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| Poker Cheats Hall of Fame Material? |
Professional poker player Darren Woods, who won a bracelet at the 2011 World Series of Poker, really took online multiple-hands poker-play to new heights when he set up multiple fake identities on different private online networks to conceal his domination of countless online poker tables during at least a six-year period from 2006 to 2012.
He created some 60 different accounts, which gave him a huge advantage
against honest players playing alone. In fact, he had a sizeable advantage
against even normal online poker collusion syndicates.
Woods’ main online poker room for his scams was 888.com, the site that
once hired and trusted him as one of their sponsored players to represent the
brand. He was eventually caught by other online poker players who grew
suspicious of his exorbitant win-rates. He was then tried in court in the UK,
and became one of the few persons ever sentenced to prison for online gambling
cheating, be it poker or casino games.
No one knows for sure how much Woods earned with his huge online poker
cheat-scam, although some estimates put it at more than $ 15 million. The
presiding judge at his trial sentenced him to 15 months in the slammer and a fine
of $ 1.25 million, with a threat of six years’ more prison-time if he didn’t
make good on it.
At the end, after several denials of his online poker crimes, Woods
admitted he’d done it—but with a huge mitigating circumstance: other players
had cheated online for huge sums of money and never got prosecuted.
Talk about lame excuses!
So, is Darren Woods a good candidate for the RMB Poker and Casino Cheats
Hall of Fame?
I would think so.
Another former successful WSOP player who went on to mastermind a major
online poker scam is already in the Poker and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame. Of
course I’m talking about Russ Hamilton, the famous 1994 WSOP Main Event champ
and infamous mastermind of the huge $30 million UltimateBet online poker
scandal in the early 2000s.
And recently inducted to the cheating Hall is Phil Ivey, another WSOP
bracelet winner, although his poker cheating occurred in brick and mortar
casinos.
I think we will eventually see Darren Woods in the Cheats Hall of Fame—just
a matter of time.
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