Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
Let me show you how absurd this is.
Let's say I went completely busto, but none of you were aware of that.
And let's say that I came up with an aggressive plan to enter big tournaments, but estimated I would need a $500k roll this year to be able to play such tournaments. I am not providing a specific schedule nor justifying the need for $500k. I just say that I need $500k, and I am selling pieces to accomplish that.
Then before it all begins, I claim that I am buying $200k of myself (40%), and got my dad to put up another $200k (40%). So all I really need is 20%, which I offer to sell to people on PFA.
I promise to pay you 60% of all profits on your piece.
So a bunch of you on the forum collectively buy $100k from me, for the "final" 20%.
In reality, I do not have $200k, nor did my dad give me a penny.
In reality, my bankroll is $100k, which you chumps sent me.
I then hit the tournament trail, playing a variety of $2500, $5000, $10000, and $15000 events. If I start off well, then I'm playing with profit, and my lack of $400k behind will never be known.
If I start off losing, I cool down my schedule to where I never am $100k in the red, claiming not to want to travel, feigning illness, claiming not to like the field of the bigger buyin events, etc.
So if I finish the year losing $98k, I return the remaining $2k to you guys, and have lost zero of my own money.
If I somehow do well and win $500k, you guys are only entitled to $60k of that (since you only bought "20%", and I'm taking 40% off the top), and I keep the other $440k to pay both myself for my agreed upon 40%, along with the phony pieces that I pretended to buy for myself and my dad.
So basically you will have put up my entire bankroll and taken all the risk, and yet find yourself entitled to just 12% of my winnings, while I keep 88% of the winnings.
Seriously, that is exactly what I could pull off in such a scenario. This is what Raymer could be doing on a smaller scale.
This is a HUGE issue.
The only way to combat this is for a third party to collect all the money up front (so it's clear the money invested by Raymer and his "outside investors" is real), and then for a proper tournament schedule to be set which actually requires a 100k bankroll (which means way more than just 100k of tournaments, where it's agreed that if the roll is busted, Raymer just stops playing and the stake is over).
You can't just collect 50k, claim that the other 50k came from you and other investors, not provide a schedule or proof of your own investment, and then keep 50% of the investor's share of the 60% they're supposed to get. That's what Raymer's doing.