob Safai and two Asian gamblers known as “Tango” and “Chairman.”

Now, extra names are popping out after federal prosecutors launched an proof exhibit that they’re calling Goldstein’s “secret poker ledger.” The names embody Cates and Palihapitiya, in addition to World Sequence of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Tony Gregg and excessive curler Alfred Decarolis.

PokerNews was in Maryland final week masking Week 4 of the trial, which is predicted to wrap up in mid-February.

Poker Ledger Revealed at Trial

The brand new names of opponents had been revealed in the course of the Feb. 5 cross-examination of Zachary Marks, a forensic accountant and professional witness for the protection. Marks testified that Goldstein’s accountant, Walter Deyhle of Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman CPAs, hadn’t requested the suitable questions.

However US Division of Justice prosecutors countered that Goldstein had by no means proven Deyhle his poker ledger.

“You have by no means seen Mr. Goldstein’s secret poker ledger, have you ever?” a prosecutor requested Marks.

“I don’t know if this can be a playing ledger, and I don’t know who it was shared with,” he replied.

In a later court docket submitting obtained by PokerNews, prosecutors wrote that “Mr. Marks was so laser centered on Gelman that he couldn’t give intelligible solutions to easy questions on Goldstein’s failure to report poker winnings” and “didn’t know that Goldstein’s poker ledgers … had been in actual fact poker ledgers.”

“In different phrases, after Goldstein selected to not present the poker ledgers to Mr. Deyhle in 2016 and 2017, he once more selected to not present the poker ledgers to the professional witness he picked to criticize Mr. Deyhle’s and Gelman’s work,” prosecutors wrote.

Goldstein Performed “Jungleman,” California Businessmen

Goldstein had an unimaginable yr of poker in 2016 — he gained $50 million in heads-up matches in opposition to Alec Gores and two Asian gamblers — however his yr closed out with some losses that hadn’t been beforehand reported on.

For example, a December 2016 entry in Goldstein’s poker ledger exhibits that he despatched $750,000 to Dan “Jungleman” Cates, apparently to cowl a poker loss. A notice on the ledger states that the transaction is said to “Final Manila Journey.”

Cates, who has $18.8 million in Hendon Mob earnings, is widely known as one of many high heads-up poker gamers on the planet. Final yr, Cates gained $15 million in three consecutive heads-up matches at Onyx Tremendous Excessive Curler Sequence Cyprus.

Additionally in December 2016, Goldstein logged an entry displaying that he paid $60,000 to Tony Gregg, together with a notice to “Come Up w/ Date For Heads-Up.”

Gregg is a Washington, D.C.-based poker professional with $12.8 million in reside earnings. Along with being a WSOP bracelet winner and World Poker Tour (WPT) champion, he completed runner-up in each the 2009 and 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Journey Major Occasions, in addition to eleventh within the 2015 WSOP Major Occasion for $750,000.

One more December 2016 entry exhibits that Goldstein paid billionaire tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya $176,000 from an undated heads-up match.

Palihapitiya, a number of the All-In Podcast, is a longtime poker participant and shut good friend of all-time bracelet chief Phil Hellmuth. Palihapitiya, who PokerNews interviewed on the 2023 WSOP, sometimes performs tournaments however primarily performs high-stakes personal video games.

Goldstein additionally could have confronted off in opposition to excessive curler Alfred Decarolis, a California businessman with $3.1 million in reside earnings, most of which got here from a seventh-place end within the 2019 Triton Million for Charity in London for $2 million. The ledger features a December 2016 entry within the loss column with Decarolis’ identify, however entry does not listing a greenback quantity or any notes.

The ledger additionally breaks down Goldstein’s matches in opposition to Alec Gores, which produced his biggest-ever win of $26.4 million. He first beat the billionaire for $9 million in November 2016 earlier than successful almost double that, $17.4 million, the next month.

Moreover, the ledger exhibits Goldstein gained $750,000 in an October 2016 match in opposition to an unidentified opponent, and lists funds he obtained and returned from Stewart Resnick, a California billionaire who gave him a $10 million line of credit score for poker video games.

Goldstein claims to have gained $88 million general in heads-up poker matches, most of which he says went to his monetary backers. A few of these funds to backers are documented within the ledger, together with funds to his coaches Keith Gipson and Andrew Robl, each of whom testified within the trial.

Different high-profile opponents of Goldstein which were revealed throughout his trial embody excessive curler Rick Salomon, actor Kevin Hart and Texas billionaire Andy Beal. Robl testified that he had a bit of Goldstein’s motion within the match in opposition to Beal and remains to be owed his share.

Tom Goldstein’s “Secret Poker Ledger”

Observe: This ledger was reproduced by PokerNews primarily based on an proof exhibit confirmed to the jury in the course of the Day 13 of Tom Goldstein’s legal trial in Greenbelt, Maryland. It isn’t an actual reproduction and could also be incomplete.

Funded

Returned

Cash In

Cash Out

Connor Richards is a Senior Editor U.S. for PokerNews and host of the Life Exterior Poker podcast. Connor has been nominated for 3 International Poker Awards for his writing.

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