Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist

The A-List Kingpin and the Poker Ring that Brought Down Tinseltown (The Front Page Detectives Series)

By: Dylan Howard, Houston Curtis

Narrated by: Joe Barrett, Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's Summary

"Right out of the gate, the entire game was designed to empty the pockets of those rich, celeb-loving LA suckers." (Houston Curtis)

Leonardo DiCaprio. Alex Rodriguez. Tobey Maguire. Affleck. Damon. Cassavetes. 

What do these people have in common? Not just fame and fortune; all these men are also alumni of the ultra-exclusive, high-stakes poker ring that inspired Aaron Sorkin's Oscar-nominated film, Molly’s Game. 

But Houston Curtis, the card shark who cofounded the game with Tobey Maguire, knows that Sorkin's is the whitewashed version. In Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist, Curtis goes all-in, revealing the true story behind the game. From its origins with Maguire to staking DiCaprio's first game, installing Molly Bloom, avoiding the hookers and blow down the hall, and weathering the FBI investigation that left Curtis with a lien on his house - this is the no-holds-barred account of the world’s most exclusive Texas hold ’em game from the man who started it - with all the names and salacious details that Molly's Game left out. 

With the insider appeal of Rounders, more A-listers than Ocean's 11, and the excitement of The Sting, Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist is the untold, insider’s story that makes Molly's Game look tame.

©2020 Dylan Howard and Houston Curtis (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

What a story!!!

In case you didn’t know, the book is about the other side of the story, which we’ve previously seen in the famous book and film, called “Molly’s Game”. Curtis claims that the story is quite different than what we’ve seen in the film. Actually, having watched the film twice, and read (actually listened on the audible platform) this book, Curtis’ story is much more interesting, partly due to the fact that Curtis gave full details of the personalities. In my view, this can be a major life saving story to take into account by those, who is considering a full career in poker, which is a fastinating game, but also includes some dark elements of gambling and its entourage. Of course, Curtis’ story naturally includes his own “hustler” elements that bring itself some devilish character into the story, and that by itself paints a “not-so-innocent” picture to begin with. In that picture, the unavoidable question one asks himself is that is Houston Curtis an evil or a bad person? Perhaps he may not be a full scale gambling criminal or a mobster, but he is definitely hanging around the edge of the circle, within which many things were happening. On the other hand, he himself is one of the master designers of a poker hustle together with Toby McGuire (aka Spiderman). In that hustle, there was a well articulated plan of using celebrities to attrack rich entourage of people for high stakes poker game. Curtis and McGuire arrange everything, Molly to run the operation, and a dealer. Curtis claims no tricks during the games, but solid poker skills to run over those rich folks and win hundreds of thousands of dollars in each night, and share the loot. Once greed takes over, things start to change from bad to worse. Curtis’ story tumbles down all the way into a deep tradegy of all kinds from loosing his wealth, health and getting into prison. Perhaps, some people may interpret all these series of events as the natural cause of one’s dealing with the devilish energy. Perhaps some may say “if you deal with the devil, that’s what happens eventually”. And, the center of the story is one of the most fascinating games, called No-Limit Texas Hold’em poker. I also believe that the game itself is a microcosm of a real life. For me, who is a small stake, amateur recreational player, there is always a line between a brilliant mind game and a deep gambling. In this game, the decisions you make swing between the two sides. The more your decisions are based on the “gamble” element, the more you get sucked into a different energy field. Can you play it purely on the mind game side? Perhaps you can, but doesn’t the life itself include some “gambling” elements? It surely does. So, it is your choice to extend your game towards which side you prefer, and those who extends towards gamling side sometimes win excessively and sometimes loose big time. Curtis’ story begins with his cardsharp skills. He makes into the California and attains a very good level of success in business and in life, marries a beautiful woman, and even attains a good success in poker within his hustle. Had he kept the success in the modest hobby level, perhaps he may have enjoyed the life much more. Instead, he extended his presence deeper into the hustle without any safety cushion, which his partner definitey has. As they say, the life we live is in the end the natural results of our preferences. His preference was to depend on a
heavy risk card draw, which didnt come. I felt deeply for him as I listened his story on the audible platform. The book deserves a film version, and I am sure it attains a much wider success than Molly’s game. Perhaps, if that time comes, Curtis’ redemption is realised. I wish him all the best, and thank him for sharing this amazing story.

The sample audio is not the actual narrator

Great book I was looking forward to listening to, but be forewarned y'all. The sample audio features a narrator with a deep, rich, sonorous baritone that I was looking forward to listening to. But that dude only reads the introduction. The actual narrator has a high pitched raspy voice that I just could not listen to for more than five minutes.

An Amazing Story

I loved this book, the story of Houston Curtis is one of those really amazing stories you can only see in movies.

A second perspective of the Molly's Game tale.

I greatly enjoyed "Molly's Game", the book and the movie, so when I saw that more of the story was available from another perspective, I got it. While it only covers the portion of her story that Houston Curtis was involved in, the early games, it sheds more light on the story,

Exaggerating bull

as the old saying goes….Never let the truth get in the way of a good story …… …….

REAL

Thankful we finally got to hear the REAL story! Keep fighting Houston see you in Vegas

Better then Molly’s game!

Made Molly’s game seam like she was an outsider! Very interesting listen. From flush to bust!!!

Terrible and Petty

This book was basically just bashing Molly Bloom. The writer of the book is trying to justify actions and discredit others. I hate that I spent money on this.

Very good book

I like Molly's movie in thought this was a great book. May even be better than the movie.

That’s a better story

This should have been the movie that took place. Molly’s game was good but you knew in the book and the movie that some things didn’t go together. Well I guess if you’re a gambler you knew that. If you’re even a slight degenerate this is the book for you.

Bitter man with huge ego and obsession with Molly

Huge ego, name dropper really bitter about Molly Bloom making money off their hustle... his plan was to stitch people up and then acts very honourable and as if he's been wronged when it goes tits up. It is his perspective of what happened, as with Molly's take on it...just one perspective so they are bound to be different and know different details but he doesn't recognise that, just often calls her a liar. Spends a huge amount of the book slagging her off claiming to be the brains of the operation and saying how great he was.

This guy is so full of himself and gets bitter when it doesn't work out for him or if things go well for others. He clearlt isn't the big player he thinks he is. I regret buying this as it will have given him money.

Only good thing is he got what he deserved.

Namedrops and Self Congratulation

An excellent book, if you like 6 hours of name dropping and the author telling you over and over how incredibly clever he is.

The whinings of a disgruntled misogynist

What might have been a great story is marred by Curtis’s constant whining about how Molly Brown made “too much” in tips while he cheated and colluding at pretty much every poker table he’s ever played.
Curtis vociferously judges Molly for her comparatively innocuous indiscretions, while all the time reminding us what a clever card shark he is and the many millions he made cheating!
To top it off every other woman he mentions is referred to a hooker and quite often much worse.
The only reason this book was written was because Curtis can’t stand the idea that Molly would be getting any credit for what he considers to be his master plan.
Embarrassing for him and god knows under what rock Toby Maguire is now hiding!