Asked about the CBI investigation, Hicks refused to talk. "No investors lost any money. You can quote me on that," he yelled as he walked away.
In another room, Sowash stood alone, guarding a section of bar tables covered in APT merchandise. "Matt Sowash isn't here," Matt Sowash said. "Maybe I can help you. What do you want to know?"
Playing without a full deck: Herb Beck (left) hired Christopher Steelman to get the dirt on Matt Sowash.
Jim J. Narcy
Deal him in: Brian Masters brought free poker to Denver bars.
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Asked about the CBI investigation, Sowash said that there were ten owners who'd bought into the company, and the CBI was making sure their money did in fact go through the company. "Which it did," Sowash said. The original allegation, brought up by "competitors," was that APT was an illegal gambling operation. "CBI searched our office," he continued. "No charges were ever filed. Since then, the CBI continues to get phone calls trying to discredit us."
The company was having "financial trouble" stemming from the canceled Vegas tournament in which it had invested $150,000. "It was a tremendous financial hit," Sowash said. "Most companies would have gone under right then."
As for Herb Beck, he'd approached APT in November wanting to invest. He came in with $36,000 and "other promises to advance the company," Sowash said. Those promises never materialized, and management decided to part ways with Beck, structuring a $60,000 promissory note that included interest and paying him $10,000 up front: "Then two weeks later, he started making his death threats."
After admitting that he was, in fact, Matt Sowash, the subject of those threats, he shrugged them off as no big deal.
Just like the game that had inspired those threats. "I hate poker," Sowash said, smiling. "I'm like the bar owner who doesn't drink."
At this point, Hicks approached. He told his partner that they didn't have the $750 that he'd just announced they were giving away. They were $150 short.
Not to worry. APT still has big plans. Letting go of the live games will allow the company to focus on its next project: television. "We never really wanted to run a poker tour in the first place," Sowash says. "We wanted to use it as a marketing tool. It blew up so quickly in terms of expansion and popularity that it became its own animal."
Investor Scott Lapoint says APT already has a deal with Fox Sports Net to telecast live tournament play (FSN's local and national offices both deny any deal with APT), and the only thing that threatens the company now is bad publicity. "I'm not saying there haven't been some mistakes made," he notes, "but every investor is never going to see a dime coming back to them if we're not given the opportunity to get things turned around."
Sowash blames the company's failures on his own bad business decisions, like not firing enough staff after Vegas, and says allegations that he and Hicks set out to swindle investors are ludicrous. "If we lined our pockets, then it's stuffed in a mattress somewhere," he says. "It's not put into the places we live, not in the lifestyle. Everybody has lost on this thing. You can throw your hands up in the air or keep pushing forward and try to take care of all the people that have taken care of you. That's what we're doing."
The APT website says the company is not only still in business, but will soon make its Colorado television debut, with tournament shows, game shows, talk shows "and much more!"
The CBI's securities-fraud investigation is ongoing.
"Hope to see you on the tube!"
