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In 2019, Tobey Maguire won $15.6 million playing poker against billionaire Andy Beal. Beal delayed payment and asked for a discount. Maguire spent $500,000 on a lawyer and collected his full $7.8 million share. In the video below, private poker organizer Molly Bloom describes what the Spider-Man actor was like at her table. She recalls him saying: “It’s not really about money. It’s more about crushing souls.” Bloom remembers Maguire assuring an opponent during one hand: "Listen, I have the top hand. I swear on my mother's life". The man agonized, eventually folded, and Maguire revealed the bluff. According to Bloom, he made a different demand of her: to receive a tip, she had to climb onto the table and bark like a seal. Bloom refused. She says the standoff lasted 35 minutes: the game stopped while everyone at the table watched. A few weeks later, Bloom says, Maguire arranged for one of the wealthy players to host the games at his house. The other players followed, leaving her without the game she had been running. Then Maguire called her: “You’re done. You’re over.” Lawyer Tom Goldstein helped Maguire collect the money from Beal. In January 2026, the actor described the arrangement in court, where Goldstein himself was facing tax charges. Beal had lost money to Maguire and owed him payment. Bloom refused to be humiliated and lost the game she organized. Was winning the money enough for Maguire, or did he need the people at the table to feel defeated?