I was sued in Civil Court 4 a Gambling Debt and I LOST.

Reading all this Admo vs. CF stuff got me thinking back to my WORST poker-related experience.

A couple years ago a guy with a decent rep in my local home game asked me to take a trip to Reno with him.

He was 52 years old, I was 30. He was rich, I wasn't. He offered to give me $1,000 cash and said he would pay for the room at the Peppermill if I would drive him. In exchange, I would only have to pay him back $800 anytime during the next two months.

So we take off for Reno, I drive, he loses $100 bucks to me during the drive as we bet on the college football game on my XM radio. He tells me to take it off the debt, so now I owe him $700 within the next couple months.

We get to Reno and he give me the $1,000 in cash on the Casino floor. He also gives me a key to the room and tells me he's leaving and will be back the next day.

I asked WHERE he was going, and he said he was taking a shuttle to the airport and flying to San Fran to score some cocaine from his regular dealer friend there.

I thought he was kidding, but he promptly got on the shuttle.

I gambled that night, and after getting to the room I realized he would be back the next day and then I would be driving him AND HIS DRUGS back to Oregon.

I panicked, I don't associate with drugs or dealers, (other than friends who smoke some occasional weed or pop some vicoden) Anyways, I decided to leave his drug-using ass down there.

I left him a note and took off back to Oregon. Upon getting home I even deposited some money from my Paradise Poker account over into his account to help lower my debt with him, I really wanted to pay him off his $700 and be done with the man.

Then I get a malicious call from him. He's back in Reno and wants a ride home. I told him no, I wasn't going to be involved. He tells me if I don't come get him he will book a Limo home, (six hour drive) and bill me for it, but if I come and get him, the debt will be settled and we will be square.

AT THIS POINT I DID THE STUPIDIST THING EVER AND DROVE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT TO PICK HIS ASS UP.

I got to Reno, picked him up, refueled and he promptly fell asleep in my truck. Not more than 3 sentences were exchanged between us, and I drove the 6 hours back home in silence. I woke him when we got to his house and said, "Glad this is settled. We don't have to speak ever again."

About a month later, I get served by a cop with civil papers, and not just me, but ALSO my WIFE who works at a Christian School, he has a Police officer serve her with papers INSIDE the church, really LOW, especially seeing as how he had never MET or SPOKEN to my wife ever before.

We get jointly sued for $4,850, just under the magical $5,000 mark. (Again this was all from a debt of less than a grand, and he agreed to waive it if I would transport him and his drugs back from Reno to his home in Oregon.) The additional costs were for pain and suffering. lol.

Anyways, the judge hears the case, I'm honest, he lies like a son of a bitch.

I make the case that:
A. I admit I borrowed the cash, but it happened in Nevada and nothing was in writing, how does an Oregon court have jurisdiction?

B. How can someone sue a wife, when they've never even met that person?

C. I told of his flight back and forth to San Fran and how he wanted me to be his drug mule.

The result??? A judgement for $2,500 leveled against ME. In the judges letter he basically said he couldn't tell who was telling the truth conclusively, but I did admit to borrowing money and leaving him in Reno, where I left him for several days until my final midnight madness trip there and back to pick him up.

The judge also said that since he gave me cash in Reno, but I gave him back transfers online at a poker site, the poker site moneys don't count.

I lost. It was and still is, the most amazing and crushing thing that's ever happened to me.

The dude has continued to harass me for the past two years, sending letters to my bosses and even serving me with Interogatories, which I found I legally didn't have to answer.

Anyways, because he was tight with several people in the poker community, I stopped playing in the home game, and that's been that. I pray daily that he will Overdose on some Hillbilly Crank or something... I would love to publish his name on here, cause I know many of you know him, but I won't cause then this would get deleted.
PM for his name, he plays at the Bay 101 often now.

I now spend more time with my family and haven't been back to Reno since.
Sorry for the long nature, just felt the need to let you all know, civil court can backfire on you. And judges don't have to validate monies transfered through a gambling site, at least not in Oregon.