The Foundry is a digital magazine from Brazen about extraordinary characters and the worlds they inhabit. Stories of ambition, power and obsession, from our team and our contributors.

Alec Gores kept inviting Tom Goldstein back to his Beverly Hills mansion. By the end, Gores had lost $26 million. In Manila, the billionaire known as Tango had rated Goldstein a weak player. What he saw at the table made him suspect the lawyer was being coached.

Tom Goldstein wanted a seat in poker’s richest private games. His legal work opened the door. Then he recruited a team of professionals to help him beat the men on the other side of the table.

In public, he was the country’s top Supreme Court litigator. In private, he won close to $100 million from opponents at the highest-stakes poker games in the world. His double life cost him everything.

Glenn Walker refused to pay protection money to sell Christmas trees in New York. Clara Preve tells the story of a Florida farmer who would not back down.