If you’re a poker fan and are approached by a semi-famous tournament player you’ve seen on TV to bet on sports together, avoid the temptation.

I know, it’s a pretty obvious rule, but you’d be surprised.

There’s a nice little scam in use by “poker pros” that I’ve heard about on more than one occasion.    You won’t find the top tier guys trying to pull this off.   Rather it’s a guy who isn’t swimming in sponsorship money, and hasn’t had a big hit in a while.   Maybe they’ve made a WPT or WSOP final table, got some TV exposure, and are known a little bit in the poker niche.  While not respected by the poker elite, they enjoy some street cred among impressionable gamblers who know them only from a TV appearance. 

Here’s how it works. The poker player gets friendly with someone who recognizes them from ESPN or the Travel Channel. Over beers, he let’s it be known that while he’s pretty good at poker, he’s particularly sharp as a sports bettor.  The poker pro let’s it slip that he’s looking for outs in different parts of the country for line shopping, getting down the kind of money he wants to play, etc.   Slightly star-struck, the mark makes it known that he can help out with a bookie or agent back home.

The ”relationship” blossoms.  The poker player and his new “partner” will split all the action, with the poker pro making the bets and the unsuspecting ”partner” paying and collecting.  Confusing minor fame in the poker niche with expertise, to say nothing of integrity and honesty, the mark accepts the deal, and let’s the poker pro start playing on his account.   You can imagine what happens from there.

The poker player begins making max bets, and plenty of them.    If the poker player wins, he gets half the winnings sent to him when the mark collects from the local bookie or agent.  And it’s important to string together some winning weeks early, because  when he loses the game begins. 

Rather than paying kicking in his share, the poker player fires off a wide array of creative excuses for not being able to pay up.  When the money owed to the mark’s bookie or agent starts getting bigger, the poker player eventually just stops returning calls.  

The mark is holding the bag, and now realizes that the excuses were just part of the ruse.  He understands that he’s been scammed, but what’s he going to do, call in Norman Chad to mediate?

The moral of the story is clear.   Don’t get into a financial arrangement with people you don’t know well, and don’t be impressed by the minor celebrity of a lower tier poker pro.  

This is, of course, mind-numbingly evident for any thinking person not star struck by a two-year old TV appearance, no matter how many times it has been re-run.

But you’d be surprised.