Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke Quit UB.com...No Wonder Why...

Right after Annie Duke ended her association with UB.com, formerly UltimateBet.com, the online poker site on which played out the biggest cheating scandal in history (in both online poker and brick and mortar poker), UB.com has announced that Phil Hellmuth as well will be disassociating himself from the former cheating online poker site.

On the UB.com blog: "Today we are announcing that UB.com and Phil Hellmuth have mutually parted ways. It has been great working with Phil over the last decade and we know we’re with the rest of the poker world when we say that we look forward to Phil's next move on the world poker circuit."

Poker pro Joe Sebok, the UB.com PR man, wrote on his blog about this big double-departure and even suggested that more changes will occur at UB.com.

Sebok's words: "Phil and Annie have been the face of the company for years now, and we thank them for their unbelievable contributions and bid them the utmost in success moving forward. With that said, we look forward to 2011, and I believe it will be the finest year that we have ever had at UB. Speaking of Team UB, while it’s true that two of our members have moved on, don’t think that we aren’t restocking the talent. We’ll be announcing our newest Team UB member next week and I am crazily pumped about it. UB has, and will continue to have, a whole new look and feel for our team and our newest signing exemplifies that, so stay tuned for that announcement next week."

My take: Sebok is simply doing his job "pumping up" the what's-to-be's at UB.com. As for Duke and Hellmuth, they simply decided that being associated with UB.com can never escape the online poker cheating stench of UltimateBet.com and Russ Hamilton, the cheating scam's mastermind, so they cut the cord.

Probably the best for both of them.

Nine Casino Cheats Including Three Dealers Go Down in Milwaukee Casino Bingo Scam!

Source: jsonline.com

Nine people, including three former casino employees, have pleaded guilty in federal court to cheating Potawatomi Bingo and Casino in Milwaukee out of thousands of dollars by rigging the Pick 8 bingo game.

About $160,000 was stolen in 2005 and 2006 through a simple scheme organized by casino employee Deandre Russell, according to court documents.
Russell is facing about two years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines when he is sentenced next year by U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller. The other defendants, who admitted helping Russell in the scheme, face less time because the amount each stole was less than Russell's total take, according to their plea agreements.

After the casino learned of the theft, officials made changes, Potawatomi casino spokesman Ryan Amundson said. "It is important to ensure the integrity of our games," Amundson said. "Immediately following the incident, procedures were put in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening again."

Amundson said he was unable to talk about what the changes were. He also said he could not confirm when Russell worked at the casino. Court documents indicate Russell worked at the casino in 2005 and 2006 on the bingo floor. Two other people who had worked at the casino, Gloria M. Rivas-Santiago and Esmeralda L. Fuentez, pleaded guilty to running a scheme they said they learned from Russell.

Russell's attorney did not return a call for comment.

According to the plea agreement:

Russell devised the scheme to fix the Pick 8 bingo game so his associates would win and split the money with him.

In the Pick 8 game, players would buy a card with carbon paper on the back, write down eight numbers and then drop the carbon paper into a clear locked box, keeping the original card. Players were supposed to put only the carbon copy into the locked box. Bingo balls with numbers would pop from a machine and the numbers would be called. If a player's numbers were in the first 20 called, the player won the jackpot. The winner would produce the original card and employees opened the locked box to look for the carbon match to it. The jackpot started at $10,000 and went up $500 each day there was no winner.

Russell instructed his accomplices to keep a blank card and fill in the numbers as they were called. They announced they had won and hand the card - with carbon still attached - to Russell, who was working near the locked box. Russell would discreetly separate the carbon copy and slip it into the locked box while he and other employees searched for the matching carbon copy.

Once an accomplice took the winnings, he or she would split them with Russell. Russell confessed to the FBI in early 2007. Others confessed earlier this year. A grand jury indicted him and eight others in July.

The other defendants are Johnnie L. Tisley, Jennifer Y. Rawls, Edward D. Conley, Cassandra O. Tenner, Jesse B. Torres and Torlan D. Baldwin.

Lee Jones and Online Poker Cheat Catcher Serge Ravitch Resign From Cake Poker!

Lee Jones

Source: Poker News Daily

In breaking news from the world of online poker, Lee Jones has stepped down as Card Room Manager of Cake Poker, effective immediately. Jones posted in a thread on TwoPlusTwo around 3:00pm ET on Tuesday, “This is a brief announcement to let you know that, as of yesterday, I have resigned my position at Cake Poker and will not be making any further posts here. Their management has made some strategic decisions with which I’m not comfortable.”

Despite departing the site, Jones, who is also a Guest Columnist at Poker News Daily, spoke highly of his former colleagues: “Please direct any questions or concerns to the Cake support staff; they are top-notch people.” Cake Poker is the flagship site of the USA-friendly Cake Poker Network.

Also departing Cake Poker concurrently with Jones is Serge Ravitch, who is known in the online poker world as “adanthar.” Ravitch served as Cake Poker’s Tournament Director and Jones affectionately dubbed him the “Minister of Tournament Arts” in homage to the Harry Potter franchise. Ravitch was one of the figureheads in uncovering the cheating scandal at Absolute Poker.

Ravitch posted in the same TwoPlusTwo thread on Tuesday, “It sincerely pains me to say that, for the same reasons, I am also no longer affiliated with Cake in any way. I wish them the best of luck going forward.” What “strategic decisions” Jones and Ravitch alluded to were not clear at the time of writing. In addition, Cake Poker has not released any statement.

Jones could only tell Poker News Daily on Tuesday afternoon, “I’m just not comfortable with some of the decisions that the Cake management was making.” However, the veteran of the poker world hopes to remain in the industry, explaining to us, “I have a couple of irons in the fire. I certainly have every intention of staying in the poker business, so I’ll have to see what pans out.” Jones formerly brought customer service to new heights while with PokerStars and also worked with the European Poker Tour and CardRunners.

In TwoPlusTwo’s “Cake Poker Feedback Thread,” which is where Jones dropped the bombshell, posters weighed in en masse. The first responder explained, “This isn’t totally unexpected. Best wishes in your future enterprises.” Another poster predicted that Jones and Ravitch would land on their feet: “Lee and ‘adanthar’ are top-notch in my opinion and won’t need luck, but agreed nonetheless.”

According to PokerScout.com, which keeps tabs on online poker room traffic, the Cake Poker Network is the 24th largest worldwide and boasts a seven-day running average of 740 real money ring game players. Its peak traffic passes 1,100 cash game players and the family of sites happily accepts action from the United States.

Besides Cake Poker, other rooms on the Network include the Doyle Brunson-fronted DoylesRoom, Only Poker, Poker4Green, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies’ Power Poker, Red Star Poker, Phil Laak’s Unabomber Poker, and Victory Poker, the latter of which joined in August.

The holidays have not been kind to the Cake Poker Network, which has not eclipsed the 1,300-cash game player mark since December 21st. In the 30 days prior, it passed 1,300 ring game players 14 times.

Pennsylvania Casino Poker Dealer Caught Cheating His Tables at Rivers Casino!

Source: onlinepoker.org

Michael Eisenberg, a poker dealer who formerly worked at Pennsylvania’s Rivers Casino, was recently arrested for stealing poker chips from won pots. Eisenberg, who is just 25 years of age, was promptly fired from his job and is now facing theft charges.

Though there’s no telling how long Eisenberg has been performing his misdeeds, the tipping point came when security cameras at the Rivers Casino clearly showed Eisenberg removing $501 from poker pots at his own table over the course of an evening.

Security at the Rivers Casino became suspicious when Eisenberg’s tips quickly grew from under $200 per day to in excess of $500 per day. Eisenberg’s embezzlement strategy was actually quite simple. Each time a pot was awarded at his table, he would quietly grab a $5 or $1 chip from the pot as he raked in the folded cards. Eisenberg would the drop the chip into his tip jar, located under the table.

Casino security cited Eisenberg’s greed as the reason for his eventual arrest, noting that his sleight of hand work wasn’t nearly as obvious as his sudden increase in average tips per day.

Most casinos prevent this type of behavior by pooling dealer tips together and then awarding them equally to dealers at the end of a shift. In this way, there’s little incentive to steal money from patrons when the money will ultimately be shared with fifteen, twenty or more people at the end of the day anyways. There’s little doubt that the Rivers Casino will be changing its tip distribution policy following this incident. For now, the casino is remaining relatively quiet regarding the incident, likely in hopes of avoiding an excess of negative press.

What do you think? Are cheating poker dealers pervasive enough in the live casino industry to warrant further scrutiny and anti-cheating measures from casino management? As patrons, we can’t do much more than carefully count our chips each time we win a pot.

Best Poker Cheat Story of 2010

Poker Heist Suspects

Well, I'd call it poker cheating in its most devastating form. That's when poker cheats become poker thieves or robbers and just heist the poker jackpot instead of winning it.

That's exactly what happened on March 7, 2010 at a European Poker Tour tournament at the posh Hyatt Hotel in downtown Berlin, Germany. Four men wearing disguises and brandishing guns and machetes stormed into the poker room set up by the Hyatt and helped themselves to nearly $350,000 of what was to be a $1.36 Million first-prize jackpot. I don't know why they didn't get all the money in the jackpot. Maybe it wasn't on the table when they struck.

The German cops, armed with good surveillance video of the poker heist, searched the city for two weeks before one of the poker robbers panicked and gave himself up. The 21-year-old German national told the cops that he and his three cohorts split the money immediately after the heist. He also ratted out their names. This sounds like the German version of the famous/infamous USA Brinks Heist gone-wrong-after-the-succesful-robbery in the 1950s.

The three suspects on the run were identified as 20-year-old Ahmad el-Awayti, 19-year-old Jihad Chetwie, and 20-year-old and Mustafa Ucarkus. Apparently all four of these suspects were German nationals of Turkish and Arabic descent. But judging by the names, could this have been a crime to finance some act of international terrorisim? Given that it occurred in Germany, where the 9/11 attack plans originated, this possibility cannot be overlooked. In any case, the suspects were all caught and the money recovered, so whatever the poker cheat thieves were going to do with their loot is now moot, pardon the pun...or rhyme.

The first suspect told police that he had cased the Hyatt for several days before the robbery and noticed that the hotel guards did not carry weapons, and that it looked like an easy heist to pull off.

American poker pro Kevin MacPhee won the tournament and received all the first-place jackpot money thanks to the Hyatt's insurance coverage. He also told the media that there was a lot of shouting and hysteria during the robbery.

My take: I would just love to see this type of heist go down at the final table of the main event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Wow! Wouldn't that be a nice score!!!

First Casino Dealer Convicted in Tran Organization Baccarat Cheating Scam Case

Nearly thirty people were arrested in what is considered the largest international casino cheating scam in history that went on between 2002 and 2007 and raked in more than $30 Million from dozens of mostly US and Canadian casinos, but everyone involved (including all those with the last name Tran and all the other big-casino-cheat honchos and inside casino employees involved) except for forty-six year-old Mike Waseleski pleaded out and received probation or relatively short prison terms. Waseleski, who compromised his casino, the Ameristar Resorts Casino in East Chicago, Indiana, refused to cop out to being in on the huge baccarat cheating fix and was subsequently convicted yesterday of one count of conspiring to commit various offenses against the US government, whatever that means??? I don't know why taking part in cheatng a casino is conspiring against the US government, but that's what the court records say.

Waseleski, who helped the Tran Organization scam $1.5 Million from Ameristar, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The mastermind of the scam, Phuong Quoc Truong, was sentenced to 6 years in prison earlier this year, so it is hard to imagine that Waseleski, despite his refusal to accept a plea bargain, will get more than a couple of years.

To read more about this huge international baccarat scam, search "Tran Organization Baccarat Scam here.

NBC's "Poker After Dark" is Cheating You With Bullshit Just As Much As GSN's "High Stakes Poker!

The Poker Cheats Cheating You!

NBC's answer to high-stakes poker television, mainly to the Game Show Network's flagship poker show "High Stakes Poker," was "Poker After Dark," which premiered back in 2007. Just Like "High Stakes Poker," "Poker After Dark" is full of shit and cheating you out of your televsion time. The basic premise for "Poker After Dark" is that on each weekly episode the players buy in for $20,000 each and then contend for a winner-takes-all $120,000 first prize. This is all a crock, even though there is a lot less money supposedly changing hands between the players than on "High Stakes Poker."

Evidence: Doyle Brunson has played Ace-Queen against three players on the show. But Brunson, who really is the king of poker cheats, says he refuses to play that same AQ starting hand in real money games not televised. And apparently he does not generally play that hand.

There are also just way too many hands where more money is thrown into the pot pre-flop on bad hands, with several top pros involved at the same time. This kind of action is just not kosher and is practically never seen at the WSOP, nor in its side cash games.

Moreover, there is an all-in move every two episodes and they get called a much higher percentage of the time than in real brick and mortar cash games, solid evidence that this is all full of shit. It seems that there is the pressure for all-in-and-call because of the time constraint of the show. After all, since an episode is approximately forty-five minutes of poker time, there are only around forty-five hands dealt in two episodes comprising ninety minutes. In REAL poker games when money is REALLY exchanged between pro players, these players show lots more discipline and don't just call any all-in bet. Many players can sit hours at a time without calling a single all-in bet.

Doyle Brunson has said that he refuses to play AQ because it "bumps into too many problems." Meanwhile, he plays 10-2 because they were the winning cards on a WSOP final table he won.

PLEASE...gimme a break!

Was $1.5 Million Armed Bellagio Casino Heist Really Worth It?

Actaul surveillance pic of robber

If you haven't heard, a guy wearing a motorcycle helmet and brandishing a hand gun walked into the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas yesterday and robbed a craps table at gunpoint before walking back out the door and hopping on his motorcycle and burning rubber out of Dodge. The only problem is that the $1.5 million or so he stole was not in cash...nor was it in checks or any other negotiable instruments. It was in casino chips. That's right, casino chips. And if you're thinking, "Well, how the hell is the guy gonna cash 'em all out?", you're right, he's got a problem...a BIG problem. And that a fair proportion of these chips were the highest denomination chips on the casino floor and very rarely in players' possession (those being $25,000 chips) makes the problem even BIGGER!

So, how the HELL is this guy gonna cash out those chips?

He's not...that's the answer, especially for any chips above the $1,000 denomination, which, given the fact that all the chips he robbed fit into the sack he carried along with gun, had to be most of them. Whatever $100 and $500 chips he bagged, he will be able to cash out fairly easy in the Bellagio because the casino sees tons of big action and lots of circulation of those denomination chips. For the $1,000 chips he'd best use cohorts to break them down into $500 and $100 chips at craps and other tables (why not the same table he robbed? LOL) and then cash them out at the casino cages.

But $5,000, $10,000 and $25,000 chips? Forget, buddy, they are going to be nothing more than collectors' items, and not the kind that priceless stolen artworks are. No mysterious and secretive collector is gonna pay squat for those big Bellagio humdinger chips. And what's more: after a period of time, probably a few years at the most, the Bellagio, like all casinos cyclically do, will discontinue its current series of casino chips and replace them with a new one with a new design. At that time, exactly 120 days after the chip-changeover, ALL Belagio's chips will be unredeemable.

And forget about cashing them out at other casinos in Vegas. All casinos will be on the lookout for people trying to cash out or exchange Bellagio chips.

So back to the question "Was it worth it?"

Absolutely not! The most this guy and whatever partners he may have had are gonna get out of this heist is probably ten or twenty grand--not much for risking a ten-year prison sentence--at least.

Regular non-violent casino cheating is much more lucrative--believe me!

Anyone Out There Have Any Info on Sam Simon's Huge Online Poker Cheat Scams?

Sam Simon

I came across an article on onlinepokernews.org claiming that Sam Simon, an avid poker player and successful television producer who happens to be one of the original developers of "The Simpsons," has told the site that a certain well-known high-stakes poker player got cheated out of more than $4 million playing online by one or more big-time poker cheats who managed to sneak into the unidentified player's house and install a high-tech digital camera in the ceiling of his study above the computer screen on his desk. Thus they secretly filmed all his hole cards as they appeared on the alleged victim's computer screen and used that huge advantage to fleece him. Simon allegedly said this particular mystery online poker-cheat victim is also a huge brick and mortar poker player in cash games. No details were offered on how the victim found the camera besides his repeatedly losing and losing and maybe becoming suspicious that a camera was actually there.
However, I have heard of no incidents or reports backing up any of these claims, and was wondering if maybe you have. Simon has allegedly also been speaking publicly about other huge online poker scams he's heard of firsthand from cheat victims, mostly collusion scams, which is nothing new to any of us.

My take: Well, if Simon's claims are true and not just a figment of the same fertile imagination that created "The Simpsons," I sure hope that the victim is one of the poker-cheat assholes that cheat us with their acting-jobs  on the Game Show Network's "High Stakes Poker."

Why Was (or is) Poker Called "The Cheating Game"?

Believe it or not, I actually got three emails during the past 10 days asking me this question. If ever there was a self-explanatory response in a question, right?

Well, for those of you who still don't get it, the reason Poker was originally called "The Cheating Game" is because nearly everyone who partook in it cheated. The massive all-around cheating at poker started in the Mississippi riverboat days (1840-1880), but it really took hold in the legendary American era we call "The Old West" (1870-1895). There, anyone who was worth his weigh in anything turned to cheating at poker.

The two preferred forms of cheating were marking cards and hold-out gadgets that allowed poker cheats to switch cards out of the game and stick them in a device rolled up their arm inside their sleave, and then sneak them back in play when they were needed to make a hand. Poker cheating collusion hardly existed back then as each cheat was in it for his own.

My favorite form of Old West American poker cheating was a method poker cheats used to mark cards. Called the "sun-dry marking card" method, it was done exactly as it was called. Poker Cheats would take the aces out of the deck and lay them backs-up flat on a table underneath the hot sun. After several hours of exposure, the backs of the cards would dry out and turn a slightly lighter shade of red or blue. The key was to take them out of the sun at the right time, before the color change would be noticeable to someone sitting in the poker game not in on the cheat.

As for poker being called the cheating game today, I think it still should be. After all, there is widespread cheating going on in poker today and there are certainly much more forms of it, and these are improved forms.

As for online poker, is it called "The Online Cheating Game"?

Well, it certainly should be!

Golden Gate Casino in Las Vegas Says It Has Best Anti-Casino Cheat Surveillance System in Existence!

Well, maybe so, but that doesn't change the fact that hardly anyone worth his cheating weight would bother going into the Golden Gate Casino in the first place. For those of you who don't know the place, the Golden Gate casino is one of the longtime dingy bastions of Fremont Street (excuse me, now it's called the "Fremont Street Experience") that for eighty years now based its reputation on its 50-cent shrimp cup. In fact, despite its recent facelifts it is still...well, if you read the opening paragraph of the first chapter of my book American Roulette, the "downtown grungy casino" I am talking about is really the Golden Gate.

Funny story: In January, 2000, I walked into the place after not having been in there for 20 years. I recognized a floorman who had been there the first time I ever was, and that was five years or so before the last time I had been there, which means that floorman had at that point been working there at least 25 years. When I said to him with amazment, "You're still working here?" he replied, "I'm still working in this toilet." Then he added with a chuckle, "I've worked in a few other toilets in Vegas, but this place is the toiletest." You can bet I cracked up!

Here's the Wavestore.com article on the Golden Gate's new surveillance system, with my little comments in parentheses.

A leading casino (gimme a break!) in Las Vegas has installed a high-definition (HD) security surveillance system to crack down on gambling cheaters. The system in the Golden Gate casino and hotel is able to be monitored and controlled remotely, from anywhere in the world, which the joint-head of the casino says is reassuring.

Golden Gate casino, which is based on Fremont Street, was established in 1906, making it one of the most historic casinos in Las Vegas. Greg Stevens, the co-owner of casino, says the CCTV system will help the establishment watch out for cheating and - through the use of video analytics - will be able to spot former cheats (even me!). "The clarity and detail that the HD cameras will deliver will transform our surveillance operation. (for what)? The use of HD cameras … for crisp face shots will also enhance the use of facial recognition software and make it much more viable to thwart known cheats."

Made In China...Online Poker Bots, Brick and Mortar Roulette Computers and Poker and Casino Cheat Paraphernalia

Everyone knows the sticker, tag or imprint "Made in China", right? I mean, it started with clothes, cheap disposable and hard goods, then progressed to sneakers and better quality electronic equipment, and now it has grown to full-fledged poker bot cheating software and brick and mortar roulette computers and sensors. This should not surprise anyone as the Chinese have always been able to undercut everyone else's prices for the manufacture of just about everything. We are now seeing a huge increase in the numbers of poker bot cheat software being written by Chinese programmers in China (and Chinese living elsewhere in the world) as well as roulette computers that are now starting to overtake the UK manufacturers of this type of casino cheat equipment.

So, what about the quality of poker cheat equipment and software coming out of China? Is it inferior like much of the Chinese goods that are distributed worldwide? The answer to this question is yes and no. Yes for hard roulette computer equipment and no for online poker bot programs. The reason for this "no" is obvious since there is no factory and no workers involved in the production of computer bot software. But such is not the case in the manufacture of casino roulette computers that are being produced just like other hard goods out of China--in factories, be it large or small.

So if you're an online poker cheat who can get a good deal on a poker bot, absolutely take it! If you're a brick and mortar casino cheat looking to cheat your way with a roulette computer--avoid the Chinese roulette computers like the plague!!!

The Biggest Poker Scam of All-Time...Does the TV Show "High Stakes Poker" Insult Your Intelligence?...It Should!

Do these clowns look like they´re really gambling?

This is because the Game Show Network's (GSN) flagship show "High Stakes Poker" is the biggest poker cheating scam in the history of poker. It FAR outdoes the infamous UltimateBet online poker cheating Scandal engineered by ex-WSOP Main-Event Champion Russ Hamilton.

Why am I saying this?

Well, I'm gonna keep this short-winded. The entire show is full of shit. There is no REAL money changing hands in spite of the mountains of $5,000 packets of genuine $100 bills you constantly see on the table. Negreanu, Hellmuth, Farha, Gold and all the rest of those jerkoffs on the "set" (remember, that's what it is, a TV set, not a real poker game) are paid handsomely for their ongoing skit and benefit even more for all this free publicity. The GSN network benefits as well as it reaps huge advertising revenue from the super-high rated show.

If you believe that "High Stakes Poker" has a single iota of integrity, you are a bigger jerkoff than Negreanu and the rest of that crew!

Read my Flush Magazine article on the "High Stakes Poker" show here.

So, What's Up With All the Hoopla Over the Poker Cheating on ABC's "No Ordinary Family" TV Show?

I will keep this post short, simply--and nasty!

"No Ordinary Family" is a new American television series starring Christina Chang and Tate Donovan that airs on ABC. It is a one-hour sci-fi comedy-drama that until its last episode, "No Ordinary Anniversary," had nothing to do with poker cheating. Now that poker cheating scenes have made it to the episode, everyone and his or her grandmother want to know what I think of the realness of these poker cheat scenes.

My response--simple, short and nasty--is that just like the show itself, its poker scenes are nothing more than sci-fi and comedy. I certainly cannot take any of the drama seriously. The poker cheating scenarios are all bullshit and not worth mention on this blog--so please excuse me for having done so!

One of World's Greatest Roulette Mechanics and Scion of Legendary Italian Casino-Cheating Family Inducted into Poker Cheats and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame!

Fabrizio Renzi was born with casino cheating in his blood--literally! His father, Armando Renzi, was a casino cheat, and so was his grandfather, Vittorio Renzi--and so were a dozen uncles and aunts. Getting the picture? Fabrizio Renzi came from a long line of casino cheats whose specialty was, and still is, roulette pastposting.

Fabrizio was born in 1949 in Palermo, Italy. As is customary in Italian familes living on the island of Sicily, the son followed in the father's and grandfather's footsteps. Veterans on the European casino-cheating turf, especially that of Monaco and throughout France, Armando and Vittorio taught young Fabrizio in the roulette-wheel trenches. You might say he learned with an iron hand--and he learned well. Before too long he became both a proficient wheel mechanic and claimer. He was also a charmer, probably the most charming casino cheat of all time. In fact, he was so charming that he used these abilities to seduce heterosexual male casino bosses into paying his pastposts without suspicion.

Unlike his father and grandfather, Fabrizio was very cultured and well-spoken--in several languages. After learning the bread and butter move of the family's casino-cheating arsenal, the roulette slide, Fabrizio perfected it at about the same time he took over the Renzi pastposting team upon Armando's retirement. That roulette move is considered the second greatest chip-manipulation casino move after Richard Marcus's heralded Savannah move. The roulette slide was developed by Vittorio in the 1950s, improved substantially by Armando in the 60s and taken to the hilt and internationalized by Fabrizio in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It is still being done by Fabrizio's son, Luigi, who we might one day see in the Casino Cheats Hall of Fame as well.

The beauty of the roulette slide move was that it allowed longtime exposure at roulette tables without taking heat. It was that ultimate rare move that could be done time and again on the same roulette table, often amassing a dozen or more payoffs there before the Italian cheat team moved on--often to another table inside the same casino. When Richard Marcus ran into Fabrizio's team in 1977 at Harrah's Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, he saw their move but could not quite figure it out at first glance. Nor could he figure it out at second, third, fourth or fifth glance. It actually took Marcus 15 years of intermittent spying on the Renzi cheat team to figure out exactly what the slide move was. When he did, he was impressed more by this move than any other move he had ever seen or heard about. Over the years he would run into Fabrizio and his team and spy on them whenever he could. He marvelled at their slide move each time he saw it. When the two teams were aware of each other's presence in the same casino location, they would draw up a truce, dividing up that area's casinos: "these for the Renzi team, those for the Marcus/Classon team."

Fabrizio Renzi retired in 2002, leaving the "family business" to his son Luigi. What his legacy in the casino-cheating world is most recognized for is the carrying out of a move that literally withstands the passage of time. Despite modern casinos' state of the art surveillance systems equipped with digital cameras and highly developed software technology, Fabrizio Renzi proved (and his son Luigi still proves) that the hand is always quicker than the eye--and the camera.

No matter how much surveillance technology improves in the coming decades, it will never stop the Renzi's famed move from cheating the world's casinos out of millions.

Hollywood Movie Star Inducted into Casino and Poker Cheats Hall of Fame!

Ruthie Berin is the fifth woman inducted into the Poker Cheats and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame. She is also the first Hollywood actress to receive the honor. In fact, had she not been a casino cheat, she would never have become a Hollywood Actress, as you will soon read.

Ruthie was born in Texas in 1943. She grew into a wholesome Texan beauty who gave up working on her family's farm at seventeen to become a model and dancer. In 1964 she moved out to Las Vegas and joined the Lido extravaganza at the Stardust Hotel and Casino. She quickly became one of the show's best dancers and main attractions. One night after the show she met Hall of Fame Casino Cheat Joe Classon at a Strip saloon. She was intrigued by Classon's strong personality and good looks and accepted a date with him. When she found out that Joe had his own Strip extravaganza, mainly scooting in and around casinos and then out with loads of pilfered cash, Ruthie quickly advised Joe that she might be able to pirouette around casinos and come out with the cash as well.

Joe loved the idea of having a beautiful and charismatic woman claiming casino cheat moves, especially at roulette tables where most women gamblers spent their time and money inside casinos. He knew that Ruthie would be able to charm the pants of pit bosses who would all be willing to pay her claims on pastposted roulette bets. As Vegas casinos in the 60s were completely dominated by male bosses with big egos, Ruthie would slither up to them in the pits doing a Marilyn Monroe swirling-dress number each time she noticed their hesitation to authorize the dealers to pay her claims. She would whisper into their ears with her hot breath, practically promising sex to the enraptured bosses when her evening of gambling was done. Of course they paid her nearly every time and of course she never delivered the sex. She just blew them kisses as she danced around roulette pits collecting $3,500 and $7,000 payoffs.

Ruthie became so enamored of her "new" Vegas dance show that she quit the Lido at the Stardust. Besides, she was making more money claiming Joe's pastposts. She was so good that Joe brought her to the craps tables, where women usually stayed on the arms of high rollers, and had her claim craps moves. The stickmen and boxmen on the craps tables couldn't get enough of her. She was admired by casino personnel much the way Sharon Stone's hustling character was in the film "Casino."

And "film" was her ultimate destiny, much to the chagrin of Joe Classon. New Year's Eve, 1967 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas marked the beginning of Ruthie's acting career. Joe Classon had just pastposted two $100 chips on number 13 after the ball on the spinning roulette wheel dropped into that corresponding number slot. Ruthie, ravishing as usual, decked-out in her revealing cocktail dress, danced and sang her way to the $7,000 payoff. The pit boss who authorized the payoff surely thought he was gonna start the new year off with a "bang" after Ruthie hugged and kissed him, and even rubbed his sex organ.

Unbeknownst to Ruthie and Joe, a successful Hollywood movie producer was sitting at that roulette table when the move and claim went down. He happened to be an experienced gambler as well, and he saw Joe pop in the move and understood immediately that Ruthie was his partner "acting out" the claim. The producer was quite taken aback by her performance and said to her, "Where have you been all my life?" He gave her his business card and told her to call him the following morning in Hollywood. She did, and that very afternoon flew to L.A. and had lunch with him. That evening, she called Joe back in Vegas and told him both their relationship and her casino-cheating career were over.

13 really proved to be Joe Classon's unlucky number.

Ruthie went on to become an internationally-known movie actress in the 1970s, although she was never quite a top star. Of course "Ruthie Berin" is not her Hollywood name and of course you want to know exactly who she really is. Sorry, but that information cannot be given out for reasons of potential libel lawsuits--unless Ruthie one day gives permission to make her pre-Hollywood career known.

Richard Marcus Casino Game Protection Training Seminars and Workshops Now Available

Attention Casino Executives:

If you want the typical game protection consultant, DO NOT hire Richard Marcus. He DOES NOT give you the tired Power Point presentation accompanied by surveillance footage you have already seen. He DOES really train you and your staff how to catch cheats, advantage players and dishonest employees as well as show you how to keep them out of your casino. If that interests you, then HIRE Richard Marcus.

He is the REAL DEAL...not one of the numerous magicians and card-tricksters out there calling themselves game protection consultants. They are phonies. Richard Marcus has DONE and SEEN it all. Remember, casino cheating has absolutely nothing to do with magic or sleight of hand. These people show you a few card and dice tricks to convince you they are experts at cheating. The truth is they wouldn't know a casino cheat if they tripped over one.

Read more about Richard's Casino Game Protection Training Courses and Seminars here.

LockPoker Adds SharkScope Player Stats in Enhanced anti-Online Poker Cheating Application

The online poker site LockPoker.com, which is a part of the Merge Poker Network, is scheduled to launch its new Player Dashboard that is now featuring SharkScope’s very well-received advanced player stats, which is intergrated directly into the client. LockPoker CEO Jennifer Larson states that you as the player can "view your own stats, search for your opponents stats, shop at the Lock store, and much more all within the same secure application. Lock is the first and only Poker room to develop a unified tool like this. One of our mandates as a company is to provide a superior online poker experience. We are determined to take this industry by storm and innovate in every possible way we can. The player comes first at Lock and that will always drive our business development."

This sounds to me like a significant move in the online poker industry's continuing battle against online poker cheats, which has intensified over the past few months, which have seen concentrated bot and collusion rings operating out of China and Korea.

LockPoker began its anti-online poker-cheat war when it hired successful professional poker player Eric "Rizen" Lynch as its vice president of product development. Now by incorporating SharkScope, LockPoker.com has really sent in the reinforcements to the online poker-cheating battlefield.

Online Poker Cheating Problems For Rival Gaming

Source: Casino Scam Report

Rival Gaming was once lavished with words of praise like innovative, best new slots, casino games of the future and these are just a few select praise I found. But these days Rival Gaming’s casinos and games are described as “cheaters, thieves, liars, boring, worst games available and much more. So what happened to this once sought after casinos? Sometimes too much of a good thing can kill you and that’s what’s happening to Rival casinos and their once highly popular and recommended casino games.

All you have to do is visit a player’s forum and read the remarks coming out of gamblers about numerous different Rival Casinos to see that there are huge problems and no answers coming from Rival representatives. One complaint that was just posted this past week is about a player from Slots of Fortune. This player took their welcoming bonus and its 50 times play through and actually won enough to cash out over $1000. He was then informed that he would not get paid his cash out and they were returning his deposit with charges that he cheated and played the bonus wrong. They said that his betting techniques were cheating because he bet high until he won, and then bet low until he met the wager requirements. Can you believe this? Not only are they trying to tell the player HOW they can bet, but also they are trying to dictate when he can raise or lower his bets on a slot machine? Besides this absurd event, there have been other issues with many Rival casinos including, “missing symbols on slot games, non payment of progressive jackpots and so many other issues it’s safe to say that we highly recommend staying away from any unethical Rival casino. The ONLY Rival casino we recommend is Sloto’Cash. They have been outstanding in the online gaming community when all their Rival competitors have fallen short.

Well-Known Professional Poker Player's Wife Inducted into Casino and Poker Cheats Hall of Fame!

Debbie's husband David "Rabbi" Danheiser

Deborah "Debbie" Heidekrueger is the fourth woman inducted into the Poker and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame. The longtime wife of professional tournament poker player David "Rabbi" Danheiser, Debbie was born in Chicago in 1951 and moved out to Las Vegas, Nevada in the late 1980s after having been found guilty of a financial crime by an Illinois court. As a recent arrival to Sin City, Heidekrueger did not waste much time learning the trade of cheating at gambling. She began as a poker cheat working collusion teams on Vegas's and Reno's poker tables before taking her act to the Caribbean and finally Atlantic City when the New Jersey gambling town legalized casino poker in the early 90s.

Heidekrueger seemed destined to remain a lifelong poker cheat but then in 1992 she met Mark "Balls" Abramowitz during a poker collusion cheat trip in Aruba. Abramowitz, also a Cheating Hall of Fame inductee, was at the island resort working the blackjack and craps tables. He also played poker on the square whenever he took breaks from cheating the casinos. It was in one of these cash games that he caught on to Heidekrueger's collusion team working the game he was playing in. Balls found the heavyset blond woman interesting and decided to approach her.

The two quickly formed an amicable relationship, and Balls even more quickly suggested to Heidekrueger that she join his own cheat team as a claimer. His reasoning was in direct contrast to the usual beautiful female casino cheat who could play on male casino bosses' egos to get the money off the tables. He figured, Who would ever suspect a very large woman to be a casino cheat?

He was right! After instilling confidence in a very shaky Heidekrueger, he managed to get her to claim some roulette pastposts he put in on the wheels. But this did not come easy. In one particular scenario with a black $100 chip successfully pastposted straight-up on a number waiting for a $3,500 payoff, Debbie froze up on the claim. An enterprizing guy wearing a ball cap who had absolutely nothing to do with the move took advantage when a pit boss came over to the roulette wheel and asked whose $100 chip was sitting on the winning number. The casino ended up paying the guy the $3,500 that Heidekrueger whould have been paid had she opened up her mouth.

But Balls did not give up on her. After a year of her successful roulette claiming he decided it was time to teach her the blackjack ten-oh-five move. Although she did not have the smooth buttery fingers and hands that most casino-cheat mechanics have, she managed to learn the basics of the move--and then developed the balls to lay it in and claim it all by herself. Her first successful lay and claim of a blackjack pastpost took place at the Tropicana casino in Las Vegas in 1993. From there it was smooth sailing for the large female pastposter. She really took off when the new MGM Grand opened in Vegas in early 1993. During several championship boxing matches staged there, including those featuring George Foreman, Heidekrueger TKO'd the tables, perforing more than a hundred ten-oh-fives and fifty two-thousand-twenty-fives (yellow $1,000 chips switched in for green $25 chips) at the MGM Grand alone. She hit other Strip casinos in Vegas and then Balls took her on the road to Atlantic City, the Caribbean and Europe. Heidekrueger became the most successful female blackjack mechanic in history, substituting matronly charm for a lack of sex appeal to workover the pit bosses who just loved paying her pastposts.

But then she got greedy. During the Memorial Day weekend of 1993, Heidekrueger went to Lake Tahoe by herself to bail out her husband who owed a lot of money from poker loans. Despite her skills on the blackjack tables, Debbie did not have enough experience and overall casino knowledge to protect her own ass while cheating casinos. She got busted at Caesars Tahoe doing a blackjack move and ended up spending six months in the Douglas County jail. She gave up casino cheating for six years but then returned to it when Balls showed her the famed Savannah move that he'd learned from Hall of Fame casino cheat Richard Marcus. Ironically, Debbie got caught doing the Savannah at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and got taken to the security back room. However, she did not get arrested due to a lack of evidence. After that incident, Heidekrueger recruited several inexperienced casino people, mostly women and ex-dealers, whom she tried to teach the Savannah. After having limited success with her associates, Heidekrueger retired from casino cheating in the year 2000. Currently she sweats the poker action of her husband David "Rabbi" Danheiser.

Bet365 Poker Reaches Top of RMB.com Online Poker Room Safety Rankings List / Italian International Roulette Cheats Walk With Slap on the Wrist!

For the first time since the inception of RMB.com online poker safety ratings, Bet365 Poker has hit the # 1 rank and is now considered the safest online poker room on the Internet. Congratulations to them and continued success keeping the cheating down to a minimum.

Big-time Italian cheats Baioni and Camilleri  

As I had expected, 61 year-old Frank Camilleri and 64 year-old Francesco Baioni, the two longtime professional roulette pastposting cheats from Italy, have received no jail time after pleading guilty in court to various casino cheating offenses on roulette tables throughout the UK. What I failed to mention in my previous article about the Italian casino-cheat pair is that they have already done prison time in the US for cheating at roulette in American casinos, though I don't have details on these events.

This light jail sentence goes to show the UK's continued leniency in dealing with convicted casino cheats. Obviously British courts hold casino gambling with disdain and are unwilling to severely punish casino cheats caught at the tables. So I guess if you're a casino cheat, the UK is a great place to work if you can get your moves down. Had this Italian cheating pair been found guilty in the US, they might have been sentenced to as much as ten years in prison, where they might have had to resort to cheating in one of Nevada's prison casinos. See post about prison casinos below.

Tale of True Organized Nevada Prison Casino...Do You Think Any Cheating Went On?...LOL!

Jail House Craps Table in Action

Source: Las Vegas Review Journal

Before receiving a gaming license, an applicant must undergo a thorough investigation by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. They routinely are rejected if they have a criminal history or have associated with unsavory characters. So then, how did inmates -- every one of them a convicted criminal -- at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City operate their own casino for 35 years?

Yep, blackjack, craps, poker, gin rummy, even sports betting were available as recreational activities for the inmates at the state's maximum security prisons between 1932 and 1967.

Inmates operated the "Bullpen," a stone building converted into a casino, on the grounds of the 140-year-old state prison in Carson City. Sometimes the local Kiwanis Club and state agency heads even stopped by the prison casino to drop a few coins. For most of those years, the Nevada State Prison was the state's only prison, even housing death row.

Former Mustang Ranch owner Joe Conforte, now a fugitive living in Brazil, even ran some of the games when he was a prison inmate there in 1962.

"It was a different time," said Dennis Neilander, chairman of the Gaming Control Board. "They thought it would keep them out of trouble. It wouldn't happen today." Neilander said that before 1959, gaming control largely fell on county sheriffs. Nevada also had a long history of tolerating gambling even before it became the first state to legaIize gaming in 1931.

Inmates will gamble, regardless of whether it is legal or illegal, and prison gambling did keep them out of trouble, said Carl Osborne, a Las Vegas bus driver who has accumulated a collection of Nevada State Prison tokens, called "brass" by the inmates.

"I think the games would have been more than honest, because cheating inmates would be scared of the consequences," Osborne said. "If someone got caught cheating, they might have to be transferred out of state for their own safety. You wouldn't have been very safe there."

Jail House Casino Tokens

Obsorne, 61, served a short stretch in the Nevada State Prison in the early 1990s and got to know some of the older inmates. Even during his time in prison, sports betting was rampant. Buying prison tokens has become something of a challenge for Osborne. They are becoming increasingly rare. Occasionally they appear for sale on eBay. His winning bids typically are in the $200 range for a single token.

When Warden Carl Hocker -- a transplant from the California prison system -- closed down the casino in April 1967, he also quickly sold off the brass, which came in denominations of 5, 10, 25 and 50 cents, $1 and $5. "I think gambling in prison is a degradation, and it's certainly not constructive," Hocker said, according to newspaper accounts. "We're trying to replace it with constructive, wholesome activities that will contribute to a decent, healthful state of mind." Hocker's idea of wholesome activities were handicrafts, bridge, chess, pingpong, volleyball, shuffleboard and making bead necklaces.

But Howard Herz, a Gardnerville resident who is the state's foremost expert on gaming tokens, has written about the prison casino and found perhaps the real reason for the casino closure. There had been a riot at the prison early in 1967, and several legislators had introduced a bill to close down the casino. Hocker was a veteran of San Quentin and a no-nonsense guy when it came to discipline. Herz also pointed out the Bullpen wasn't an illegal casino, but one sanctioned by the state prison. The backgrounds of all gamblers had been checked. "All of the gamblers had their fingerprints on file, and security was excellent," Herz wrote in Casino Chip and Token News in 2006.

The casino closure bill wasn't needed once Hocker took pre-emptive action and bulldozed the Bullpen.

State Archivist Jeff Kintop said surprisingly little was written in newspapers about the prison casino up to the time it was closed. He said the thinking of most wardens was gaming would keep inmates out of trouble.

"I guess gambling is one of those necessary evils," Warden Jack Fogliani said when he came to the prison in the 1960s.

The thinking of legislators, according to Assemblyman Howard McKissick, R-Reno, was that gambling prevented "homosexual problems." Frank Johnson, a Nevada State Journal columnist, contended in a funny January 1960 column that it was common for reporters somewhere around the country every few months to discover the prison casino and write how awful that was. "It has been months since the press has been around to expose my gambling den," Warden Art Bernard said in Johnson's column. "I am getting lonely." Bernard, it seems, was called on regularly to justify the prison casino.
He told one reporter in 1957 that it was impossible to prevent gambling by convicts and that the prison casino was supervised by prison guards. "These guys are experts," Bernard said about the inmates who ran games. "You can be sure they allow no cheating whatever."

Profits went to the inmate welfare fund.

Herz said each inmate who operated a game needed to have enough money to bankroll the game and receive the warden's approval. He also had to pay a fee of $25 to $75 per game every six months. "That was a lot of money back then," Herz said. "Any inmate that had money could play. They invited guests to come in and play."

Under Conforte, horse racing was added to the list of prison casino games. Sports betting was expanded to include all collegiate events. That all would end when Gov. Paul Laxalt brought in Hocker as warden. The old state prison itself could end up like the Bullpen in 2011. Gov. Jim Gibbons tried to close it twice in the last two years, only to be rebuffed by the Legislature and the Board of Prison Commissioners.

Gibbons contended closing the 703-inmate medium security prison would save money, although correctional officers challenged his estimates and contended there is no safer prison in Nevada. Under Gibbons' plan, correctional officers would be transferred to other prisons, as would inmates. With the state facing a $1 billion to $3 billion revenue deficit, closing the prison likely will be on the agenda for the next Legislature.

Osborne is a history buff. He thinks it was a mistake to close the prison casino. He also realizes that not many Nevadans are around today who remember the era of legal gaming in the state prison. "Virtually no one realizes we had a casino in our prison," he said. "But it is in our history. It shouldn't be forgotten."

Descendants of Infamous Italian Roulette Pastposting Team Facing Various Casino Cheat Charges in UK!

I have stated that the best casino cheat move I have ever seen (besides my own Savannah, of course) is the roulette pastpost slide that was done by at least two generations of Italian casino cheat families. If you don't know, after Americans, Italians make up the largest population of organized casino cheats in the world. Whether or not this has anything to do with Mafia heritage, I don't know, although some Italian casino cheat organizations have been linked to Italian organized crime.

Two Italian casino cheats facing trial in the UK are descendants of one of these families, though I must point out that they have never had anything to do with the main Italian roulette cheat teams I knew back in the 70s and 80s. They are clearly not that good. If they were, they wouldn't be facing all these casino cheat charges in London.

As it is, the two, Frank Camilleri, sixty-one, and Francesco Baioni, sixty-four, both with UK addresses, have pled guilty to 20 casino cheat charges including possessing fake ID documents to enter UK casinos they were already barred from. In addition to this, they have admitted to roulette pastposting crimes dating back over two decades. Investigators believe the pair have worked casinos all over the world. Their method is to place late wagers in roulette after the ball lands in a number slot, though I do not believe they were using the famed slide technique.

My take: I never thought I'd hear about anyone related to the great Italian roulette cheat teams of yesteryear getting sentenced for any casino crimes, but times do change, and obviously these two guys were mere knockoffs of their familial predecessors.

They will probably get off with slight jail time or suspended sentences as the UK justice system is not harsh with casino cheats.

2010 Thanksgiving Casino Cheat Turkey of the Year Awards!

Now that it's Thanksgiving, it's time for my annual Casino/Poker Cheating Turkey of the Year. In order to qualify, candidates must satisfy three main concerns:

1) Had to get caught (Obviously!) and prosecuted
2) His or her scam had to be either stupid or poorly conceptualized
3) The person had to have not only embarrassed himself but also others

2010 CHEATING TURKEY OF THE YEAR AWARDS!

THIRD PLACE: Goes to B.M, an American surveillance executive who botched up a simple casino cheating move during one of my game protection seminars. I spent several hours preparing B.M. to do this blackjack ten-oh-five on a blackjack table in front of his surveillance staff (unbeknownst to them), but he fowled (pardon the turkey pun!) it all up and actually got caught by one of his own surveillance staff. The use of his initials is to protect him from further embarrassment.

SECOND PLACE: Goes to Jonathan Sanner, Jason Peterson, Thomas R. Kordick and Scott Marshall, all ex-supervisors at the Planet Hollywood Casino in Las Vegas who ran a phony poker jackpot scam and collected the winnings themselves. They netted a mere $2,100, and for that lost their jobs, face possible prison time and embarrassed themselves and their casino fellow workers. TURKEY SHAME on them!

THE WINNER is Walter Bansley IV of New Haven, Connecticut, a scion of an old and well-to-do family of lawyers and judges. Bansley IV, who despite the regalness of the Roman numeral IV after his name is the first known casino cheat having a Roman numeral greater than III, was caught pinching (snatching a losing bet off the layout) a lousy $10 bet of a craps layout...that after having already been ahead more than four grand at the MGM Grand casino at Foxwoods. Now THAT is REALLY embarrassing, not only to himself but to his entire well-respected family!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

And Don't Cheat the Turkey!!

Foxwoods Latest Baccarat Cheat Scam Fallout Widens Across America's Major Casino Areas!

The two baccarat-cheat Koreans arrested a few days ago at the MGM Grand Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut are now believed to be tied to a major international baccarat-cheating ring similar to the infamous Vietnamese Tran Organization, which set the casino-cheat world ablaze for the five years 2003-2007.

Yesterday they were arraigned on various casino-cheat charges in New London, not far from Connecticut's Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos, the latter of which was also victimized by the baccarat scam using electronic devices. A total of four Korean casino-cheat suspects were arraigned.

State of Connecticut prosecutor Peter McShane said the suspects in the baccarat cheating scam defrauded Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos out of nearly $1 million. He identified 60 year-old Young Su Gy as the mastermind of the baccarat cheat operation. Thirty-four year-old Wookyung Kim is pegged as Gy's right hand man.

Judge Kevin McMahon used a Korean interpreter by phone in his courtroom. He indicated that the Korean cheat group is suspected of baccarat cheating crimes in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, the Caribbean and even Europe.

Fifty-five year-old Korean Ingyu Park and sixty-three year-old Korean Sun Jang were also arraigned in the case and are being held on $500,000 felony warrant bonds out of New Jersey, both for casino crimes. They are accused of cheating heavily at the mini-baccarat tables in Atlantic City's Bally's casino, a haven for high-rolling Korean baccarat players.

My take: Well, there is one notable difference between the Vietnamese Tran Organization baccarat-cheating syndicate and this Korean one--at least the Korean baccarat cheats don't all have the same last name!!! LOL

Which is the Best Shift for Poker Cheats and Casino Cheats to Work Brick and Mortar Casinos and Poker Rooms?

You might simply assume that the best shift to cheat live casinos is the swing shift because that's simply the busiest shift for casinos. While that is indeed true it doesn't always mean that professional casino cheat teams prefer to work the swing shift as a priority. Although it is usually best for cheat teams to work busy casinos simply to blend in better and camouflage their cheat moves, sometimes the busy casinos prove burdensome for organized cheat teams, especially when they consist of three or four members working to do the moves. They may find it nearly impossible to secure their places at the tables. This is especially true of roulette wheels where three or four cheats are needed to work well-orchestrated moves. Other slower times such as the graveyard shift offer cheat teams a more relaxed atmosphere where pit personnel and dealers are friendlier and less on-guard for cheating. When moves are very strong and don't require more than one or two team members to pull them off, the graveyard can be the ideal shift.

So really there is no specified "best time" to cheat casinos if you are a good cheat working alone or with a team. It depends on many factors including move-difficulty and room required at the target table. If you are not such a good cheat it is probably better to work the crowded casinos in as much as you can disappear quickly into the throng if you have a problem and need to get away from the pit personnel's view.

One negative about empty casinos for ALL cheats regardless of number and skill: If you have to get the hell out of "Dodge" on the quick and bolt across the casino, you are going to stick out like a sore thumb and have a heck of a time getting away!

Phil Hellmuth to Sever Relationship With UB.com To Get Away From Poker Cheating Brand!

Apparently Phil Hellmuth, one of the most recognized poker pros in the world who has been affiliated with UB.com (ex-UltimateBet.com) for some time now and been wearing the UB garb and ball cap at every poker event he plays in, is about to announce that he will end his relationship with the giant online poker company most known for the world's biggest online gambling scam. Hellmuth has not announced any immediate plans what he might do immediately afterward, but industry insiders expect that he will be involved in the launching of a new major online poker room (cheat free of course!) that will pay him a large percentage of the profits without any capital investment from Hellmuth--a very sweet deal indeed.

My take: Hellmuth has always been as phony as they come, especially in his dramatics involving his staged confrontations with fellow poker pro Mike Matusow. The bottom line is that even though it does Hellmuth good to separate himself from UB and its cheat-plagued reputation, he is only doing this to make more money elsewhere.

And he will.

PokerStars Gets Tough on Online Poker Players in China Because of Cheating Scandal!

Source: Part Time Poker

If you play online poker from China, game selection just got a bit tougher on PokerStars. That’s the result of a new rule on Stars, rolled out sometime this week with understandably little fanfare, that limits the amount of players from China that can be simultaneously seated at any given ring game table to one.

There’s been a similar rule in place for many SNG tournaments since late August, as a result of a massive collusion ring that Stars unearthed involving Chinese players and Double-or-Nothing (DON) Sit and Gos.

PokerStars paid out a reported $2.1 million in compensation to those players impacted by the collusion. What’s different this time? Well, the order of events. There’s yet to be a massive collusion ring reported at cash tables on Stars, but Chinese players are subject to an identical restriction on ring (cash) games as they face in the DONs.

That’s led more than a few people to wonder if this is simply a proactive move by PokerStars, or if it’s a response to another, as-yet-unreported, collusion ring identified by the world’s largest real-money poker room.
There’s no evidence yet to suggest that the latter is the case. Stars has a long history of issuing refunds to players impacted by cheating, and the uncovering of a massive cheating ring would almost certainly be quickly followed by a string of refunds that would definitely hit the radar on major poker forums like 2+2.

My Take: Well, China is a big place...and there's always gonna be lots of room for online poker cheats!

2010 World Series of Poker is Over...So, Was There Any Cheating Going on?

Now that the 2010 WSOP final table has played out with Canadian Jonathan Duhamel taking home the whopping $8.9 million and gold bracelet, I am required to make my 2010 World Series of Poker Final Cheating report.

Well, believe it or not, I don't have many cheating incidents to report on. Besides the usual chip dumping and slow playing by the professional poker tournament syndicates, there isn't much to say about cheating at this year's tournament.

As far as the championship event goes, I always point out beforehand the dangers of the four-month interim between the determination of the nine players at the final table and the play of that final table. There is always the possibility, or I should say probability of deal-making, which is a form of collusion, which is a form of cheating. I can't say for sure who made what deals, but I would bet that some major ones were made between July and November.

As far as that incredible hand between Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and Matt Jarvis where a full house made on the turn was beat by a higher full house made on the river, it was legitimate. No way did the dealer or anyone else maneuver the cards to effect that amazing outcome.

So overall it was a pretty honest 2010 World Series of Poker. In fact, the dominant cheating news during the play of the final table came from the European Partouche Poker Tour event where big-time poker cheat Ali Tekintamgac used phony bloggers and media reporters to flash him signals of opponents' hole cards.

Obviously, he got caught!

Negreanu's sunglasses-wearing PokerStars TV Commercial Confirmed!

Since I posted the entry about the alleged TV commercial of Daniel Negreanu, the anti-sunglasses cheat famed poker pro, possibly wearing sunglasses at the poker table, I have received emails from several people telling me they saw the commercial and that Negreanu was indeed wearing sunglasses.

Well, that's good enough for me.

It was the typical super-hype online poker commercial for PokerStars with the hot babe and the suspenseful poker hand, and of course the "dot-net" instead of the "dot-com" to intice players to the real-money games via the so-called free games.

All this goes to show that Negreanu is a super piece of crap, sunglasses or no sunglasses, and that he'd sell his sole to the online poker devil for a few hundred thousand more...not to mention (AGAIN!) his main-star status on the GSN "High Stakes Poker" show, during which, by the way, his sunglasses commercial appears.

For those of you who don't know, "High Stakes Poker" is completely full of shit. No one wins or loses a dime on the show. It's all a big show-and-tell donkey show and Negreanu leads the donkeys (anyone watching the show who believes it is real) to the big dumper in front of the television screen. All the stacks of purple chips and packets of $100 bills are returned to the players or the sponsors or to whoever put it up before shooting began.

I only wish that more of you saw through all this shit and stopped watching High Stakes Poker.

Like Negreanu, it is a piece of crap.

FOX NEWS wanted my opinion on TV's "Wheel Of Fortune" Wonderwoman...So I Gave it To Them.

The other day I received an email from Fox News reporter Meaghan Murphy asking my opinion on whether or not Caitlin Burke, the young woman who amazingly solved the "Wheel of Fortune" puzzle with just one letter, somehow cheated. I told Ms. Murphy, "Of course she did!"

Here's the article Ms. Murphy wrote for Fox News

The Wheel Of Fortune contestant who stunned the world by solving a puzzle with just one letter has laughed off suggestions she cheated.

Caitlin Burke picked the seven-word, 27-letter phrase — "I've got a good feeling about this" — after selecting a lone letter "L".

US show host Pat Sajak was stunned, asking whether it was "the most amazing solve we've ever had". Viewers were also shocked. The video of Ms Burke's freakish effort spread quickly across the internet after airing last Friday.

But as online debate raged as to whether it was too good to be true, one expert has suggested the 26-year-old contestant had an unfair advantage.

"I think she cheated with help from someone on the inside who simply gave her the information beforehand," FOX411 reported professional casino cheating expert Richard Marcus as saying. What I can tell you is that the spinning of the wheel had nothing to do with it, nor was this a similar scam to what happened a few times on the show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? where contestants were getting help from the audience."

Ms Burke maintains she won her $900 prize and Caribbean holiday fairly and squarely.

"For those who think I cheated, I say, 'How?' I don’t understand," Ms Burke was quoted as responding. "I would love to know how people think I cheated at that game — like what, I had it written on my hand? How would I even know it would be a puzzle? Or what, I snuck backstage? I don’t even know how that stuff works. I mean, if I was cheating, I probably would have cheated in a smarter way and rigged the wheel so I made more money.”

The New York resident was even happy to give future hopefuls some tips.

"If you look at the end of a word and understand how letter endings work, you can work from there," she was quoted as saying. "For example, if there’s an 'N' in a word, there’s usually a 'G'. If there’s a three-letter word, it's probably 'T-H-E' — things like that." Common sense is underrated — you can really solve a lot by understanding the way words are formed."

My take: Well, common sense may be underrated but cheating is even MORE underrated!!!

Can Casino Cheats Successfully Pastpost and Pinch Chips off gaming tables against RFID Technology?

Surprisingly, I am almost never asked this question by casino personnel when I give game protection seminars. This is probably because they assume that their tables are protected from pastposting (adding or switching chips after a winning outcome) and pinching (removing or reducing chips after a winning outcome) by gaming chips with RFID chips embedded inside them.

For those of you who do not know how RFID technology functions at the blackjack, craps, roulette and baccarat tables in casinos, it is rather simple. When players place their bets, the dealer pushes a button that activates the RFID mechanism. The RFID chip within the gaming chip registers on a screen at the edge of the table. So if you bet one $25 chip at the blackjack table, the $25 chip will register on the RFID monitor. If you bet five $5 chips, they will all register on the monitor. Same thing if you bet one $100 chip and one $25 chip. The point is that the RFID screen will tell the casino not only how much you bet but exactly which combination of chip denomintations you bet with.

So it this RFID game protection beatable? Can you still pastpost and pinch chips when the casino has your original bets recorded on the monitor?

You may be surprised but the answer is undoubtedly "YES!" I am not going to tell you exactly how it's done because casinos pay me for that type of information...but I will say that you have to set the casino up for this type of move when pastposting. When pinching it is a different story...easier.

If anyone reading this article really is intrigued how to beat RFID technology in this manner, I'll tell you what I'll do. If you tell me how you think it can be beat, I will tell you if you are right or wrong.