How I Manipulated The World's Richest Men: “They Lost $100 Million In One Night!” - Molly Bloom (Molly's Game)

In this new episode Steven sits down with the author, entrepreneur and ‘Poker Princess’ Molly Bloom.
Molly is a former Olympic skier, and at 21 years old was ranked No. 3 in North America in moguls. After an accident, she left skiing and took a years sabbatical from the University of Colorado - Boulder to move to LA in 2004. Initially bartending, she began to run poker games in The Viper Room. These games attracted A-list celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Ben Affleck, playing for millions of dollars. In 2013, she was arrested for taking part in underground poker games and faced 10 years in prison, but was eventually sentenced to 1 year of probation. In 2014, she released her memoir ‘Molly’s Game’ which was made into an award winning film of the same name in 2017.

In this conversation Molly and Steven discuss topics, such as:

How her upbringing was based around competition and achievement

Why she was obsessed with achieving glory from a young age

Moving to LA and finding her way into running poker games

How she started running illegal poker games and made them different from others

The psychological lessons she learned from watching poker games

How she made herself indispensable to the game and its players

What it took to run the world's most exclusive poker nights

Having her poker game and income taken from her

Learning to pivot quickly from failure to success

Seeing someone lose $100 million in one night

Kicking Dan Bilzerian out of her poker game

How she was making $4-6 million a year from tips

The mafia showing up at her door

What she was able to learn from listening to the elite players of her game

How she had access to the world’s most powerful people

Becoming addicted to drinking and drugs

Her legal troubles with the FBI and facing 10 years in prison

Why she refused to snitch to the authorities for millions of dollars

The lessons she has learned coming out of the world of poker

Being comfortable with risk and the necessity of taking risks in life

How she was able to sell her story into a Hollywood movie

You can purchase Molly’s memoir, ‘Molly’s Game’, here: https://bit.ly/3OvOLxq

Follow Molly:
Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rOB3yk
Twitter: https://bit.ly/45tjBOe

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https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo
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The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett is a podcast hosted by Steven Bartlett, the CEO of the social media management company, Social Chain. The podcast features Bartlett's reflections on his experiences as a CEO, as well as interviews with other business leaders and entrepreneurs. The show provides insights into the challenges and opportunities of running a successful business, as well as the personal journeys of its guests. The Diary of a CEO is known for its honest and candid discussions on the realities of being a CEO, and is aimed at helping listeners understand the inner workings of successful businesses.

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I was a broke, university dropout, at 18 I built an industry leading social media marketing company, and at 27 I resigned as CEO. At 28 I co-founded Flight Story – a marketing and communications company, and thirdweb - a software platform, making it easy to build web3 applications. I then launched private equity fund, Flight Fund, to accelerate the next generation of European unicorns. During this time I decided to launch 'The Diary Of A CEO' podcast with the simple mission of providing an unfiltered journey into the remarkable stories and untold dimensions of the world’s most influential people, experts and thinkers.

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• No. of episodes: 662
• Latest episode: 2025-04-28
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