Talk:Molly Bloom (author)

Properties
She apparently has a daughter — Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.76.181.56 (talk) 11:19, 30 October 2023 (UTC)

Suggested move
While Ms. Bloom is indeed an author, that is not what she is best known for. She was famous before the book for her involvement in poker, and the focus of the book and the movie it inspired is her work in the poker field (and I've yet to see any sign that writing is more than a one-time thing for her.) As such, I would suggest Molly Bloom (poker). (There was earlier reasonable objections to her being described as a "poker player", but simply putting "poker" disambiguates her appropriately and clearly from the fictional character.) -Nat Gertler (talk) 04:24, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

How about Molly Bloom (poker, speaker)? I think the previous argument is correct. Everything about Molly Bloom is her association with organizing high-stakes poker games. However, the first thing that came up this morning when I Googled her name was that she was appearing in my city as a public speaker. She is a person of interest to those who want to know more about what she knows. That makes it compelling to add speaker to her name. Milhistor8 (talk) 20:56, 2 February 2019 (UTC)

Book subtitle
I just removed a supposed subtitle from references to the book here. It was a text blurb that was on the cover of the movie tie-in version of the book, but it was not on the earlier versions of the book (original 2014 hardcover, 2017 paperback), nor on the 2014 copyright record. --Nat Gertler (talk) 22:57, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

Overall misleading narrative re Bloom's arrest and charges
The article gives the impression that Bloom was arrested largely because of, or at least in connection with, her LA celebrity high-stakes games. The intro says, "In April 2013, she was charged with running a high-stakes poker game that originated in the Viper Room in Los Angeles, which attracted wealthy people, sports figures, and Hollywood celebrities." The body of the article doesn't mention her move to New York.

My loose understanding (based on watching the Molly's Game movie), is that Bloom:


 * 1) was forced out of the LA games operation;
 * 2) relocated to New York (in 2009) and started a new operation from scratch;
 * 3) in recruiting whales, brought Russian organized crime elements to her operation as players;
 * 4) was arrested as part of a much larger alleged criminal enterprise involving the Russians.

It appears that there were two distinct periods, celebrity high-roller LA and high-roller New York, and that in the latter period, she inadvertently got caught up by association with some of the primary targets in a large-scale FBI investigation. I didn't get that understanding from reading the article.

The article also says (my emphasis), "In 2011, one of Bloom's games in Los Angeles was shut down as part of a bankruptcy investigation into a Ponzi scheme run by Bradley Ruderman, one of the players." This gives the impression that she was still involved in the LA games; in fact, it seems she completely separated from LA in 2009. The movie says that, named by Ruderman and subpoenaed by the FBI in the Ponzi case, she confirmed a list of players supplied by Ruderman. To avoid being sued by the government for accepting stolen money from Ruderman (charges would've only been misdemeanors and weren't being pursued), she and the people on the list contributed to a restitution fund for the Ponzi victims. This may have put her on the FBI's radar (the movie suggests), but doesn't appear directly connected to the New York charges.

The narrative can be corrected with a few sentences, it's the sourcing that may take a bit of work. Some of the articles I've skimmed loosely conflate the two periods, perhaps because it makes a more concise and sensational story.

If my understanding is off, please correct. Otherwise, the article seems to be quite misleading by omission, and should be fixed. I'll try if I have the time. -- Tsavage (talk) 00:20, 8 June 2024 (UTC)