Tobey Maguire & Leonardo DiCaprio avoid court battle over poker cash

Famous best buddies Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have been saved from a revealing court showdown over their poker winnings.

The quartet are among the high-powered card sharks caught up in a legal battle between their former poker playing pal Bradley Ruderman and the people the jailed hedge fund manager conned out of millions.

As court proceedings loomed, it looked as if the details of the illegal high-stakes Hollywood poker games would be revealed, but the 22 people who sued to recoup Ruderman's gambling cash have all settled their cases for a total of more than $1.75 million, according to Celebuzz.com.

Howard Ehrenberg, the bankruptcy trustee who sued Maguire and others in a bid to recoup as much as $5.2 million they won from Ruderman at the underground poker games, tells the website, "All of the poker defendant cases are settled.

"The settlement of every poker related case without having had to incur the cost of taking any of them to trial means that the fund available for the victims has been maximised."

Bradley Ruderman was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2010 for bilking investors out of millions. His victims claimed he used their cash to live the high life in Malibu, California and pay his way in to high-stakes Beverly Hills Texas Hold 'Em poker games between 2006 and 2009.

Bradley Ruderman wrote cheques and wire transfers to Tobey Maguire, totalling $311,200 to cover poker losses, according to one of the lawsuits filed and later settled. The actor was one of the first to settle, agreeing to hand over $80,000.