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!