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The Foundry Tom Goldstein Poker

The Lawyer at the Billionaires’ Table

Illustration of a masked, hooded poker player at a table beneath a video camera.
Contributors
Bradley Hope
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Tom Goldstein argued before the Supreme Court and played for millions against billionaires. How long could he keep his two lives apart?

Welcome to Whale Hunting, where we go inside the private worlds of money and power, and meet the people willing to risk everything for a place at the table.

If you’re looking for a story to disappear into this weekend, I’d like to take you back to the beginning of The Tell.

Tom Goldstein argued 44 cases before the US Supreme Court. Away from court, he assembled a team of poker professionals to help him take on billionaires in private games for millions of dollars. He was trying to keep the two lives apart.

My eleven-chapter investigation follows him from private poker rooms to a courtroom where he has to convince a jury to believe him. The final chapter is out today at The Foundry, our home for extraordinary stories and hidden worlds. You can now read the whole thing, free, without registering or waiting for the next installment.

It begins at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, with a player nobody quite knows what to make of:

Thomas Goldstein did not look at his cards. He shoved his chips forward — all of them — and told the table, “Let’s find out together.”

This was the Bellagio poker room in July 2008, then the closest thing the gambling world had to a capital. The World Series of Poker was running across town at the Rio, and every high-stakes cash game in Las Vegas was heaving with professionals between tournament sessions, killing time. Goldstein looked like easy prey. He was not a professional or a known quantity. As far as anyone at the table could tell, he had no particular reason to be playing $25/$50 no-limit hold’em for pots worth many mortgage payments.

From that table, the story takes us into billionaire Alec Gores’s Beverly Hills mansion and inside games against Chinese technology tycoon Tang Hao and Texas banker Andy Beal. Along the way there are professionals hired to study an opponent’s weaknesses, a Hollywood star trying to collect a poker debt, and a masked man on a livestream whose identity has the commentators guessing.

You don’t need to know poker to follow it. Start with the stranger at the Bellagio, and see how far he’s willing to go.

Start The Tell from the beginning

Already caught up? Read Chapter 11: The Verdict.

If you enjoy it, subscribe free to The Foundry for future stories delivered in full to your inbox. Only Foundry stories, with no unrelated promotions.

Until next time,

Bradley

Check out the Brazen Whale Hunting Collection.

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This is Whale Hunting, a newsletter and podcast delving into the secret worlds of money and power that we became obsessed with during our investigation into the globe-sprawling 1MDB scandal. That project changed our entire worldview. We wrote a book about it.

Back then, we were long-time reporters for The Wall Street Journal. Now, we’ve struck out on our own to uncover more brazen stories than ever. At Whale Hunting, we’re immersing ourselves in the murky waters of the ultra-wealthy and influential, from billionaires and kleptocrats to criminals, spies and corrupt officials.

Got a question or a tip for us? Get in touch at whalehunting@projectbrazen.com. You can also contact us securely here.

You can also follow Whale Hunting on Instagram, Threads and on X (Twitter). To chat with fellow Whale Hunters and stay in touch with Bradley and Tom, join our Discord server. 

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