Cate Hall Goes Public With $60,000 Staking Dispute

Cate Hall has placed herself at the centre of a very public staking dispute this week, the 35-year old pro accusing her backer Chad Power of a form of “extortion” and “strong-arm techniques”, Power hitting back with claims that she owes him $60,000 and was “huffing nitrous to the point where she was struggling to walk”.

Hall, who has over $1million in tournament earnings and famously beat Mike Dentale heads-up in a grudge match last year, took to Twitter to air her grievances – in anticipation of being outed as a ‘scammer’ by Power…

…a long string of tweets describing her version of events, including this one where she claims Power’s actions are, if not “outright extortion, then extortion adjacent”…

Power, for his part, used the 2+2 forum to respond to Hall’s tweets, posting a lengthy description of his side of the argument…

At the centre of the dispute is a disagreement over whether Hall has to pay her ‘make-up’ of $60,000 to Power if she leaves poker for good. Around half of that debt was accrued when Hall took shots at much higher stakes than her usual $5/10 cash game – including private games involving Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow according to Power.

As many in the game have stated, it’s a very unusual approach to staking, but Power claims it was agreed with Hall and his other 40–or so ‘horses’ over the years, but Hall claims it wasn’t part of their agreement…

Hall’s drug use and mental health have been discussed in the various online exchanges, Cate herself posting many times about such things, including her recent problems, which coincided with her backing by Chad Power…

The arbitration of the matter has also proved problematic, no clear consensus reached although both are claiming victory of sorts from the process…

With no resolution in sight the dispute seems set to be played out in the public arena, despite Hall calling for “poker journalists… to ask whether it serves an important purpose”…

However, as a public fight, made so by both persons involved and over an issue which many poker players will be either involved in or interested about, it is naturally going to be covered by all the main poker media outlets.