Don't Confuse Online Poker and Casino Site Owners Caught Cheating With Cheating On Their Sites!

In the past few months we have heard lots about both online poker scams and owners and operators of online poker and casino sites caught in various scams that have more to do with money laundering and tax fraud than with the gaming activity on their online sites. So don't think that an online poker room owner or operator convicted or indicted for fraud or money laundering runs a site you should worry about as a player. There is absolutely no connection between the two.

For example, a Co-founder of online gambling company PartyGaming and its largest shareholder has pleaded guilty to illegal Internet gambling and has been fined $300 million. He has agreed to fully cooperate with authorities whilst the investigation is continuing. Anurag Dikshit pleaded guilty to violating the Wire Act. In spite of this PartyGaming continues to operate on of the safest online gambling facilities on the Internet.

However, when the owner or operator is caught cheating players directly such as Jeff Pearson, who has recently been taken into custody in Costa Rica for being one of the original “online gambling operation scammers” who set up an online casino “Lucky’s Casino” in late 90’s and then closed down before paying out money owed to customers, then you better avoid his site like the plague!

Pearson currently faces multiple charges of fraud for a number of scams ran by him and 8 other scammers who pocketed up to $13 million dollars from Americans.

Russ Hamilton Leads Pair Into Poker and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame!

The first two inductees of 2009 have entered my Poker and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame! They are Russ Hamilton and Pierre Dugal. To read about their cheating histories, click on my Hall of Fame Page!

New Casino Cheating Movie Gets Bad Review

Well, the producers of "Yonkers Joe" didn't call me in to consult on their movie, but I sure as hell can't blame that for the bad review, and I haven't see the cheating move sequences in the film, which are usually bad since most of the time they don't use cheat professionals such as my self to do the moves on camera. This is because of problems with the Actors Guild and other unions that make it difficult to bring in outsiders to the set. In any event, here's the review. Decide for yourself if "Yonkers Joe" is worth seeing.

you see the size of the ass on that woman? | Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Chazz Palminteri fans be warned: at first glance, Yonkers Joe (written and directed by Robert Celestino) may appear to be a project of the same high caliber with which the actor typically associates himself. However, from the film's first lackluster, opening scene at a race track somewhere on the dirty, dismal outskirts of Atlantic City, it becomes apparent that this may not be one of his most popular cinematic choices.

As we witness Yonkers Joe (Chazz Palminteri) getting the gambling down-low from his close confidant and partner, Stanley (Michael Lerner), we learn that times are tough for the lifelong con-man with a nagging conscience, who has a keen eye for craps and card games. He is distraught over his inability to win by cheating in casinos and determined to do something about it.

I will make my arms look stiff because my character is a tough guy. | Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
Yet, as luck would have it, Joe's son, Joey (Tom Guiry), becomes the object which propels him to act. Joey is a boy struggling with physical and mental disabilities, as well as uncontrollable violent outbursts, who is unfortunately being turned away by the authorities at his school. It seems that Joey's disabilities have progressed beyond anything anyone is capable of handling and the care and nurturing available at an expensive group home is his only answer.

The answer for Joe, however, is clear. He must find a way to afford the care his son so desperately deserves before the group home enrollment deadlines pass and he eagerly hatches one of the riskiest, most common money-making schemes ever to grace gambling films: he'll play the tested and true bait-and-switch game with a couple of craps dice and if he's lucky, nobody behind the casino security cameras will notice. The problem is not that the outcome of this dog and pony show is unintentionally funny, but that this is a critical climax in the film and it lacks a certain sense of urgency and purpose. It all comes across as very "made for Lifetime Television" meets Casino.

Tom Guiry's performance as a mentally-challenged teenager falls flat, though likely not for lack of trying on his part as he is still mostly, believably retarded. The "tough guy" dialogue fails at times and the pacing of the story is such that it's possible to squeeze a nap in and awake to feel like much wasn't missed (literally!). If anything positive can be said, it all goes back to Mr. Chazz Palminteri, who, like a dependable underdog at a racetrack, steadily forges onward, attempting to carry the film from rocky start to finish. The result is mediocre success that makes Yonkers Joe a film worth waiting to see, but only on DVD.

Casino Cheat Overboard!

I think you readers of my blog deserve a good laugh, so here is one that is a true story from my cheating days in the early '90s. It happened when we first decided to work the casino riverboats that were new at the time. In those days, most of them sailed, not like the ones today that mostly stay docked. So sit back and enjoy this true story.

In the Midwest, we found a half dozen riverboats. Some tugged out, others stayed docked while you played on them. I was never too thrilled about working riverboats because of the obvious problems with escape. Even when docked, it was a long way from the boat down at the dock to the parking lot usually up a hill—and there was always only one way on or off the boat, a narrow gangway in which you'd have no room to maneuver when being chased. Despite my concerns, Pat and Balls wanted to go aboard, and they overruled me two to one.
The best riverboat at the time was the Empress, about an hour outside Chicago near Joliet. It was a "sailer" and presented all the usual riverboat problems. We arrived just as it was getting dark at about 8:30 P.M. We cased the Empress while she was still docked. We observed heavy action with a lot of purple and yellow chips in play. However, I was still leery about working it, but both Pat and Balls figured I was being too cautious.
"You can never be too cautious," I said to them at the entranceway to the boat, indicating the narrow gangway leading to the terminal above. "Even if we work her when she's docked, look what we're up against if we gotta escape...What the hell do we do if we take steam in the middle of the fucking river?"
"Jump," Pat said.
"Be serious, will you! They got holding tanks on these shit heaps. If somebody rats us out or something, there's no way out. They stick you in the tank until the boat docks, then turn you over to the cops on land.
"If we stick with the blackjacks, it's pretty safe," Balls said.
He was right about that. Rarely did we have a rat on blackjack tables, especially since Balls was always asking the person next to the mechanic what time it was. But what if we did? "You guys really think it's worth the risk just to pick up a couple of grand?"
"We're already here," Pat said. "Let me do the blackjacks...We'll be alright."
I let myself be convinced, and Pat did the first blackjack move at a table on the upper deck when we were about fifteen minutes into the cruise. Before you could say "overboard," we had our rat. A young girl wearing an Empress windbreaker who appeared to be barely of gambling age had come up behind Pat at the last second to read the posted table-limits plaque sitting on the layout to Pat's left. I saw her coming but it was too late to call off the move. Just as Pat was claiming, the girl cried in a terrible, screechy voice, "He switched the chips! Look in his pocket! He put some chips in his pocket!"
She had seen everything.
I got sick looking at that girl, who was thinking that she’d done such a good deed. I think the ignorance of people ratting us out riled me up more than anything else about the business.
Pat was sick from looking at her too—and he told her so. He grabbed his chips as he got up from the table, stuck his head right in her face and screamed, "You motherfucking scumbag cunt!...I hope you die!" It was so ferocious that I thought he really might kill her. The only comparable outburst I'd ever heard was when Joe went off on the witnesses in the back room of the California Club, threatening to kill anyone who testified against him. Pat then sped away from the table toward the door leading onto the outside deck, heading I didn't know where. The rat was crying from fear.
I said to Balls fatalistically, "We're done now." Extremely rare were the occasions when I said to someone, "I told you so." But that's exactly what I said to Balls.
General pandemonium broke out on the top deck of the Empress. Uniformed security officers were running around everywhere, several out the same door that Pat had just raced through. Balls and I watched the developing circus, and when the same security officers walked back inside the cabin through the same door—without Pat—we looked at each other and realized we were both thinking the same thing.
It was a security guard’s radio that confirmed it. Amidst the crackling voices the two words "he jumped" were clearly audible. I hadn't taken Pat seriously when he'd said he'd do just that if necessary, but as that thought swam around in my head Pat Mallery was swimming fully clothed somewhere in the dark, murky waters of the Chicago River.
"I knew he was gonna do it," Balls said with a laugh.
I nodded. "I should have known he was gonna do it."
For this kind of emergency situation we had what was called the emergency-emergency meeting place, that was not a place but a telephone voice-mail depot. Since we had not yet checked into a motel, it was not possible for Pat to contact us directly, nor was it possible for us to know where he would end up. Back in Las Vegas, we had secured a voice mailbox for which all three of us had the code to pick up the messages. If and whenever we got separated while on the road, the message phone in Las Vegas was our sole means of communication. There were no cell phones at the time.
Balls and I hurriedly debarked the Empress once she was docked, got into the car and drove to the nearest restaurant. Once there, we ordered soft drinks and checked the voice mail in Vegas every fifteen minutes, hoping to hear from Pat as soon as possible. Neither one of us was worried that he might have drowned; the river was not very wide at the point where he'd jumped. There was the much more distinct possibility that he could have been picked up by the police harbor patrol, assuming that the Empress security staff had surely alerted whatever authority was charged with capturing swimming criminals.
The message I received with relief on the fourth call was, "Yeah, it's me, Johnny. My little dip in the drink is over. I'm in the lobby of the Holiday Inn in a town called...yeah, what's it called?...yeah...Harvey...that's it...Harvey...like Harvey Wallbanger. You should've seen the look the desk clerk gave me when I walked in. I told him it was hot outside and that I sweat a lot...Okay, Johnny, see you soon."
We picked up Pat at the Harvey Holiday Inn, which took us forty-five minutes by car. Pat recounted his adventure: He swam a mile which was more like two because of the current—and because he was holding the chips in his right hand as he alternated between the backstroke and crawl. He'd been afraid that they would drift out of his pocket in the water. He finally ended up on shore near a marshy industrial area that smelt like shit. He walked a half mile and luckily came across a phone booth from where he was able to call with a credit card. Knowing it would be difficult to convince a cab company to send one of their cars to an out-of-the-way industrial zone at that time of night, he fabricated a story over the phone that he had worked late and his car refused to start. When the cabbie arrived, suspicious as hell when he saw Pat sopping wet in a suit, Pat gave him a soggy hundred-dollar bill and told him to keep his mouth shut and drive. Pat did stink a little when we picked him up at the Holiday Inn, so he took out a T-shirt and shorts from the trunk of the car, went into the lobby men's room, washed up and changed, leaving the suit and mud-caked shoes behind in one of the stalls. We got back on the highway and drove toward the Empress. We checked into the motel closest to the riverboat, and the next morning Balls and I re-boarded to cash out the chips. Then we headed to Indiana and another riverboat.
The experience aboard the Empress taught us one thing: Like in the movies, a great escape is always possible.

Casino Counterfeit Chip Cheat Scam Busted In Kansas City

The Argosy Casino in Kansas City has reported a $100,000 loss following a counterfeit chip scam. The Missouri Highway Patrol confirmed that a man scammed the Argosy Casino off Interstate 635 in Riverside using counterfeit $100 chips. A 36-year-old suspect was arrested by state gaming agents last week, but he has not been charged. The man is under investigation, accused of making hundreds of fake $100 chips, then cashing them in for more than $100,000.

"I'm surprised they were able to do it and get away with it. That's a large sum of money," said Brenda Terrill, a Raytown resident who was gambling at the Argosy Casino on Monday.

During their monthly inventory, casino officials realized they had extra chips and discovered the fakes, which were slightly thicker than the casino's chips, officials said. Argosy Casino Hotel and Spa general manager Ameet Patel said they studied surveillance video and identified a suspect. When that suspect showed up last week, investigators arrested him.

"I guess with the state of the economy, people are trying new ways to provide for themselves," said Lawrence resident and casino patron John Griffin.

Highway Patrol has not yet released the suspect's name but said the investigation is ongoing. Patel said about 1,100 phony chips had been discovered so far.

PokerNews Gets Suggestions From Top Poker People How To Stop The Cheats!

PokerNews welcomed the New Year by asking a number of industry experts to share their views on the past, present and – most importantly – the future of poker. Throughout this series, these experts' opinions serve to outline the shape of the modern poker world and provide an indication of what 2009 and beyond might hold. PokerNews also noted that these experts' opinions do not necessarily represent the views of PokerNews itself.

Contributing to the question are: Matthew Parvis, Editor-in-Chief of Bluff Magazine; Nat Arem, the founder of the PokerDB; famed high-stakes cash and tournament player Barry Greenstein, a member of Team PokerStars Pro; and Pauly "Dr. Pauly" McGuire, the author of the Tao of Poker blog and columnist for Bluff Magazine.

Today's question: If there was one change that you would like to see specifically made to the online game or by major online sites in the coming year, what would it be?

Nat Arem: One thing that I'd really like to see happen would be the equivalent of a cheaters and scammers "information share" go on between a bunch of different sites. I really think that a lot of those people cause problems for online poker and I think it would be great if online poker sites were willing to share information the same way that Vegas casinos do. I'm surprised that it hasn't happened yet.

Dr. Pauly: Just a reliable method to deposit and withdraw money. "Reliable" meaning, with some of the sites, every few weeks it's changing. Some people have to wait three days and other people have to wait three weeks just to get a check or some sort of response for a cashout. At the same time, too, people come to me all the time asking for me to fund their online poker accounts. People want to play poker, it's just they don't have an easy way to do that. That's kind of more of a personal preference, but I think it's more of a basic, logistical thing they can change. That's kind of a loyalty system – as people know they can get money in and out of Full Tilt or PokerStars relatively easy, more people will play there.

Matthew Parvis: I would love to see the online poker sites -– maybe the top five online poker rooms in the world -- create some sort of governing body within themselves. We've seen what happens when a company is allowed to just kind of "run itself wild" and I understand that there are regulating committees out there and international kinds of regulation; however, I think that it's too important for the industry in that the major sites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt throw this serious network into that batch right now. I think they need to come together in a way, and yes, I understand they compete against each other for a player base. But at the same time, if they were to come together and put together some sort of ethics and regulatory constitution that each of the sites stuck with, [they would be] able to come down upon one another if there was some sort of devious attempt at cheating such as with the Absolute/UB scandal. If you're being governed by your peers, I think that would be a very, very strong way of doing things. These sites are going to continue to operate -- at least the top five, I think, are going to continue to try to grab their piece of the market and piece of the pie -- but if they were to form some sort of regulatory body, I think that would be an amazing thing that could really help transform and bring unity into the industry. I think that would be the one change that I would like to see happen.

Barry Greenstein: Well, I'm one of the fortunate people who gets to make the decisions... or gets very involved in them. That's one of the main reasons I joined PokerStars is because I am able to make suggestions about the software, and what I do is every few months, actually, I give them my current list of changes I'd like to see implemented. For instance, to give you an idea, the last two that got implemented were a graphical "last hand display" where we got a nice display, and they even have it with a replay where you can see the way the bets came in and all that. Before, we just had the last hand in text mode, chat stream or whatever you want to call that -- and it just was too hard to follow. Even if you got a hand history, it was really hard to process while you were playing. Now the way it is, it's pretty neat and they did a great job, better than I had suggested. The programmers and designers did an excellent job.

Initially I gave them 30 changes I would like to see implemented and I had ten that were high priority, ten medium priority, and ten low priority. So now, what I do is always keep the number-one, high-priority issue on the burner. So after they got that one done, especially in LA since so many people play badugi -- and even in Europe, we have a lot of people playing badugi -- my one after that for the end of this year was badugi. A lot of these changes go slower than I would hope, but they finally promised me by November they'd get badugi and they delivered. In November they got badugi; now I'm hoping they will increase the stakes. My next number-one, high-priority item is going to come out in January.

(PokerNews): Is it a user feature?

Barry Greenstein: I'll get to that -- it's remarkable. A lot of times I'll say, "Why can't we do this?" It seems to me it would take me only a day or two to program it myself, but they have to make sure that nothing changes in the stability of the build. They test it; every one of these sites does this. So it takes longer than I expect all the time and I'm always frustrated: why don't they have multiple groups of programmers doing all the things I want? You see with all the websites that they don't have everything; they don't have the new games. I think PokerStars is probably the leader there but the other ones – obviously, I'm sure they ask themselves, why doesn't every site have every game in every situation? It's harder than we all think because it's just a monstrous piece of software already. They have to make sure that everything works together. So getting to the suggestion that we'll see in January -- that is, if it is [then] -- let me just say that you will have some different types of games of no-limit hold'em. It will be a little different, but I think it will be very popular.

How 'Bout "Texas Cheat'em instead of Texas Hold'em?!

New Twist in Cheating at Poker!!! This is more than a good laugh!

D3Publisher Reveals an Ace Up Their Sleeve with New Game Texas Cheat ‘Em from Developer Wideload Games!

There’s No Limit to the fast-paced, frenetic action poker players will enjoy with D3Publisher’s newly announced game, Texas Cheat ‘Em, from fan favorite developer Wideload Games. Texas Cheat ‘Em is a new take on the classic Texas Hold ‘Em rules, turning an average online poker table upside down by layering party games and other gambling minigames on top of the basic rules, and allowing players to cheat to win! Gamers of all levels can hoodwink their opponents in Texas Cheat ‘Em; novice competitors who craft good cheating strategies by using x-ray vision, pre-cognition, chip stealing, card swapping and more can defeat more veteran card players. The game is confirmed for Xbox LIVE® Arcade for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®Store for PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system for Spring 2009 and Windows PC at a later date.

“Alex Seropian and the team at Wideload know how to make great games, and their trademark quirky sense of humor abounds in Texas Cheat ‘Em,” said Pete Andrew, vice president of product development, D3Publisher. “We feel confident that the comedic tone, party atmosphere and interactivity of Texas Cheat ‘Em are tailor-made for today’s casual online gaming audience.”

“We upped the ante on traditional online poker and set Texas Cheat ‘Em in a decidedly irreverent world where players can do what they’ve always wanted to do – cheat!” said Scott Corley, Director of Wideload Shorts. “It’s a hilarious online card playing experience that gets even more fun as players become cheating masters.”

Cheating is FUNdamental in Texas Cheat ‘Em! Cheat attacks are earned by players through more than a dozen minigames like Roulette, Slot Machines, Dice or Rock, Paper, Scissors. Texas Cheat ‘Em replaces time usually spent waiting for others to deal or bet in online poker with loads of fun planning cheats or playing minigames, and offers single-player as well as multiplayer options for up to eight players for a truly unique and robust gameplay experience. Online features are a priority for Texas Cheat ‘Em. All versions will support voice chat and Leaderboards, both console versions will support Achievements/Entitlements, and the Xbox LIVE Arcade version will support Party Chat and Avatars.

Texas Cheat ‘Em is a Wideload Shorts production. The game is rated “T” (Teen, Ages Thirteen and Older – Simulated Gambling) by the ESRB. For more information about Texas Cheat ‘Em, you can visit www.d3publisher.com.

New Poker Room CardSpike.com Already Facing Cheating Allegations!

Online poker affiliates claim a relatively new room has been stiffing them. That room is CardSpike.com, launched last this past summer. A number of its affiliates and some industry observers have told Gambling911.com the new online poker room is owned by some individuals behind Casino Affiliate Programs, also known as CAP - an online gambling affiliate conference promotion group.

Payton O'Brien, Senior Editor for Gambling911.com questioned why anyone from CAP would risk their highly successful business model to engage in such a conflict of interest, not to mention the legal ramifications.

"We know and respect the folks behind CAP," O'Brien stated. "For whatever the reason there are quite a few people who have it out for CAP, which sometimes makes it difficult to separate facts from fiction. "The two people who are behind the program, claim that they do not own it but are only managing the affiliate aspects of the company through effectivemedia.com which is related to Casino Affiliate Programs," a source tells Gambling911.com.

What is known, however, is that CardSpike has been giving many of its affiliates the run around.

"Since the launch of CardSpike, affiliates have made a number of complaints," one of its affiliates claims. "There are still outstanding payments owing to rakeback players."

Angry CardSpike.com affiliates have also taken their anger to the TwoPlusTwo Posting forums.

"The fraudulent "safety seal" (paid for) at PAP/CAP (poker affiliate programs and casino affiliate programs) is a sham, this site is run by ******.

This company has told SOME affiliates to stop sending players, even though most affiliates and some players have not been paid or cashouts processed.

Why tell a select few affiliates to stop sending players? I believe this poker room was opened as a hit and run operation and frankly think the Cake Network should do something about it - and fast!"

The Cake Poker network hosts CardSpike.com.

While cashout issues tend to be the norm due to limited processing access for US facing online poker rooms, a number of the complaints filed have come from those affiliates operating outside the United States.

Nat Arem, who became widely known for his role in unveiling a cheating scandal involving Absolute Poker, has also warned affiliates and players alike not to patronize the CardSpike.com website.

"I want to make everyone aware, that, if you do sign up for a Cake Poker network rakeback account, do NOT do it at CardSpike," he warns on his own blog website. "CardSpike is a rogue skin on the Cake Poker network that has been delaying making payouts for months now. If you're going to sign up for rakeback on the Cake Network, do it either at Cake Poker or Players Only. There are many reputable rakeback operators who run rakeback on these networks."

Negreanu Speaks Out On Poker Cheating

What I’m about to say may surprise you. You might be a cheater and not even know it.

If you are in a poker game for money and are taking it easy on one of your buddies, you are cheating yourself, your friend, and every other player in the game. I realize that’s a bold statement, but it’s absolutely true.

In the poker world, we have a term for this type of play. It’s called soft playing. When two friends, spouses, relatives or flat out cheaters don’t bet against each other, they’re soft playing.

Soft playing destroys the integrity of the game of poker and it’s wrong, flat out wrong.

I realize that many players have no idea that this behavior is so unethical. More often than not, soft playing (not to be confused with slow playing) is done innocently with no harm intended. Perhaps a gentleman doesn’t want to take a lady’s last $20. Or, one player doesn’t want to raise his friend because his friend is losing too much money.

Well, if you are so concerned with your buddy losing money, or if you’re trying to get a date, by not betting against a beautiful woman, try taking them both out to dinner after the game. The poker table is no place for compassion and kindness. I’m sort of kidding, but I think you get the idea.

The unintended byproduct of soft playing a friend is how it affects the action for the rest of the players at the table. For example, let’s say that you and a pal both make the final table of a No Limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament that pays the top five finishers. There are six players remaining and you and your buddy are still hanging in. Remember, the next player out gets nothing. Everyone at the table wants to see someone get knocked out so that they can finish in the money.

How do you think the other players at the table would feel if you are soft playing your friend?

By not playing hard against him, you are absolutely cheating the other players at the table. That may not have been your intention, but ignorance of the rule won’t get you off the hook when you get caught. Soft playing in a tournament can result in severe penalties, including disqualification to both you and your friend.

Poker is not a team sport. It’s every man for himself. It’s perfectly okay to root for your buddies and hope they do well, but when it’s time to play the game, you have to give it your all.

All by yourself, that is.

Soft playing is, more often than not, totally innocent. But you need to be aware that there are snakes out there, and it’s important that you spot them before they team up against you.

If you’re playing online and you smell something fishy, e-mail customer support and have them investigate. At reputable poker sites, a representative will look into your claim by reviewing the hand(s) in question, as well as the betting history of the suspected cheaters. If suspicious betting behavior is detected, the crooks will be banned from the site and you will likely receive a refund for the money you lost due to player collusion.

If you see something strange in a live game, notify the floor man immediately and ask him to investigate.

Maybe Annie Duke Should Not Have Stood By UltimateBet After All??

Despite numerous rumors to the contrary, poker pro Annie Duke revealed to Gambling911.com's Jenny Woo this week that she is willing to continue to put her name behind UltimateBet.com. The 3rd largest online poker room catering to North America was embroiled in a "cheating scandal" last year.

"I really have a lot of faith of the new management's commitment to offer a good quality secure site," Annie Duke told Woo.

In Part Three of Jenny Woo's interview, Ms. Duke discusses the UltimateBet fiasco and her full reaction as well as her opinion on the changes made with this year's World Series of Poker, specifically the delayed final table. Here is some of what she said:

JENNY: What did you make of Peter Eastgate's win in the WSOP? And what's your opinion on the changes that were made this year?

ANNIE: Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch most of it which was up until the final table because I was tied up in New York on a schedule where t.v. wasn't really an option. I haven't been able to catch up on that yet but I did watch the final table. I felt that honestly he played the best of everybody at the table. From what I saw at that final table I felt that he deserved it of anybody at that table. He played really really well. The thing that I liked about Peter in particular was that I saw a lot of really hyper-aggressive play. Now to be fair I didn't see the whole final table, I saw what was on t.v. I don't know much else about him but I'm impressed the way he played. But as far as the young thing, I don't think it's particularly surprising. Poker is getting to be such a young game. There's so many people in their early twenties entering that event and a lot of them are really really good. I'm glad to see somebody who I felt was very talented win that event.

As far as the delay - I know that it definitely raised ratings which is really important and I think that whatever delay people had to take understanding that the better poker that runs on t.v. the better it is for the poker economy which is better for you as an individual. People should really try to think of the big picture as opposed to whatever inconvenience they're feeling by it. I think that we had the misfortune of having that delay introduced in a very very important election year in which I think it took away much of the ability of the WSOP being able to hype their players and get people to pay a lot of extra attention to what was going on. This wasn't' just an election year. This was a super duper high profile important election year. If it were to happen during Kerry-Bush, I think we could of probably gotten more focus on poker world. (Haha) I think there's no question that that will happen again next year but with it being a little bit shorter. It'll be interesting to see what happens next year when people are actually interested in interviewing these people as opposed to thinking about Sarah Palin.

JENNY: There has been a lot of controversy surrounding a much publicized insider cheating scandal involving UltimateBet. You have stood firmly by their side through all of this. How have your friends on the poker circuit reacted to this scandal?

ANNIE: I think that there's mixed reactions. Everybody's horrified that it happened - including me. I just want to get that out of the way. There are no excuses for what happened. It's ugly, it's ridiculous and it's incredibly upsetting. With that being said, I think there's a large portion of people out there who got their money back which I think is amazing. I had one player call me up who's an old time player playing for a really long time and who said to me, "Annie in all the years that I've been playing and all the times that I've been cheated this is the first time I've ever gotten my money back." I think that there's recognizing there are things that have happened. This was not the site cheating anybody, this was individuals cheating people. It's really horrible that it happened but the site did good by it and made sure that everybody go their money back and let's move on because the site is secure. There are other people who had a fair reaction to it - which is - you can't compensate me for the loss of confidence. My heart really goes out to those people because they are absolutely right. We go into these games and the moves that you think are supposed to work aren't working. Now you start to take those out of your game and I understand that it can have a deep and long term and long lasting affect on your game. They're right, there's no way for UltimateBet to compensate somebody for whatever long term affects that event had on their game. So to that I don't really have an answer. As far as the monetary issues, for me it was all made good on. In this administration - so to speak- definitely stood good by everything, has an amazing security center going forward, they made good on something that wasn't their fault.

I feel like being part of a solution and making sure that there are good and secure options going forward. I think my brother said this to somebody, "look UltimateBet's going to continue with or without Annie, it's going to still be there. Would you rather have Annie there trying to make sure that everything is secure going forward or would you rather have her just leave and not be a voice for the community"? So that was my take on it. I just felt like the right thing to do was to try to make sure this was handled well, that people were made whole, to have people feel that they had somebody they could talk to about it and that I could do what I could to make the site better and to make it a good option for people. I really have a lot of faith of the new management's commitment to offer a good quality secure site and I'm willing to continue to put my name by that.

One of the things that I said - and I said it in my testimony - is that online poker is unique to other financial markets because in other financial markets when you get cheated there's no way to make anybody whole. One of the reason's why people should feel very comfortable about playing online is because when incidents like this happen the sites will stand up and behave if they're regulated and make the community whole. Well, if I'm endorsing a site that's going to do just that and I walk away then I'm a total hypercritic anyway.

JENNY: What's next for you in the poker circuit?

ANNIE: I'm really going to be stepping up to the number of tournaments that I play now that I'm out of my dispute with the WPT. I'm going to be heading to Vegas on Saturday (Dec. 13) and I'm going to be playing in the Main Event there at Bellagio. Then I'm going to be playing at this thing at the Commerce. I'm just really going to step up the number of major events that I'm playing. It's funny that you ask that because I was talking to somebody in November and I was looking what had happened to my schedule; I had intended to play at the Bike (The Bicycle Casino - Los Angeles) at the end of August and then I had a commitment come up. Then I had intended to play down in Aruba but had to go to New York. And I was going to do two Poker After Dark's but I was still in New York. I finally got back and I can finally play at the Bellagio. But literally it was three months of intense "I'm going to play this, I'm going to play this, and I'm going to play this" where everything else in my life kept getting in the way.

I've now gone through my schedule and have blocked out tons of poker coming up so that I can start being a poker player again.

JENNY: Thank you so much for taking the time out of your very busy schedule to do this interview.

ANNIE: Thank you. Talk to you soon.