I found that newsgroup article where he posted for backers and he actually didn't go "broke". He said he built his money up to $45k and then lost most of it at WSOP (2002) and was only left with $15k. The World Poker Finals was approaching and he wanted to play in $10k final but didn't want to lose all his current stake with that tournament so he was looking for backers for more money.

http://www.thechipboard.com/cgi-bin/tcbarc11/tcbarc11.pl?read=336735