Yevgeniy Timoshenko has sued his former New York roommate, Frank Gu, over a series of unpaid rent and loans totalling $90,000.
Are poker players the nicest people on the planet?
Are they the most gullible?
Is making loan after loan just part of the life?
Those were the thoughts running through my head after reading in the nydailynews.com that the World Poker Tour (WPT) Champions Club member, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, is suing his former roommate Frank Gu over a series of unpaid loans dating back to September 2010.
According to the article, Timoshenko met fellow poker player Frank Gu during his poker travels, and the pair agreed to move into a Union Square apartment and share the $7,000 rent. Timoshenko paid the rent in full, and Gu was to pay him $2,625 per month.
So, off Timoshenko trots around the world competing in events, trying to make a crust, and all the while Gu is back in New York living it up in his swanky apartment without fronting up any cash. All told, Timoshenko is trying to recoup $15,484 in rent and $2,181 in unpaid utility bills.
In addition to unpaid household costs, Timoshenko is also after $50,000 he loaned Gu to invest in penny stocks, $1,800 in legal fees relating to those stocks, $13,050 of an unpaid loan, $1,160 for courtside basketball tickets, and $10,000 in cash Timoshenko asked him to look after while he was visiting London.
The pair moved into the apartment in 2010 and moved out in 2011. Timoshenko now lives in Seattle, and his legal team filed the lawsuit at a Manhattan Court on Wednesday.
Timoshenko started racking up live tournament scores in 2007 when he won a side event at the Irish Open for €124,600. He has since won over $7.3m including $500,000 in an event in Macau in 2008, $2.1m when he won the WPT Championship in 2009, and $1.7m when he took down the A$100,000 Challenge at the 2014 Aussie Millions overcoming a final table that housed Mike McDonald, Erik Seidel, Doug Polk, Patrik Antonius, Daniel Negreanu, David Steicke and Martin Jacobson. He has also earned $4.8m playing online under the pseudonym Jovial Gent and is a former Pocket Fives World #1.
