[Knockwurst]

Background: I'm one of the regulars, who has helped keep an office home game going for the last couple of years. The game is a bunch of lawyers playing a pretty friendly dealer's choice game (I know lawyers, friendly, oxymoron, etc.). The weekly game has become more of a monthly game over the last nine months, and I've been only making every other session during that time, as I've left the office and have other commitments.

The most you can win or lose in a night is about $300. I'm up overall by a fair margain, but I've had my share of losing nights -- even up to $200 or 300 maybe a handful of times overall. We have an informal marker system, where if someone runs out of cash a marker is written out. The marker is a post it with their name and the amount written on it, they don't sign it and only within the last six months have we begun dating the markers. The big winner for the night usually takes the outstanding markers and it's usually paid back by the next session. Also there are times when markers are paid back but the post it is not available to be torn up when the debt is settled.

Situation: Last night, a guy I'll call Bill, who originated the game, it's his chips, his cards, etc. (and who, incidently, was accused of cheating, peeking at cards during his deal in draw games, etc. and confronted by a number of players at one point, though he denied it)came up to me and showed me a $260 marker with my name on it. When I had recovered from the initial shock, I asked him when it was from because I honestly did not remember having any markers out. He told me it was from seven or eight months ago. Now this is someone I keep in contact with on a monthly basis, despite the cheating accusations from others, but he has never mentioned the marker until last night. I asked him why he didn't bring it up to me the last couple of times we played together and he said he forgot. Could the marker be legit? Yes. Could I have paid it off, and not gotten the marker from him? Yes. Could he have made up the marker out of the blue? It's possible.

In law, there's something called laches, which means if you sleep on your rights, you lose your rights. For example, if a person has a contract for delivery, and the delivery never comes, if the person then brings a breach of contract claim twenty years later, it may be dismissed based on laches even if there is no statute of limitations.

Legal theories aside, I have a professional relationship with some of the players in the game, and would hate to lose that relationship over this.

So what do I do? Do I pay off the marker and feel like an easy mark? Do I tell him to f*ck off, and feel like an a**hole? Or do I work out some sort of compromise?

Thanks for your help!