Did Phil Ivey´s Foxy Cheat Partner Engineer their Edge-Sorting Baccarat Scam?

Note the difference

Now that all the juicy details are in, it may be so, but I still don't think so. Chung Yin Sun, the beautiful Asian baccarat cheat partner that Ivey escorted into London's Crockfords casino, has fallen under suspicion as being the actual leader of baccarat-cheat duo. This is primarily because she has a history of being denied payments by UK casinos after gambling wins, and was seen holding a suspicious baccarat chart during the play where they won $12 million.

The scam centered around a new advantage-play  technique called edge-sorting. This can occur in many different forms, but the main gig is that the back-designs of the playing cards are assymmetrical, although in tiny detail but enough for the sharpest baccarat-cheat teams to turn a huge advantage to their side.  Casino cheats spotting the flawed cards and then using them to their advantage are not guilty of cheating, only performing an advantage play. However, when the advantage players arrange for the defective cards to either get into play or stay in play once on the table, then we are talking about pre-meditated casino cheating, which overwhelmingly seems to be the case with Phil Ivey and Chung Yin sun, who appears to be of Korean descent.

I personally think Ivey put it all together, but it is very possible that the foxy Oriental beauty had the flawed-card connection. In either case, you can bet your last baccarat chip, or any chip for that matter, that the dynamic baccarat cheat duo are not gonna profit beyond some negative publicity and maybe even some widespread banning from certain if not all UK casinos.   

Who Really is Phil Ivey? Poker Phenom, Casino Cheat...or Both?

Hatching Poker Cheat Scam? 

I, for one, think it's time to take a good look at Phil Ivey, and try to answer these questions. First of all, I want to remind everyone how I tried to expose the vast cheating that goes on in the professional poker world, especially in tournament play including the World Series of Poker. I wrote about this extensively in my   2006 book "Dirty Poker," and was severely criticized for it. In the book I wrote about huge and powerful poker tournament syndicates that were controlled by Men Nguyen and other highly visible and successful poker pros.

Which leads us to two questions: 1) Was or Is Phil Ivey a leader or member of one of these tournament syndicates that specialize in touornament collusion play, chip-dumping, slow-playing, chip-passing and other dirty tactics to bully their ways to final tables? And 2: Did Phil Ivey actually plan and design the huge baccarat cheat coup that he carried out at Crockfords Casino in London?

Let's start with  the second question. It is highly probable in my mind that Ivey saw a huge chance to capitalize on his celebrity to take this free shot at Crockfords without any risk of actually getting busted or charged with a crime (and to boot the UK goes very light on even convicted casino cheats). He also figured that even if Crockfords was suspicious after the cheating play went down, they would have a tough time trying to renege payment to Phil Ivey. On that point he clearly miscalculated the Brits' hatred of being conned.

So what could've happened? How did the defective cards make their way into Crockfords? Did Ivey approach someone who knew someone working for the card-supplier or manufacturer? Did someone working there know someone who knew Ivey? All this is tough to speculate, but I can tell you this: I get hundreds of emails each year from people who want to get me involved in lots of poker cheat and casino cheat scams, and some of them are so good they're even tempting! So Ivey probably found this irresistible if it was indeed brought to him by someone else.

However, I gotta believe that Ivey knew some key people with connections to the card-supplier (probably someone who used defective cards from the same company before in other casino scams) and laid it all down himself.

Now, back to question 1. Was Phil Ivey involved in active poker cheating? Now, I have absolutely nothing against Phil Ivey the way I do against Daniel Negreanu, but I have to say that it is highly likely that Ivey, if cheating casinos, was also cheating poker tournaments...and then who knows what happened in some of his legendary high-stakes poker games where he took millions off billionaires? And then there is his participation in High Stakes Poker and other TV high stakes poker-game shows. I always believed that these shows were bullshit and nothing more than a con to get the participating stars more money and publicity, that all the huge pots were fake and that all monies won and lost were returned to the players at the end.

And remember that huge huge hundred-million dollar freeze-out that Ivey and seven other players were supposed to play under some dome in Las Vegas back in 2006? I can't remember the name of it, but I do remember clearly that soon after I badmouthed it, it fell apart and nevre came off.

So, final thought...Phil Ivey may be almost as vile as   Russ Hamilton, the ex WSOP champ who designed and carried out the Ultimate Bet online poker cheating scam. I am sure we will be hearing a lot more about Phil Ivey cheating at poker and cheating at casinos from people other than me!

Poker Star Phil Ivey Guilty of Massive Casino Cheat Scam if...

...what Crockfords casino in London says is true, and I think it is.

 Phil Ivey is now suing Crockfords to force them to pay him the $12 million he won playing baccarat with a superhot foxy companion. Of course he had to sue. If he didn´t, it would almost be an admission of guilt.  

Crockfords says that the cards used in the baccarat game were defective and that their values could be read from flaws on the backs of the cards when they were face-down...and, more importantly, Ivey and his pretty lady companion knew it.

 According to Crockfords, Ivey entered the casino, quickly got stuck for 800 hundred grand, then went on a multiple-play $13 million winning streak over a period of two days. They became suspicious when Ivey made some peculiar requests during his play. The first thing that bugged them (and it would bug me too) is Ivey's asking that the dealers hold the cards on the felt, in some cases lifting them in the air, before he made his bets. That would correspond with Ivey able to read the card markings on the backs of the cards. If the dealers dealt the game normally, it would not have mattered if the cards were defected or marked as the dealers hands and the card shoe would have protected them until well after Ivey and his gal-pal made their bets.

 The second self-incriminating action by Ivey was his insistence that the casino keep re-using the same baccarat cards after each shuffle. Casinos all across the world now trash the six or eight decks used in a baccarat shoe after every shoe to protect themselves against the now epidemic baccarat false-shuffling cheat scams as well as other baccarat scams. Ivey's insistence that the casino re-use cards is more evidence that these cards were marked by factory defect.

 So, you may wonder, why would Phil Ivey, international poker star with rock star status, and extremely wealthy, want to involve himself in a casino cheat scam such as this? Well, my answer to this would simply be: Why would Donald Trump want to build another building or casino? Get it? There never is enough money in the world for these guys.

 I have been asked how Ivey would have gotten in contact with someone supplying defective cards to the casino. Did someone contact him? Or did Phil Ivey himself design and orchestrate this huge casino cheat scam? Well, that one I cannot answer; I simply don't know, but the possibilities are endless. The only things I am sure about is that Phil Ivey knew those cards were defective, thus effectively marked, and Crockfords casino personnel did not know this. I am convinced that no one working for the casino was involved. 

Anything that convinces me of Ivey's guilt is that Crockfords simply refused to pay Ivey's winnings, only cashing out his original gambling stake. i mean, the last thing any casino in the world wants, let alone a posh British Londonian gaming club, is to be branded a casino that does not pay its big winners. So they really have to have the goods on Ivey, a hugely popular poker star who will surely have tons of sympathy from the majority of people reading about this story.

 So what will become of all this? It will simply go away. Ivey will either drop his lawsuit, or more probably the UK courts will drop it for him. No way is Ivey getting paid, and I'm pretty certain that Phil Ivey is now a major casino cheat... One more thing: I think I know who his lovely casino-cheating sidekick is; I once worked with her mother if I am right! And as I understand it, she has already been involved in two other incidents where high-rolling winning gamblers were refused payment in London casinos.

Poker Pro Matt Marafioti linked to Online Poker Cheat by Hacking Scam!

With over $2 million in live poker tournament winnings and an impressive online poker resume, Matt Marafioti is widely considered one of the better pro players out there. However, the Canadian’s name has been dragged through the mud over the past couple of days after an alleged Skype conversation between him and another player was leaked on the TwoPlusTwo forums.

The 2p2 thread begins with a posted Skype conversation (sent to poster via email) between Marafioti and a Swedish online poker player named Samar Rahman. This already leads people to jump to conclusions because Rahman has been accused of cheating players such as Patrik Antonius in the past through elaborately-placed computer viruses. But things get worse when the conversation alludes to hacking into other players’ accounts so Marafioti and Rahman can see opponents’ hole cards.

Seeing as how it’s possible to manipulate a Skype conversation before posting it to the internet, it’s tough to verify 100% accuracy in this matter. However, most people in the TwoPlusTwo thread feel Marafioti and Rahman’s conversation about cheating other players follows a realistic flow for an IM conversation.

Perhaps more damning are the character issues here because both Marafioti and Rahman are pretty questionable people. Marafioti has gained quite a bit of attention for his melodramatic twitter posts and incessant cursing while Rahman is rumored to be a skilled computer hacker – as mentioned before.

Of course, none of this is evidence that these two online poker pros definitely conspired to cheat people. However, it is worth mentioning that the TwoPlusTwo thread has been kept up, which means they either feel there is some validity behind the accusations or – at the very least – they believe the topic is worthy of discussion.
  My take: Every since I wrote the book "Dirty Poker" back in '06, I've been reporting and blogging about all the various online poker cheating scandals that I originally predicted in the book. One of the things I did write about back then was hacking accounts to cheat online poker players. This is nothing new, and despite the article's mention that "of course, none of this is evidence that these two online poker pros definitely conspired to cheat people," it's pretty good evidence for me.

Pastposting Cheats Attack Pennsylvania Casinos' Bonus Bets

I have been getting reports that pastposters are managing to pastpost bonus bets on Pennsylvania's blackjack tables, which is a pretty profitable move if you can get it off. Some of these bets pay up to 200 to 1, and casino cheats working the tables have been popping in $5 chips after the winning outcome is determined, netting a cool grand for each move.

I have previously noted casinos' vulnerability to pastposting and other forms of cheating on bonus bets due to the sheer volume of them placed on the tables, especially the Panda and Dragon Bets on the EZ baccarat tables. I saw an epidemic of this type of cheating and confusion in Canadian casinos.

Expect to see more of this in the near future, even if the occasional casino cheating arrests are made.

Hot-looking "Cooler" Specialist Inducted into Poker and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame!

Her name is Ida Summers, and perhaps you've seen her on one of the History Channel's "Breaking Vegas" episodes. Now she's in the poker and casino cheats Hall of Fame.

Most woman casino cheats are used as diversions to get the attention of male pit bosses away from the table layout where the cheat move goes down, but With Ida Summers, who was one hot babe in her day, the male attention could be right on her when she made those cheat moves. Later known as the Vegas Vixen, she was a master at cunning, quickness (at the casino blackjack table, I don't know about in bed) and getting the money off the table. She was one of the early Nevada female pioneer casino cheats.

Her cheat gig was first "hand-mucking" cards at blackjack tables and then later switching in entire "coolers" (blackjack shoes filled with prearranged cards to cheat the house) at those same blackjack tables. Hand mucking is the art of hiding a card (usually by palming) that has been snuck to the table before the play of a hand or taken off the table after it had been put into play by the dealer. Then with a quick sleight-of-hand movement the mucked card is either returned to play or taken off the table by the card-mucker, all in accordance with whether the cheat needs the card in his or her hand or back in the deck.

Ida Summers used all her beauty and talent to pull of these card swithces.
In addition to her good-looks, she was very flirtatious and very socialable, much like fellow Hall of "Famestress" Ruthie Berin. She was also quite petite, five-feet-two and less than a hundred pounds. This petiteness appealed greatly to the macho pit bosses of her day. She played them on her charm as she expertly and effortlessly switched cards in and out of decks.

But Ida took her cheating to the hilt. Uninspired by the ease of hand-mucking cards, she stepped up her craft to switching entire coolers into play. These are also called "cold decks" that are already prearranged to make the involved players at the table winners on as many hands they want. Some losing hands may be placed between the winners just to make the scam look more believable. After all, a player winning every hand, even if it be a beautiful woman, would surely raise suspicions in even the most distracted pit boss.

What made this move so bold was that the original card show on the table had to be physically lifted off the layout while the cooler was slipped into its spot, all in a split second. AND the shoe taken off the table had to be hidden from everyone's view. Ida managed this by placing that original shoe on her lap and then passing it off to a male cohort standing behind her at the first opportune moment. Then she would leave the table herself while other cohorts would begin playing the hands the dealer dealt from the cooler. The idea was that if they were caught, they would never catch Ida with the removed card shoe at the table.

In spite of this, gaming commission officials in Las Vegas, working in conjunction with the FBI, eventually caught Ida and her casino cheat partners, but they must have been very impressed with her skills and looks as well: she received but probation for her trouble.

At the time of her exploits and arrest, Ida Summers was the only known professional female casino cheat, which made her a true legend in casino cheating and underworld lore.

Blackjack Computer King Cheat Inducted into Poker and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame!

"George" Inventor

His name is Keith Taft...Congratulations, Keith!

Keith Taft was a real-life "Inspector Gadget" character, a true genius who spent three decades developing and perfecting electronic devices to cheat US casinos. He began working with casino computers with his son, Marty Taft, back in the late 60s. Today he is believed to be the first casino or poker cheat to develop a computer that captured digital video the way today's microcomputers are processing data filmed in false-shuffle and other baccarat and blackjack cheat scams.

While vacationing in the Bahamas in the 60s, Taft got interested in Edward O. Thorp's famous blackjack card-counting book "Beat the Dealer." In fact, he quickly became obsessed by it. However, he did not make any money counting cards at blackjack using Thorp's plus-minus count system.

Thus he turned his attention to developing computers to beat the blackjack tables. His first and now famous invention was a 5-kilo computer that he called "George." He used it to enter data while counting cards at blackjack, using his toes to enter the data to the prototype computer he had tucked underneath his baggy shirt. He later decided that George was a bit unwieldy and developed a lighter device that he called "David."

Taft had immediate success with David, beating Vegas casinos out of fifty grand in the first two weeks of operation. made $40,000 the first week he used it. After taking some heat in casinos, Taft decided he would do better by selling his minicomputers based on the David prototype for ten or fifteen grand apiece, which included his training of the buyers.

This decision Taft made after being grabbed up in a casino and taken to the back room, where he was interrogated by Nevada Gaming Control Board agents as well as the FBI. But neither law enforcement agency had the slightest idea of what the microcomputer actually was and failed to make any legal connection to casino cheating that they could use in court, therefore Taft was releaed.

Another casino.cheating computer deeloped by Taft´s sons Marty and Keith was called the "belly-telly." This was a small video camera they fitted into their belts and could film the dealer's hole-card at blackjack. The image was then transmitted to their cheating partners sitting in a van at the casino's parking lot. These cohorts would then send a signal back to the cheating blackjack players at the table, identifying the value of the hole card.

Yet another electronic gismo invented by Taft and his sons was the "Thor" computer, which could track the positions of cards in a multiple-deck shuffle. This was the first casino-cheat invention that directly led to today's high-tech video-reader devices that are used in blackjack and baccarat shuffle-tracking scams, which are currently costing casinos worldwide millions, especially in Macau.

In 1986, the Nevada Gaming Commission created a law making it illegal to use any electronic devices whatsoever in gaming casinos, which today is a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison.

A true casino-cheating pioneer, Keith Taft was also inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2004.

Ever Hear of Google Glass? Casinos Surely Have!...

...And they're scared shit of it!

Google Glass Cheat?

With technology rapidly changing on an almost daily basis, casinos have to be aware of new products that might hurt their business. The “eye in the sky” and casino personnel are always on the lookout for certain electronics that could cause a detrimental swing against the house.

Many devices such as digital cameras and mobile camera phones are already banned from certain areas of Vegas casinos in order to avoid card counting or any other type of cheating. Try whipping out your smartphone to snap a pic during a game of craps or roulette and you’ll be instantly warned and/or kicked out of the gaming area very quickly.

The most recent item that may be added to the banned list at casinos in Las Vegas is Google Glass.

Google Glass is the newest invention by Google, and although innovative, it may be banned from the gaming floors of casinos in the state of Nevada according to a recent NBC report. The product itself is a type of eyewear that allows the wearer to do a number of things including take video as well as photos. This could potentially be used to cheat the casino and casino operators are strongly against the new product in their casinos.

NBC spoke with MGM Resorts International and they commented on the new product by stating:

“Picture-taking is frowned upon, and security officers on duty ask individuals not to take pictures for the privacy of others in the casino. This new product is nothing new in terms of a challenge for us, because for so many years, the very tiniest of portable lipstick and pinpoint cameras have been around.”

It is not uncommon for restrictions to be placed on certain forms of technology on the gaming floor, especially when it comes to poker tournament play. Google Glass would most certain fall under these restrictions.

While the new technology has yet to be released to the public as it is still in the testing phase but it is believed the product will be ready later on this year. In the meantime, we will have to wait and see if casinos in Las Vegas (and of course, abroad) decide to put a ban in place for the item.

My take: Well, if it isn't one thing the casinos are paronoid about these days, it's another. I really wouldn't be popping many bricks about Google Glass if I were a casino boss.

Cheating at Poker attack on Mississippi Stud Poker!

Mississippi Stud Poker is being cheated by professional card-marking poker cheat teams in several casinos, mostly on the east cost. The card-markers are marking the cards on the table and using their advantage to decided when to stay in the hands and make the maximum 3-bet wager.

This is nothing surprising to me since all these poker derivative games have always been right for those skilled at cheating at poker games in casinos. The poker cheats take advantage of the lax attitude that casino bosses and supervisors have toward these games. They just never seem to watch the action on the derivative poker tables as intensely as they do the other gaming tables.

My advice for casino staffs is to watch out for players on the Mississippi Stud Poker tables who seeming make foolish decisions to stay or fold hands that end up being right too much of the time. I will have more on this new cheating at poker endemic shortly.

Why Cheating at Poker is Endemic

Cheating at Poker is endemic for a few very simple reasons. First off, it offers the cheats at poker the best opportunity for cheating with the least risk. Since cheating at poker is mostly done through collusion techniques where two or more players secretly trade information at the poker tables and use that information to control pots by forcing opponents to put more money into pots when one of the poker cheats has the best hand. This is done by raising and re-raising pots to draw more money into the pot for the eventual winner.

The second part of the cheating at poker endemic, and by far the most enviable for those who cheat at poker, is cheating at poker online. Since there is virtually no governing body, those who cheat at poker can virtually cheat however they want without any risk at all. This has been well proved by perhaps the most notorious poker cheat ever, Russ Hamilton (the 1994 WSOP main event champion), who engineered the infamous Ultimate Bet online poker scandal through which online poker players around the world lost some $20 million. Hamilton, despite very incriminating evidence against him, has never been charged with any crime and most certainly never will. This is because with the mumble-jumble of insecure online poker governing and regulation, no one knows really who should prosecute what...and where. It's a lot more complicated than when an Italian man kills a Japanese man aboard a Norwegian cruise liner in South African territorial waters.

So for these two principal reasons, cheating at poker will continue to grow much more than cheating at any other gambling entity.