PokerNews has obtained exclusive documentation detailing why federal authorities accused retired NBA star Gilbert Arenas of running alleged illegal poker games, and it all ties back to a losing player’s unpaid $1.2 million poker debt.
The case against the former Washington Wizard in Los Angeles began when a man approached police and claimed he had been threatened over the aforementioned debt.
According to a search warrant affidavit reported by the Los Angeles Times, the man claimed to have lost the seven-figure sum in a single night playing poker in “the glass house,” a four-story property that was previously rented by singer Justin Bieber and hosted a 2015 Grammy party for Meek Mill.
The man thought he had been cheated and didn’t pay his debts. Within weeks, “Israeli mob figures threatened to kidnap his children and toss a grenade into his home,” the LA Times reported. One of the figures who threatened him was Yevgeni Gershman, whom the man claimed “was hosting a poker game at Arenas’ home.” Soon after, the DEA raided a poker game at Arenas’ home.
PokerNews spoke to professional poker player Philip Wiszowaty, who played in the high-stakes poker game that led to the indictment of the NBA superstar. The story involves million-dollar debts, professional athletes, violence, grenade threats, and private Pot-Limit Omaha games in lofty Hollywood homes.
Wiszowaty gave an exclusive interview to poker pro Doug Polk on Thursday, explaining much of the details he shared with PokerNews.
Unpaid Poker Debts
Wiszowaty got into poker, like millions of others, following Chris Moneymaker’s historic World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event title run in 2003.
During COVID, he sought some juicy action, which he found on the Pokerrrr2 app. That is where he met and befriended Michael “Meatball” Morton, who ran a high-stakes game in a virtual room dubbed the “Meat Lounge.” The relationship between the poker players would eventually go from a mutually beneficial arrangement to Sam “Ace” Rothstein and Nicky Santuro in the final hour of Casino level.
Meatball hosted a live private game in Florida, and he invited Wiszowaty out to play. He even backed Wiszowaty in the games, and it turned out to be quite profitable for the backer.
Wiszowaty racked up massive wins on the poker app and back home in Detroit around this time. Meatball decided to head out west in Spring 2021 to host big games in Hollywood at the Glass House, a mansion once rented by singer Justin Bieber on Weidlake Drive in Beverly Hills.
Meatball flew Wiszowaty out to Hollywood and introduced him to his partner, Craig Franze, part owner of Tootsie’s Cabaret, one of the largest strip club brands in the country.
Franze and Meatball both played in one of the first few Hustler Casino Live streams in August 2021, a game headlined by NBA legend Paul Pierce. Franze remains a regular in the non-streamed games at Hustler Casino in Los Angeles.
Wiszowaty, who has multiple six-figure live tournament scores and nearly won a WSOP bracelet in 2024, became friends with Franze. Life was good. He had seemingly reliable backers staking him to play soft high-stakes games against celebrities and certifiable fish, and he was living a luxurious SoCal lifestyle.
But the dream life turned into a nightmare following an infamous poker game on Aug. 28, 2021, a game he claims he should have won his large share of over $1.2 million.
The game began multi-way at $200/$400 pot-limit Omaha stakes inside the Glass House. Wiszowaty, who was playing on credit, won about $440,000 over many hours, he said.
One player in the game who was stuck a significant amount of money offered to play Wiszowaty heads-up for even higher stakes — $500/$1,000 blinds – after the others had quit. The opponent, referred to in this article as “Joe,” played a key role in the federal investigators zoning in on Arenas (more on this later) and is the unnamed LAPD source mentioned in the indictment against “Agent Zero.”
Joe, according to Wiszowaty, was on “monkey tilt” from his earlier losses.
”I was fine calling it a night, but I also have a soft spot for people that are stuck and trying to get their money back,” Wiszowaty said of why he decided to play Joe after having already won big.
Wiszowaty began to clean Joe’s clock, winning pot after pot. Joe was also playing on house credit, but the house continued to give him additional credit every time he lost his stack. He tried straddling every hand to $2,000, Wiszowaty said, presumably attempting to win his losses back as quickly as possible.
By the time the hours-long match concluded, Joe was down around $800,000, a number PokerNews verified through the losing player.
Wiszowaty was on cloud nine. But things would quickly turn south when the hosts of the game refused to pay him his money, and that hasn’t changed in the four years since the game took place.
Feds Put Onto Arenas
Wiszowaty told PokerNews he had no idea the high-stakes private games he played in the “Glass House” were tied to the Gilbert Arenas indictment. He had played a few times with Arenas, who he described as a tight and uninvolved player.
It wasn’t until he read reporting about an LAPD source saying in March 2022 he had been threatened with grenades over a $1.2 million poker debt that he made the connection.
Wiszowaty knew the player he had beaten heads-up had been threatened over the debt, and he knew grenades were involved. The player even sent a cease and desist letter to Franze in January 2022, detailing a $1.2 million poker debt “from a poker event” in Franze’s home on August 28, 2021.
“Since mid-November 2021, (the player), his family and parents have continuously been harassed and threatened by multiple individuals using your name and stating that unless he met with their demands for payment that “people from all around the world, from Mexico, the United States, Russia, and more countries will come after you, your family and your parents,’” reads the letter, which was obtained and reviewed by PokerNews.
The letter further states that the player continued to receive threats on behalf of Franze through December 2021. “(The player) has been threatened several times that if he fails to meet the demands for payment, that grenades will be used against him, his family, parents and property. Your associates continue to say that they are looking for (the player) and that when they find him five people will be waiting and will stab him.”
The cease and desist letter lists Franze’s address as 6447 Weidlake Dr. in Los Angeles, which is the address of the “Glass House.” The letter does not mention Gershman by name.
It was this debt, these threats and this high-stakes poker game in the “Glass House” that put the feds onto Arenas and his co-defendants. Soon after the player went to police, the DEA raided an Arenas’ Encino mansion with a poker game in full swing and arrested Gershman and other co-defendants.
The case has garnered international attention as the six co-defendants await trial charged with conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business and one count of operating an illegal gambling business.
Why Wiszowaty is Speaking Out
Wiszowaty left LA before the Encino raid rattled the high-stakes private game world, and it wasn’t the smoothest exit. When he confronted one of the game hosts over still being owed his poker winnings from the game runner, he says the game host assaulted him by pinning his arms down and choking him.
Wiszowaty shared with PokerNews a photo after the incident that shows his shirt stretched and ripped and markings on his neck. PokerNews also reviewed text messages sent by Wiszowaty after the incident.
With that, Wiszowaty packed his bags and left the life of living in a glass-played influencer mansion and winning millions in private PLO games behind him. He tried over the years to recover his debts and even enlisted the help of a top poker pro, to no avail.
When Wiszowaty saw his case connected to the Arenas news, it opened up old wounds and inspired him to come forward with his story. He took his story even further in an exclusive interview with Polk on YouTube. Polk, a three-time WSOP bracelet winner, agreed with the connection made between the informant and the Arenas arrest.
Senior Editor U.S.
