WSOP row rumbles on

World Series of Poker Main Event winner Jamie Gold has finally hit back at Bruce Crispin Leyser, the former friend who staked his claim to half of Gold’s $12m winnings.

The world champ claims that, despite not having an obligation to share his winnings, he had promised to compensate Leyser – a UK citizen living in the US – but only because he hadn’t managed to secure his own entry into the tournament.

However, Gold has decided that all bridges have been burnt between the two following Leyser’s attempts to use the courts to grab $6m. In the official court response to Leyser’s claims, Gold states that he ‘no longer intends to share his winnings’ after Leyser went ahead ‘unnecessarily filing suit and attempting to discredit Gold’s reputation in the media’.

Gold claims that Leyser and his wife had bombarded him with text messages and phone calls during the Main Event to get confirmation from Gold that he was going to share his winnings. Gold says that he had intended to honour his promise of ‘a gift’ to Leyser because the two celebrities that he secured for Bodog poker (Matthew Lillard and Dax Sheperd) were not deemed big enough by the online cardroom for the Brit to be given his own $10,000 seat.

The document also implies that Leyser was having money troubles – having turned to online poker to pay rent after his television work had dried up – and that this was a last ditch attempt to get his hands on some much needed cash.

The Leyser camp instantly returned fire saying that Gold’s admission of a promise to give money strengthens their claim to half of the $12m.

It was never going to be a simple case but one thing’s for certain, this argument isn’t going to blow over any time soon. Watch this space for further developments.