Rob Yong, the owner of the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club in Nottingham, United Kingdom was the mediator between Australian high stakes poker pro Matthew Kirk and King’s Casino owner Leon Tsoukernik when the two players tried on two occasions to reach a mutual decision over a $3 million poker loan that took place in May 2017 at the Aria Resort & Casino.

Kirk initially filed a lawsuit against Tsoukernik after labelling him a cheat and Tsoukernik filed a countersuit to the tune of $10 million alleging that Kirk and the Aria Resort had manipulated him to continue to play high stakes poker knowing that he was inebriated. The legal case and the slander has hogged poker media outlets and Rob Yong decided to clear the air by releasing a blog post, giving his version of what happened.

Rob Yong Confirms Tsoukernik Was Drunk

Yong states that Kirk told him that he knew that Tsoukernik was very drunk and not in a position to play high stakes poker but he continued to play against him because Tsoukernik told him that if he stopped playing, he would never play poker with him again. Yong said that since Kirk was feeling bad over the fact that Tsoukernik lost $3 million that night, he proposed a solution where $2 million could be discounted and the remaining $1 million be sorted out over another high stakes game.

Kirk accepted the solution and Yong called Tsoukernik who was sleeping in his hotel room to come over and agree to the new deal. Tsoukernik and Kirk shook hands over the new deal and it looked like the matter had been resolved amicably.

Yong Says Kirk Backed Out Of New Deal

However 20 minutes after the new deal was cut, Yong says that he found Kirk on the phone and learnt that the deal was now off the table and that Tsoukernik had to repay the $3 million. When Tsoukernik was informed that the deal was off and he still owed $3 million, he became very upset.

When Yong went back to the UK, he received a call and via speakerphone he learned that Kirk and Tsoukernik were together and had decided to settle their differences with Tsoukernik agreeing to pay back $1 million. The two players wanted Yong to be a witness to the $1 million deal and Kirk received the settlement.

However once again Kirk backed out of the deal and a few hours later he called Yong and said that he only agreed to the $1 million settlement because he wanted the funds to proceed with a lawsuit against Tsoukernik and also wanted to publish this story in every possible poker media outlet.

Yong would go on to state in his blog post that while he was not present during the actual game, that people present during the game informed him that Tsoukernik was so drunk that he once put down a winning hand as he had no idea what he was doing. Yong has agreed to testify and repeat every word he said, should he be required to do so.

Tags: Aria Resort & Casino, Dusk Till Dawn, High stakes poker, Kings Casino, Leon Tsoukernik, Matthew Kirk, poker blog, Rob Yong

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 14th, 2017 at 4:48 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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