Poker Pro Brandon Cantu Wishes He Wasn't Broke

A spat has broken out between two poker pros on twitter, the upshot of which is that it appears Brandon Cantu has owed Jason Mercier some money for around four years now, but has been unable to pay him back as he is claiming to have gone broke.
During their heated exchange, a number of fellow pros came to Mercier’s defence, including Doug Polk and Sean Deeb, and after one tweeter asked if Cantu owed Deeb any money as well, Cantu replied:
“i don’t owe Shaun one penny! He’s destroying my life because im broke and owe his friend money! #WishIWasntBroke.”
Delving further into the two pros’ acrimonious dealings, Brandon Cantu wrote that he had paid back the $260,000 he had borrowed from Jason Mercier in the past, but that he didn’t take kindly to Mercier threatening to go public with the fact Cantu had now owed him some more money for almost four years. As Cantu subsequently tweeted:
“@JasonMercier Loans me 10k Eu 4 WSOPE Main, N charged me 5k Eu interest 4 2 weeks late! Then threatens me @PokerStars pride! #UsuryMercier”
Brandon Cantu’s whining did not cut any mustard amongst the other players tracking the conversation, though, with even Doug Polk, who has had his own disagreements with Mercier in the past, coming to the Team PokerStars pros’ defence:
“Oh so if I pay someone money I owe them do I not have to ever pay in the future? It’s been 4 years dude,” wrote Polk.
While the situation between Mercier and Cantu is likely to continue for some time to come, it still begs the question as to how Cantu went broke in the first place. According to his Hendon Mob statistics, the Washington pro with 2 WSOP bracelets to his name has earned $4,286,938 from playing live tournaments throughout his career. Since the beginning of 2013, however, he has earned just $276,765 competing at the tables, but nevertheless still seems able to regularly enter events with buy-ins of around $1,500.