Judge keeps freeze on $6 million of WSOP pot | IXGAMES
A federal court judge ruled Thursday to keep a freeze on half the World Series of Poker pot and said a Los Angeles-based TV producer was likely to win his claim to the $6 million. U.S. District Court Judge Roger L. Hunt turned down a motion by lawyers for main event winner Jamie Gold to lift an injunction the judge set in September on half the $12 million pot won in the annual no-limit Texas Hold ’em tournament. 
Hunt said he had concerns Gold would turn over the money to plaintiff Bruce Crispin Leyser if Leyser were to win his case. The injunction keeps the money in the legal possession of the poker tournament’s host, the Rio hotel-casino, until the case is concluded. Leyser alleges that Gold, a former Hollywood talent agent, agreed in July to split his winnings in exchange for Leyser helping him find celebrities to play in the main event while wearing the ”Bodog” label of an offshore Internet gambling site. Bodog paid the $10,000 entry fee for Gold, and Leyser alleges he fulfilled his end of the deal — getting Scooby Doo star Matthew Lillard and Punk’d comedian Dax Shepard to wear the brand, but Gold has refused pay Leyser. Byrne argued that Gold promised to share his winnings only after Leyser had gotten celebrities to play, reducing the arrangement to a gift, rather than a binding oral contract. Leyser has kept a voice mail from Gold on the final day of the tournament in which Gold promises to pay Leyser ”your half.” Gold later said in an affidavit that he only intended to make a gift of some of his winnings, but it never amounted to 50 percent, and accused Leyser of harassing him with text and phone messages during the tournament. Both sides agreed Thursday to have the judge move the frozen funds into an interest-bearing account while the case proceeds.