The True Story of Underground Gambling's Boss Girl

Not often does one hear about a one-time Olympic Games hopeful becoming the organizer of Hollywood’s most exclusive underground gambling ring. The plot sounds like something concocted by an over-imaginative B-rate director at 3 am after too much coffee. Even more surprising would be if the main character was none other than 26-year-old Molly Bloom, a Colorado native, and ex-professional skier.

Well, that is exactly what happened and the fascinating true story has been penned and shared by the woman herself in the autobiography “Molly’s Game: The True Story of the 26-Year-Old Woman Behind the Most Exclusive, High-Stakes Underground Poker Game in the World!“

The book details Bloom’s troubles after an injury forced her to abandon her dream of becoming an Olympic skier and move to Los Angeles to find work. There, she gets a job as a barmaid at a famous Hollywood celebrity hangout and eventually gets roped into helping with backroom poker games.

At the time, the Internet was still in its infancy and gambling was limited to land-based casinos where the house always has the upper hand and privacy is near impossible. Famous Hollywood stars and high-stakes poker players had no access to online portals like casinos x where they could play the games they want in secret. As a result, high-stakes underground poker games became popular across Los Angeles, Vegas, and the surrounding areas and these games caught Bloom’s attention.

Becoming underground gambling’s boss girl

While initially helping out as a stewardess at some games, Bloom discovers the amount of money involved and meets the famous celebrities that attend. The excitement gets her hooked and she slowly becomes immersed in the world of underground poker. Naturally, problems arise and as trouble brews, Bloom decides she has bigger plans and goes off on her own. She eventually expands out of the bar and begins running her own underground poker games in penthouses and hotel suites that attract the attention of some of Hollywood’s most famous celebrities.

As the story evolves the reader is presented with shocking details and insights into a previously unknown and highly secretive world that occurs behind the scenes. Bloom pulls no punches in a book that is consistently surprising and often as sad as it is funny. Secrets are exposed, identities are uncovered, and once again reality is revealed to be stranger than fiction in a book that will keep you glued from page to page.

The honest and compelling account of events is eventually concluded in predictably unsavory fashion as Bloom gets in deeper than she can handle. She takes it on the chin though and comes out stronger than ever, with the reader given the impression that while some important lessons were learned, Bloom has no regrets.

“Molly’s Game: The True Story of the 26-Year-Old Woman Behind the Most Exclusive, High-Stakes Underground Poker Game in the World!” has since been made into a famous Hollywood movie starring Jessica Chastain and directed by Aaron Sorkin, a role which garnered him an Oscar nomination.