UltimateBet Will Refund $15.1 Million to Players Victimized By Scandal

A statement released Nov. 5 by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) corroborates Tuesday's story run in Canada's National Post saying that Excapsa Software Inc. will pay USD $15 million to Blast Off Ltd., owned by former Kahnawake grand chief Joe Tokwiro Norton, which bought Ultimate Bet from Excapsa in 2006. The settlement will enable Ultimate Bet/ Blast Off to pay an estimated $9 million, on top of the USD $6.1 million already paid, to poker players affected by the hole card cheating scandal while playing on Ultimate Bet between 2004 and 2008.

An Ontario Superior Court judge Monday approved the USD $15 million settlement to be paid by Excapsa shareholders to Blast Off to allow Ultimate Bet to stay in business, be licensed by the KGC, and to refund all cheated players, as part of Excapsa's liquidation proceedings.

According to documents filed by the liquidator, Blast Off originally sought USD $81.4million in damages for being sold corrupted software. That figure included USD $5 million for harm to Norton's reputation and USD $49-million for damage done to the company's value as a result of the cheating controversy, which has been widely publicized in and out of the gambling world.

Presumably the remainder of the $15 million award over the $9 million Ultimate Bet has calculated it still needs to pay out to affected players, will go toward the above damages.

BACKGROUND

The KGC, which regulates online gambling run out of the Mohawk Territory in Canada, reported in September that it had found "clear and convincing evidence" of "multiple cheating incidents" on Ultimate Bet (between May 2004 and January 2008) involving software being used to enable insiders to see opponents' hole cards (click here for related article).

The KGC identified poker pro and 1994 WSOP bracelet winner Russell Hamilton, a former consultant to Ultimate Bet, as "the main person responsible" for the cheating. Mr. Hamilton has not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing, and he has not responded publicly to the commission's allegations.

It gave Ultimate Bet until this past Monday November 3rd to resume refunding players. The site has already paid out US$6.1-million but has calculated that it owes at least another US$9-millon to people who were cheated.

"The good message, and the message that Ultimate Bet wants to send, is that it not only cleaned up and took out the tool, but it's refunding players, many of whom probably don't even know that they were cheated and probably don't have the proof."

SECOND SCANDAL

This past January, Absolute Poker- another site owned by Norton that was involved with a cheating scandal- was fined $500,000 by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. This time, the Commission fined BlastOff $1.5 million for the Ultimate Bet cheating scandal.

Media has noted how these cheating incidents may have affected Kahnawake's reputation as a reliable gaming jurisdiction. This past January, the UK's Gambling Commission's announced in a newsletter that it had refused to add Kahnawake to a "white list" of jurisdictions permitted to advertise online gambling in the lucrative U. K. market along with Antigua (who they since just approved).

Compensation For Victims of UltimateBet Online Cheat Scandal

Compensation Resumes in UltimateBet Scandal as Legal Agreement Reached

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission released a summary statement on Wednesday confirming a legal settlement reached earlier this week between Excapsa, the group holding original ownership of the UltimateBet online poker site, and Blast Off Limited, owned by Joe Tokwiro Norton, which took over as proprietor in late 2006. Among the latest revelations is that the total due to be refunded to affected players, including that already paid, will be in vicinity of $21 million.

Approximately $6.1 million had been refunded to UltimateBet players in an original wave of payments earlier this year, though subsequent investigations confirmed that the cheating had gone on longer and had been of a greater scope than originally realized. This subsequently resulted in a legal action between Blast Off and Excapsa which is believed to have been resolved after court negotiations on Monday, in which Excapsa made additional payments to Blast Off to cover the cost of reimbursing players still awaiting refunds due to more cheating accounts being uncovered.

According to PokerNews, KGC representative has confirmed that details of the Excapsa liquidation proceedings as published in a story in Montreal's National Post were "pretty accurate." That story stated that $15 million will be paid by Excapsa shareholders to "Blast Off Ltd., the company owned by Mr. Norton that runs Ultimate Bet." Monday was scheduled as a deadline under which the site's certification by the KGC would be imperiled if the situation had not been resolved and refunds to players resumed. The cheating, which involved the surreptitious use of a software tool to view the hole cards of the cheaters' opponents at any given table (and thereby allowing the cheaters to play accordingly), had been in place from 2004 until its discovery earlier this year through mathematical examination by players of suspect accounts' unsupportable win rates.

Documents released by the Canadian liquidation court as reported in the National Post also showed that Norton (Blast Off) sought $81.4 million in damages for being sold "corrupted" software, including $5 million in damages to Norton's reputation and $49 million in damage done to the "UltimateBet" brand name. Blast Off stopped making payments toward its overall $130 million purchase price last December. However, exact details of the settlement beyond the latest $15 million for player compensation and a $1.5 million fine payable to the Kahnawake Gaming Commission – in addition to the initial $6.1 in player refunds, which also came from Excapsa – have not been released. The $15 million may include a reserve for interest, meaning that the total of approximately $21.1 million may exceed by a million or two the actual amount traced through the years of illegitimate play.

The settlement, furthermore, is likely to have trimmed significant equity from the original Excapsa sellers, who according to documents denied knowledge of the cheating tool embedded in the software. However, Sheldon Krakower, the court-appointed liquidator, was cited in the National Post piece as having "advised shareholders that fighting Blast Off in court would likely mean an end to payments of the US $109 million still owed from the original sale and could wipe out Excapsa's cash funds of US $36 million." Previously, the KGC publicly named Russ Hamilton as being involved in the cheating; Hamilton had reportedly been associated with the site since its creation.

Refunds of defrauded funds to affected players are expected to resume within the next few days, according to the KGC, with Blast Off also having to provide proof to KGC officials that payments have been properly issued.

The body of the KGC statement:

Kahnawake Gaming Commission Confirms UB Compliance with Interim Decision

The Kahnawke Gaming Commission ("KGC") announced today that it has received information from its agents, Ultimate Bet and other related parties indicating that Ultimate Bet has addressed, or is addressing, the matters set out in the KGC interim decision of September 29, 2008.

In particular, the KGC has confirmed that Ultimate Bet has commenced reimbursing approximately US$15M to players who were adversely affected by the cheating incidents. This is in addition to the US$6.1M that Ultimate Bet has already reimbursed to players. The KGC will defer its final decision in this matter for a short period of time for the purpose of ensuring that all required reimbursements have been made.

In addition to reimbursements to players, the KGC is considering the available evidence and will decide whether Ultimate Bet has satisfied all of the other terms of the KGC interim decision.

The KGC's final decision in this matter is expected to be issued once all player refunds have been confirmed.

Murray Marshall
Senior Advisor
Kahnawake Gaming Commission

PokerStars Bans SharkScope From Site!

In a move that broke across many of the major online poker forums this morning, PokerStars, which has always been at the forefront against online poker cheating, banned its players from using the database site SharkScope.com and its corresponding Heads Up Display (HUD). SharkScope now joins other collective databases like Poker Edge as not permitted on the site. The online poker room identifies 42 total programs in total that players on its felts are not allowed to operate. There had been talk of banning SharkScope in the previous year, but it appears that enforcement has become official today.

SharkScope is a poker tracking tool that has, according to its website, amassed a database of 178 million sit and go tournaments from across the major networks. A player using the website while playing on PokerStars is now in violation of the site’s Terms of Service. Punishment could include anything from a warning for a first time offender to complete banishment from the online poker room. Other programs which are banned from use by players on PokerStars include Poker Edge, Holdem Hawk, Poker Crusher, Online Holdem Inspector, TheCashDB, SpadeEye, and Sixth Sense.

SharkScope is in violation of PokerStars’ decree that “Any program that works off of a central database of player profiles or hands played is prohibited.” In addition, programs that play “without human intervention,” involve the “practice of datamining,” or “offer direct game play advice on the appropriate action to take” are also strictly against PokerStars’ Terms of Service.

On its website, PokerStars lists programs that are acceptable for use by its customers. They include a variety of programs such as Calculatem Pro, Holdem Genius, Holdem Manager, Omaha Indicator, Pokerbility, PokerGrapher, Poker Office, Poker Stove, PokerTracker, ThePokerDB, and Poker Wingman. There are 60 programs explicitly permitted on PokerStars. Any customer with questions about a specific piece of poker software should contact the support department of PokerStars.

Perhaps one of the premier poker software experts around is PokerXFactor instructor Chris “Fox” Wallace. He told Poker News Daily, “PokerStars has been very good about preventing cheating, but banning the SharkScope website itself, when all of that information is publicly available, will probably serve to hurt players who want to follow the rules, while rewarding those who are willing to break them.”

Wallace described how players may elect to get around the new ban on using SharkScope.com: “Anyone who has SharkScope running on a laptop sitting next to their computer will be almost impossible to catch and they will have a significant advantage over players who are being honest and sticking to the rules they agreed to. Creating a rule that can not be enforced is counterproductive.”

Full Tilt Poker does not allow the use of “large subscription databases.” However, it has not yet enforced any ban of SharkScope, which also tracks sit and go tournaments on Ultimate Bet, Party Poker, Pacific Poker, and Cake Poker, among others. Players have the option to block their own user name from appearing in SharkScope searches by filling out a form on its website. Coverage of the major poker rooms mainly began in 2006 or 2007 and over 62 million sit and gos alone were tracked on PokerStars. There have been 40 million sit and gos tracked on Full Tilt Poker and 21 million on the Ongame Network.

Right now, SharkScope is focused on sit and go tournaments. It does not yet support cash games, but intends to in the future, according to its site.

Slot Cheating Tied to Birmingham, Alabama Mayor! What's Next?

In a world of political cheating and corruption, can we be surprised by this latest piece of political casino cheating?...especially on the eve of the Presidential Election? Well, whether or not the Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama has presidential ambitions, he had better clear his record of being a casino slot cheat!

Article:

An Alabama politician has been accused of cheating at slots with the help of casino personnel. The charge reaches beyond the specific case to raise the issue of casinos which refuse payment based on machine malfunction.

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford is alleged in a civil lawsuit to have benefited from bingo machines rigged to pay off at Victoryland Casino. Cynthia Teel has accused the casino of setting machines to pay out at specific times, and wants the money she was denied.

Teel won $42,000, but the casino said the machine was malfunctioning and refused to pay. She wants Langford to produce tax and gambling records to prove that the casino manipulates the machines.

Part of Teel's case is a sworn statement from a police officer who worked at Victoryland. He states he saw Langford escorted by casino staff at least three times to machines that promptly hit jackpots.

Langford denied the accusations, but admitted casino owner Milton McGregor is a close friend and political ally. He also said he had received a payout as large as $40,000.

Victoryland patron Rose Thompson said, "How come the machine is in error when it pays, but never when it takes? I think it's the casino's problem if they can't maintain working machines. Give the girl her money!"

Pastposting Cheat Team Busted At Florida Casino!

Roulette pastposting cheats had been working casinos in the southern US.

A security guard at the Clearwater Casino Resort may have broken up a cheating ring Thursday before it had a chance to bilk the casino. A Kitsap County sheriff's deputy was called to the casino at 15347 Suquamish Way NE at about 7 p.m. after the security guard recognized the suspects from an alert from another local casino, according to sheriff's reports. Three men in their 20s were detained, although a fourth man fled when security guards spoke to the group, the report said. Two of the men had New York City addresses, and the third was a Spanish national. Investigators found a Ford van in the parking lot of the casino linked to the men. Inside were "gaming papers" (I don't know what that means) from other local casinos and several suitcases.

A security guard from the Emerald Queen Casino in Pierce County had warned Clearwater employees about the men and a scheme to cheat at the roulette table. According to the casino, the scheme involved sneaking betting chips under other betting chips already placed on the table "to make it look like the bet was worth more," the deputy wrote. It appears to me that the cheats were simply slipping larger denomination casino chips (probably $25 greens) underneath winning $1 roulette chips already on the layout.

Puyallup Tribal Police in Tacoma reported to deputies they did not have enough evidence to have the men arrested at that time, but said they would like their identities recorded. This simply means that surveillance had no video evidence and security probably should have waited for the cheats to make their moves before busting them. This is a classic example of inexperienced security staffs too eager to make a bust!

The three men, ages 27, 28 and 29 were released and told not to return to the casino under penalty of trespassing.

November Cheating Alerts!

Online Poker:

Complaints of bot play on Carbon Poker and collusion play on Hollywood Poker.

Online Casinos:

Complaints about slow payouts on Rushmore Casino.

Brick and Mortar Poker:

Complaints of Russian collusion teams working the Los Angeles, California major poker rooms.

Complaints of Russian collusion teams working in Slovenia and other Eastern European poker rooms.

Brick and Mortar Casinos:

A group of professional cheats have been working Florida and Tunica, Mississippi casinos picking up "sleepers," winning or push bets that inexperienced players unknowingly leave on layouts of roulette and craps tables.

Obama and McCain Face-Off In Liar's Poker Match To Determine Election Winner!

Since cheating has been no stranger to US Presidential Elections (just remember the tainted Florida ballots that cheated Al Gore out of the presidency in 2000 and gave us 8 years of George Bush!), both Barack Obama and John McCain have agreed to settle any 2008 election controversies with the utmost fairness to both parties. In the event of an election too close to call, the candidates decided that the next president would be the one who could best the other in a game of Presidential Liar’s Poker. For those of you who don’t know what Presidential Liar’s Poker is, it is simply a game where one candidate makes a statement and the other either accepts it as fact or challenges it. If the candidate making the statement is not challenged, he receives one point. If he is challenged and proved correct, he receives two points. If he’s challenged and proved wrong, the challenger receives two points. It was agreed that the first candidate to reach six points would be declared President of the United States. A coin toss (with a Bill Clinton half-dollar whose both sides were tails) determined that Obama would make the opening statement after McCain called “Heads.” Please don’t ask me how it could have been a Bill Clinton half-dollar if both sides were tails…I don’t know.

In order to avoid further controversy in the event of an election too close to call, and to avoid having the deadlocked candidates have to face off against each other in person, where name-calling and other unpleasantness might be exchanged, the actual game of Presidential Liar’s Poker took place last night—and I, being one of the greatest liars and cheaters of all time, managed to steal the results! Well, I don’t expect you to be surprised by the outcome of the game, nor do I expect you to be surprised by the facts and fiction that came out of it. So, here it is:

Statement One by Barrack Obama: My name is Barrack, and I am not only not a Muslim, but I have no affiliation with the Muslim faith.

McCain did not challenge, and if he had, not only would he have been surprised but so would you. The fact is that Obama is actually Jewish! Barrack is a very Jewish name, even that of the main character in the classic film depicting the birth of the State of Israel, Exodus. Obama won the point.

Score: Obama 1 McCain 0

Statement Two by John McCain: I did not choose Sarah Palin as my running mate because she looks like my high school librarian who I used as a fantasy while masturbating 54 years ago.

Obama immediately challenged. Digging through McCain’s personal diary, which contains more than 6,000 pages and 2,000,000 words, evidence was found that Palin does look like a librarian whom McCain wrote about lasciviously. Obama was awarded two points, but then McCain challenged on the grounds that his masturbating using the Palin look-alike occurred 55 years ago and not 54. The judges reversed their decision and McCain was awarded two points.

Score: McCain 2 Obama 1

Statement Three by Obama: I never had any dealings with the Ku Klux Klan.

McCain looked very confused by the statement and then decided to challenge because he figured it was a trick statement. No records existed of Obama being affiliated with the KKK or any other hate group. Two points were awarded to Obama.

Score: Obama 3 McCain 2

Statement Four by McCain: I was held as a prisoner of war by the Vietcong in North Vietnam during the Vietnam war.

Obama looked very confused by the statement and considered challenging it. But he did not. But he should have. It was revealed that McCain was actually held prisoner by his own troops. McCain won the point.

Score Obama 3 McCain 3

Statement Five by Obama: Hillary Clinton made a pass at me after one of our primary debates.

At this McCain not only didn’t challenge but he chuckled as well, explaining that Hillary Clinton also made a pass at him. One judge, out of curiosity, suggested that the videotape of the Obama/Clinton tapes be replayed, but the two others said that such would not be in good taste. Obama won the point.

Score Obama 4 McCain 3

Statement Six by McCain: I did not have any plastic surgery that resulted in the uneven puffiness on both sides of the bottom of my face.

Obama laughed. The judges laughed harder. Obama then challenged, saying McCain had cause for a malpractice suit. A team of plastic surgeons was called in to the game to examine McCain’s face. They determined that McCain’s lower-face puffiness was due simply to his talking more than usual the last two years. McCain was awarded two points.

Score McCain 5 Obama 4

Realizing that McCain needed only one point to clinch the election tie-breaker, Obama strategized that he had to get McCain to challenge his next statement, which if upheld to be true would win him the Liar’s Poker game and thus the presidential election by a score of 6 to 5.

Statement Seven by Obama: I was never really leading in the polls the week before the election.

McCain immediately challenged as he praised the “Great American Underdog” and cited the 1948 Presidential Election between Thomas Dewey and Harry Truman. As if he’d anticipated Obama’s statement, McCain even pulled out from his jacket pocket the famous Chicago Herald Tribune headline that read “Dewey defeats Truman!” A team of the nation’s top pollsters was called in to verify that Obama did indeed lead by at least 5 points in every nationally recognized poll. The margins of error were calculated and recalculated. Everything pointed to the validity and accuracy of the polls—until McCain pointed out that there had never really been any polls. Citing from a Holocaust deniers manual, McCain, who had clearly gone crazy long before the election, submitted that the whole polling system in America was nothing more than a conspiracy to get a black man elected president. He then demanded of the judges that they get actual proof to show that there were polls and records of every person who said they would vote in the election. The judges, at first aghast at the reference to Holocaust deniers, actually seemed to weigh McCain’s points with some seriousness. But before it went any further, McCain recanted his challenge, chuckled and then suddenly said that the nation needed his work on the world financial crisis more than it needed him for president. He looked at Obama earnestly, then apologized for making a fool of himself and left the studio. The judges, after a three-hour debate, decided to give Obama two points, thus winning him the game and the election by a score of 6 to 5.

CBS' "60 Minutes": The Ultimate Poker Cheat Gamble

I came across this very interesting piece written by Wendeen H. Eolis about CBS' upcoming segment about online poker cheating scandals and its implications. Definitely worth a read!

Until CBS correspondent Steve Kroft and his 60 Minutes crew arrived at the World Series of Poker last summer, the biggest buzz in the tournament arena had centered on Harrah's decision to delay the final table proceedings of the main event until November 9th.

Will WSOP or 60 Minutes Play Second Fiddle?

The WSOP finale will air "nearly live." The final nine players will duel November 9th until they are down to two players. The last two players will return November 10th to determine the winner and runner up, and the event will be broadcast by ESPN November 11th.

Meanwhile, insiders in the poker world are holding their collective breath wondering if the WSOP festivities may be upstaged by Mr. Kroft's highly anticipated piece, which may be slated for November 9th, the same night the final table players ("November 9") reconvene for their final duels. Rumors of the November 9th airing date are hot and heavy-not only in poker circles but also in at least one CBS corridor

Writer's Disclosure:

In the interest of full disclosure, CBS has been a client of a company in which I have an interest. Friends at CBS have provided various off the record information and comments that have been helpful to my presentation of this article. Both investigations to which I refer are instructive in understanding the mindset of news organizations and the trickiness in participating in a story over which you have no control.

Online Cheating is Publicly Exposed

Last summer, Mr. Kroft was openly on the prowl, with an apparent plan to nail down a compelling story about the multi-billion dollar online poker industry, and more particularly about various claims of large-scale cheating scams in online poker rooms. CBS asked WSOP officials for access to its fabled Amazon Room to shoot interviews for the proposed piece. Harrah's obliged. One Harrah's executive has said, "It was not a comfortable situation, but what else could we do?"

The Kroft team set up shop, welcoming several well known poker personalities to the interviewing table. Over several months- before and after Kroft's WSOP visit-60 Minutes investigators reportedly talked with a wide range of sources. Most of them were anxious to remain off-camera and out of the limelight.

The Makings for a Show

Among those interviewed by 60 Minutes was Nat Arem, an internet player and key researcher in both the Absolute and Ultimate Bet scams. He is generally credited with having unearthed the smoking guns that brought public admissions by Tokwiro Enterprises of its own discovery of cheating at both sites. Tokwiro Enterprises, a tribal gaming company domiciled near Montreal, is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. Tokwiro also conceded that it had delayed telling its customers of these findings, and has since been severely fined by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission.

Even with proof positive of crucial information, approval for production of a 60 Minutes segment apparently does not proceed on automatic pilot or at the whims of a correspondent. It is reportedly a laborious process in which vetting the extensive information obtained in an investigation is one part of it and analyzing potential interest by the mainstream public is an important second part.

Cheating Claims Pre-Date Online Sites

This is not the first time that 60 Minutes has been intrigued by alleged cheating in poker games. Several years ago, two renowned cheaters-calling themselves the Gambling Cheaters Analysts (GCA)- contacted the program, offering to reveal the unseemly underbelly of the poker world and rampant cheating schemes, particularly in California mega-card rooms.

In the case of 60 Minutes' GCA investigation, their researchers poured through thousands of internet poker Usenet group postings, not only from the cheaters, but also by other protagonists, including a highly respected player turned investigatory sleuth. A 60 Minutes team hopped planes to California and Washington State to interview the cheaters and other players for a bruising exposé. They returned home poised to go forward, but higher-ups slowed down the process. The program's bosses were intent on scoring top names, in a high stakes game, at a ritzy casino in Las Vegas for on-camera interviews. The proposed segment was summarily dropped-without ever completing investigation of the cheaters' allegations, once it became clear the desired glitz wasn't going to fall into place.

60 Minutes Gets Lucky

The poker celebrities that have participated (or have agreed to participate) in filmed interviews, all have had historical connections with online poker sites. In contrast to the obstacles that the 60 Minutes reporting team faced last time around, this year's investigation of poker cheating has been a walk in the park for Kroft and his crew. CBS not only secured the glamorous WSOP venue as a backdrop for filming, but also a parade of high profile poker personalities who were champing at the bit to speak their piece on national television. They also lucked out with a bevy of brilliant researchers for free-internet poker players who were wizards in analyzing statistics and motivated to do the work and publicize it.

The poker celebrities that participated in filmed interviews all had historical business connections with online poker sites-Linda Johnson and Mike Sexton with their associations with Party Poker, WSOP Champion Greg Raymer as a current member of Team Poker Stars, and Mark Seif as a long-time sponsored player at Absolute Poker. Seif was apparently unfazed by the unpleasant scrutiny he had earlier faced on online poker forums questioning his ties with Absolute Poker. Instead, Seif took the lead, long before Kroft showed up in town, to opine publicly on the "wonderful opportunity" that the 60 Minutes segment would provide-a chance for online poker industry representatives to make the case for taxing and regulating online gaming.

Poker Players Alliance Has a Plan

Most of the poker participants, including many of the internet players who helped to bring pressure on Tokwiro to insure a full, credible internal investigation, actively support the goals of the Poker Players Alliance. The PPA seeks "to establish favorable laws that provide poker players with a secure, safe and regulated place to play." Johnson and Raymer are members of the PPA's Board of Directors.

It is not yet known whether Kroft's on-camera interviewees outplayed their host so as to turn potential bad press into a golden opportunity for advocacy of congressional legislation that will allow online gaming in an appropriately taxed and regulated environment.

Harrah's Gambles Too

At the time that Harrah's welcomed the 60 Minutes crew to the WSOP there was not yet any hint of searing evidence of cheating by a former World Series of Poker Main Event Champion. Earlier this month, however, Tokwiro Enterprises publicly fingered 1994 WSOP winner Russ Hamilton as the chief perpetrator and beneficiary of a multi-million dollar cheating scam at the Ultimate Bet site.

This is the kind of material for which 60 Minutes salivates- a glamorous venue, a powerful link between the venue and the story line, a group of high profile participants and a top name in the thick of the intrigue. The story has powerful legs and is better than a good bet to air-sooner rather than later.

Hopefully the collective cooperation of responsible members of the poker community with the 60 Minutes investigation will prove beneficial, by promoting the very sensible mission of the Poker Players Alliance.

Was Ex-WSOP Champ and Alleged Online Scammer Mastermind Russ Hamilton Once My Casino Cheating Partner?

I have been getting tons of e-mails lately asking me if Russ Hamilton, the 1994 WSOP Main Event Champion and alleged mastermind of the $60 million UltimateBet cheating scandal, was ever a member of any of my infamous casino cheating teams. If you’re wondering why people all over the world suspect that Hamilton was once my casino cheating partner, I will refer you to “Dirty Poker,” my 2006 exposé of the poker cheating worlds, both online and off. If you read the book, you may remember that I revealed that a former WSOP champion had once indeed been my partner cheating casinos before he became famous as a poker player. And now that Russ Hamilton has been exposed as an alleged master online poker cheat, people are putting one and one together…or at least they think they are. So, what gives then? Is Hamilton indeed my ex-casino cheat partner? Well, maybe I’d like to say yes, but I have to say no—because he wasn’t. The truth is that the WSOP champion who once was my casino cheating partner is more famous than Russ Hamilton ever was as a poker player, probably still even more famous than Hamilton is now infamous. Of course I know you want me to reveal who that person is, but I can’t for now. I cannot prove his association with me, so if I were to name him I would be open to a libel suit. I do, however, promise that if ever cheating allegations such as those against Hamilton surface against my ex-WSOP champ cheating partner, I will come right out and identify him as such.

And no, it is not Jennifer Tilly! If you read this post carefully, you know it was a man.

UltimateBet Adds Poker Pro Player Adam Levy To Its Team To Help Quell Cheating Rep!

UltimateBet has added Adam Levy, a well respected poker player with more than $1.6 million in online poker tournament winnings, to its team. According to Annie Duke, who has more or less become UltimateBet’s spokeswoman, Levy is an online poker player with the utmost integrity, and both she and Levy have expressed their wishes that lost players who were either victimized by the site’s giant $60 million insider hole-card reading scam or quit the site because of it will return to UltimateBet’s games and tournaments. As far as Levy goes, I do not have any information suggesting his involvement in any poker cheating scams, online or off, although I cannot vouch for the integrity that Duke has assigned to him. In any event, if there is another major online poker scam at either Absolute Poker or UltimateBet, I am going to contact them and ask them to sign me up as a member of their team! LOL!