Brad Booth fell from grace years ago, going from Bobby's Room to low-stakes grinding. And now he's apparently in serious trouble that has nothing to do with finances. The former high-stakes poker pro appeared on a missing person's report filed on July 30.
Booth was a prominent poker player during the height of online poker, in the years following Chris Moneymaker's win at the 2003 World Series of Poker. But he fell off the map around 2012 when he became indebted to multiple poker players, some of whom were never paid back.
Poker Star goes missing
Brad Booth's name doesn't pop up very often these days unless another player outs him for failing to pay off a debt. Adam Schwartz, a co-host of the DAT Poker Podcast along with Daniel Negreanu and Terrence Chan, posted on Twitter a different story about the once great poker pro.
Booth, as Schwartz mentioned, is missing and hasn't been seen or heard from since all the way back on July 13. That's certainly troubling especially for an individual with such a troubling past.
The missing person's report, filed on July 30, states that Booth's roommate claims he last spoke to Booth on July 13. Booth was supposedly going camping but his roommate noticed he only left with minimal items, enough to sustain himself for a couple of days.
He hasn't been heard from since. Or, at least no one who knows him has heard from him. Per the report, the poker pro was driving a 2002 silver Toyota Tacoma pickup truck with license plates 601PMR. He's 43-years-old, 6'2" 200 pounds, brown hair and eyes, and was last spotted at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada.
Sean McCormack, poker room manager at Las Vegas' Aria Resort and Casino, retweeted Schwartz' post for awareness.
"Let’s retweet for awareness and find Brad! All of us in this industry have had our ups & downs and now is not the time to discuss Brad’s. Now is the time to be a great human and citizen and get the word out to help find him. Hoping for a safe return for his friends and family," McCormack wrote.
Tragic fall from grace
Brad Booth was once a made man in the poker industry. He was known for crushing the nosebleed cash games 10 years ago. He spent months at a time playing 12-16 hour sessions at Bellagio in Las Vegas playing in Bobby's Room, a famous card room named after 1978 world champion Bobby Baldwin.
Booth would play for hundreds of thousands of dollars every day during what was dubbed the poker boom era (2004-2011). But he had some demons and was often rumored to blow thousands on table games at the casino.
Booth ran through millions playing online poker about nine years ago. That was only part of his demise. The once respected poker player allegedly ran up massive debts to numerous players. In 2012, Doug Polk accused Booth of scamming him out of $28,000. Polk claims the now missing poker pro never repaid him for money he transferred to him on the Lock poker site.
Booth claims he fell afoul of the Ultimate Bet closure on Black Friday in 2011. He said at the time he owed backers money that was stuck on the poker site. Ultimate Bet players were unable to access their account balances for many years following the Black Friday scandal.
Although he has a checkered past and still reportedly owes multiple people money, many are concerned about his whereabouts. Some on social media have suspected foul play but no police report has been filed, so those assumptions are merely speculation at this point.
