Poker All-In Forums

Blackjack Bad Beat

janeashley22 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:55:26 GMT

Blackjack Bad Beat - Win a Free Seat to 1 Million Final
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janeashley

Play Blackjack - Win a Chance for 1 Million

Forum: Poker Rooms

Equity Tournaments

Poker_All_In — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:49:05 GMT

Duplicate Poker claimed to be 100% legal because of the their set up. When they went broke last week it got me thinking is there away where you could maybe take more of the luck out and make the game more skilled based?

Also when I watch high stake poker they like to run the hands two or three times to try and take some of the luck out so they don't have such huge swings.

Don't get me wrong, I do like poker just the way it is but sometimes I'd like to take a little more luck out of it.

Was wondering about maybe having some tournaments that were called equity tournaments. When you get your money in the middle you can decide weather you want the equity of your hand, or to go ahead and gamble and play it out.

For example, let's say your in a tournament and you happen to be at the same table as another chip leader. You both get it in, and you have AA, and your opponent has KK. He has enough chips that if he gets lucky here and hits a king he can cripple you.

You don't want to risk all your chips but you are a 4 to 1 favorite. In an equity tournament you could have a little window open and ask if you want to take the equity of your hand or play it out. If you take the equity of your hand in this spot you would win 80% of the hand without risking it. On the other side the guy with KK could decide if he wanted to gamble or take 20% of the pot.

I guess a downside would be that if the player with AA decides he wants his equity and he takes 80% of the pot, then the player with KK decides to gamble and hits a King and wins the entire pot, you would have to be adding chips to the tournament.

Forum: Poker

Greeting

Martin8 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:55:06 GMT

Hi there,

My name is Martin and I enjoy playing Texas Holdem.

Forum: Anything goes

Where would they be without poker?

Poker_All_In — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:22:57 GMT

I got these off of 2 plus 2, a bunch of posters photo shopped these and I thought they were pretty good.

Originally Posted by Watchmaker

Forum: Poker

More on the UB Cheating Scandal

Poker_All_In — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:46:32 GMT

I got this off the site pocket fives.com

Here are some good clifffnotes from "vizer02" on 2+2:

Here is my attempt at the cliffnotes from the Annie Duke a Liar thread. Some of these cliffnotes were paraphrased from NoLimitLeagues' cliffnotes, found here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...t=#post5022980

1. Brainwashdodo, a person who claims to be a UB employee, posts for the first time in the Annie Duke a liar? thread, alluding to additional information he may have.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...13&postcount=9

2. Brainwashdodo makes a post showing a screenshot taken from the UB admin panel. This is not the real NioNio account, as this one was created 04/19/2008 and is a play money account only.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...9&postcount=71

3. Brainwashdodo makes a post showing transaction audits for the following UB accounts: PhilHelmuth, kid55, and Fred-.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...4&postcount=82
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...8&postcount=87

4. Brainwashdodo also makes a post with 4 links to screenshots taken from the UB admin panel. He shows the account info for kid55, mamamiya, buckskin, and ShaqTack. These screenshots were later removed due to personal info being available on them; however here are two of them with the personal info removed. The kid55 account belongs to Freddy Deeb and the Buckskin account belongs to Lyle Berman. Several people assumed Freddy had a part in the cheating, but as of now there is no proof of that except for the fact that his account was suspended 1 day before the ShaqTack account was suspended, with the exact same comment (Acct disabled. Do not re-open. Any inquiries please forward to Paul/Nolen. SAraya/ub sec, Tkt #8313668.)
http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/3765/buck2tq6.jpg
http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/9540/kid2ok9.jpg

5. UB releases a new statement regarding the investigation:

Status Update on NioNio Investigation
July 8, 2008 -

UltimateBets continuing investigation has confirmed that other usernames, in addition to those previously identified on this site, were associated with the cheating scandal.

The additional usernames include: Crackcorn55, , GrabBag123, gravitation, Bgroup, H_Curtis, Twenty 1, WacoManiac, Broke_In_L_A, ShaqTack, BlueBerry101, 55WasHere, Xnomas, dannyboy55, Indy05, SlimPikins2. The same perpetrators we had previously identified controlled all of these usernames; there are no new perpetrators involved, only new usernames.

We have also confirmed that the cheating dates back further then we initially believed. We can now confirm that the cheating began in January 2005, long before Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG acquired UltimateBet from the previous ownership.

Tokwiro regrets that we did not discover this scheme during our due diligence when we purchased UltimateBet in October 2006, and that we did not identify the fraudulent activity until this recent investigation. We remain committed to our players, and to resolving this problem completely. We will start refunding players for any net losses in hands played with the usernames listed above once we complete our investigation.

Tokwiro considers itself to have been a victim of this fraud and we are continuing to explore our legal options. As part of this effort, we are compiling all of the information we have gathered in regard to the perpetrators and their activities, for possible use in any legal action.

We will continue to provide updates on our investigation, as we are still looking at a few accounts. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the poker community for their invaluable contributions to this investigation and remind them that we remain committed to fully examining any claims of fraud that we receive.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this investigation, please contact us at pokersecurity@ultimatebet.com

6. NoLimitLeagues analyzes the posts from Brainwash and notices ShaqTack (a known cheating account on UB) had gone through several name changes, including WhakMe, slimpikins2, HolyMucker, and broke_in_l_a, however WhakMe and HolyMucker werent listed on UBs original statement. UB added WhakMe and HolyMucker to their statement after this observation was posted on 2+2. Also, later Trabopoline talks to Paul, the current CEO of UB, who says it was simply a coincidence that the two names were added late.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...9&postcount=94
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=956

7. People start analyzing the transaction audits posted by Brainwashdodo, and the biggest piece of info in these transaction histories showed that -Fred- made a transaction to ShaqTack for $10,000. ShaqTack was one of the known cheating accounts. Also, it seems that the accounts RussHamilton and russh- were funding other accounts through the Fred- account because of transfers like the following. This is important because Russ Hamilton is a previous owner of UB. The Fred- account appears to be an account primarily used to transfer funds to an assortment of players.

a. 517706057 50000.00 Transfer From RussHamilton 2006-DEC-11 04:49:01 PM customer req
517687967 -50000.00 Transfer To Poppychullo 2006-DEC-11 04:41:25 PM customer req

b. 525311086 10000.00 Transfer From RussHamilton 2006-DEC-16 03:58:12 PM customer req
525251767 -10000.00 Transfer To slug2 2006-DEC-16 03:12:52 PM customer req

c. 377361587 40000.00 Transfer From -russh- 2006-SEP-03 05:40:03 PM customer req
377269310 -10000.00 Transfer To ShaqTack 2006-SEP-03 04:26:02 PM customer req
374958034 -5000.00 Transfer To crosdsr 2006-SEP-02 01:20:13 AM customer req
374406862 -30000.00 Transfer To Devilfish 2006-SEP-01 06:38:09 PM customer req

8. Trambopoline explains that the email address that was registered to the NioNio account was the same one that was registered to the H B account. The H B account was also funded by the Fred- account. The name listed as the owner of the H B account is Haim Bajayo.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=315
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=329
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=789

9. Annie Duke does an interview on PokerRoad radio. She says that Brainwashdodo was trying to blackmail UB. She explains how the cheating was supposedly done, and states that UB is now probably one of the safest sites to play on. She responds to questions about the interview here:
http://www.pocketfives.com/poker-for...erview-3063139

10. People begin posting contact information of people who might know something about the UB software, in case 2+2ers investigating this topic want to get in touch with them and try to ask questions. Several of the people are former programmers and developers of the UB software who worked for ieLogic (developers of UB software) and IOvation (another software company tied to UB). Im only listing these because someone requested they be added to the cliffnotes so someone can try questioning them. The last post talks a little more about UBs connection with ieLogic.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=989
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=989
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...postcount=1137
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...postcount=1139
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...postcount=1141
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=932

11. N 82 50 24 posts this summary regarding the known information of the cheating accounts:

Okay, so these are the total names release by AP and UB:
The following account names are known to have been used in the fraudulent activity:

NioNio
Sleepless
NoPaddles
nvtease
flatbroke33
ilike2win
UtakeIt2
FlipFlop2
erick456
WhackMe44
RockStarLA
stoned2nite
monizzle
FireNTexas
HeadKase01
LetsPatttty
NYMobser
WhoWhereWhen

The additional usernames include:

Crackcorn55
WhakMe
GrabBag123
gravitation
Bgroup
H_Curtis
Twenty 1
WacoManiac
Broke_In_L_A
ShaqTack
BlueBerry101
HolyMucker
55WasHere
Xnomas
dannyboy55
Indy05
SlimPikins2

a. In the first set of names, we know that:

NioNio was changed to NYMobser on Sep 5th, 2007. His other account name was H B. The name on the account was Haim Bajayo and the email was isrelly@aol.

Also, nvtease, sleeplesss and NoPaddles are the same account. It went in the following order... Until April 6th, 2007, the account was known as nvtease. From that point until Sept 5th, 2007 (same date as above), the account was known as NoPaddles. After Sept 5th, 2007, the account was known as sleeplesss.

In addition, the name on that account was Lauren Makar and the address was a Las Vegas address. I won't release the address on here because, more than likely, the person was innocent. Does anyone know how to look up property ownership records in some database? If so, post a link/explanation. Also, if you know the name Lauren Makar, please let us know.

Lastly, this account cashed out WAAAAY more than it should have. Like hundreds of thousands of dollars that was not won at the table. It seems like it was a money funnel of some kind.

I feel pretty bad releasing names because these people were probably just pawns being used by the real cheaters, but if it comes down to that, the people with this info will just have to do that until something comes out. The dirt is out there.

12. N 82 50 24 promptly followed up that post with this groundbreaking post, basically stating that the physical address listed for the nvtease/NoPaddles/sleepless accounts (confirmed superuser accounts) is owned by Russ Hamilton, the prior owner of UB.

a. OMG wow...

http://sandgate.co.clark.nv.us/servlet/Assessor?instance=pcl2&parcel=13819810002

The address is

138-19-810-002 HAMILTON RUSSELL & CAROLYN *20060523:03704 05/23/2006 JOINT TENANCY 200 SUBDIVIDED LOT

Okay people, the address on three of the accounts is owned by Russ and Carolyn Hamilton.

Any questions?

FWIW, this was the info given out by a UB whistleblower (not brainwash, as far as I know):

Customer ID: Token ID: Username: Status: Creation Date: Update Date:UNITED STATES Customer Phone: 702326xxxx Customer Birthdate: 1967-xx-xx Email Information: Address: atease@vegasinbox.com

I got rid of some information like the birthdate and phone number to protect whoever Lauren Makar is.

b. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=5074616&postcount=1425

13. UBdataRus posts a screenshot of some of the nopaddles accounts winnings from poker
http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?i...paddlesgl7.gif

14. There is still speculation about who still owns UB. A post from Dan Druff on NWP:

Wow.

There's more to this story from an NWP angle that meets the eye, which I'll talk about in more detail later.

Basically, when we were investingating the AP Superuser scandal (in the fall of 2007), a confidential source told me that Russ Hamilton really still owned AP and UB, and that the "sales" were pretty much a cover-up in post-UIGEA times.

I posted it as an NWP front page story and on 2+2.

Very shortly thereafter, we got a tilt phone call from Russ Hamilton where he was SCREAMING on Dustin's voice mail, demanding that we call him.

I called him, and he told me that what I posted was blatantly false. He demanded that I take those posts/stories down, as I was putting him in jeopardy of being investigated by the Justice Department. Since I had no proof at the time, and was simply quoting a confidential source, I decided it was better that I take the whole thing down. While it was very newsworthy if true, it could also be very damaging if false, and I didn't feel comfortable leaving it up under those circumstances.

Given what has come to light, now perhaps everything makes more sense.

Forum: Poker

Ultimate Bet Cheating Scandal Statement Released

Poker_All_In — Thur, 29 May 2008 19:35:04 GMT

I got this from pocket 5's

Ultimate Bet Cheating Scandal Statement Released

By Dan

The online poker world has been buzzing in recent weeks over the cheating scandal that has erupted at Ultimate Bet. Coming on the heels of a similar scandal at UBs sister site, Absolute Poker, the irregular activity at UB culminated on Thursday, when UB released a statement. PocketFives.com has an inside look at UBs statement.

The statement sums up the findings of the investigation: The investigation has concluded that certain player accounts did in fact have an unfair advantage, and that these accounts targeted the highest limit games on the site. The individuals responsible were found to have worked for the previous ownership of UltimateBet prior to the sale of the business to Tokwiro in October 2006.

How did the cheating occur? UB explains, The fraudulent activity was enabled by unauthorized software code that allowed the perpetrators to obtain hole card information during live play. The existence of this vulnerability was unknown to Tokwiro until February 2008 and existed prior to UltimateBets acquisition by Tokwiro in October 2006. Our investigation has confirmed that the code was part of a legacy auditing system that was manipulated by the perpetrators.

Back in January, UltimateBet was given notice of potential cheating by the account NioNio. The account was suspended in order to investigate. NioNio had won an abnormally large percentage of the time. A thread on twoplustwo noted that, at one point, NioNio had won in 13 of his last 14 sessions for $135,000. He had been winning at 114 big blinds per 100 hands.

In February, UltimateBets investigation confirmed that the suspicious accounts belonged to individuals who had worked for UltimateBet under the previous ownership, according to the press release issued Thursday. The cheating occurred over a 20 month period from March 6, 2006 to December 3, 2007. Account names that were used included NioNio, Sleepless, NoPaddles, nvtease, flatbroke33, ilike2win, UtakeIt2, FlipFlop2, erick456, WhackMe44, RockStarLA, stoned2nite, monizzle, FireNTexas, HeadKase01, LetsPatttty, NYMobser, and WhoWhereWhen.

UltimateBet claims to have removed the code that enabled these accounts to cheat in February, 2008. The process of refunding customers will now begin. In addition, the press release states, UltimateBet customers are no longer permitted to change account names unless they have suffered abuse in chat rooms. More importantly, Accounts related to the fraudulent activity have been disabled, and the individuals associated with those accounts permanently banned from the site. UBs parent company is also pursuing legal action.

A new addition to UltimateBet in the future will be a state of the art Security Center. The press release describes how it will work: The first release of the new Security Center focuses solely on the immediate detection of abnormal winnings. Gaming mathematicians, poker professionals, and security software developers have all contributed to the specifications for the new Security Center. A Poker Security team will compliment the Security Center and focus on preventing fraud.

Ultimate Bet, like Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. The site opened for business in 1999. Phil Hellmuth and PocketFiver Annie Duke currently serve as the faces of the site. The site just announced that PocketFiver Cliff johnnybax Josephy is the newest member of Team UB.

To read the statement released by UltimateBet in its entirety, click here.
For a complete Q&A on the scandal, click here.

Forum: Poker

Cheating Pays in online Poker

Poker_All_In — Sat, 10 May 2008 07:30:48 GMT

Growing up, I was always told cheaters never win, crime doesn't pay, etc. etc. etc. I'm sure you have heard all of them too.

Well, in the poker world these days, it seems not only does cheating pay, it pays well.

This week I heard that Justin Bonomo signed a pretty lucrative deal with Bodog Poker to become a spokesman for them.

Justin was a top ranked online player until he was caught in a cheating scandal and had his account banned on Poker Stars. Basically what Justin was doing was multi accounting, he'd enter the same multi table tournament more than once. Well he won the Sunday Million on Poker Stars, had his account investigated and was found to have other entries in the tournaments. He was banned by Poker Stars, and had his winnings frozen.

Also recently another pro Sorel Mizzi who was also caught cheating on Full Tilt poker signed a deal with Bet Fair poker. What Sorel Mizzi was doing I consider even worse than what Bonomo was doing. Mizzi was buying poker accounts from other players when they were getting deep into tournaments.

Basically what he was doing, was whenever a friend was getting deep into a tournament he'd pay a certain amount of money to finish the tournament for them. The players he was taking over the accounts would get a bunch of chips together, then Mizzi would finish the tournament for them.

Imagine if you are in a live tournament and early in the tournament you knock Phil Ivey out. Now you are getting deep into the tournament and Phil Ivey sits at your table. I thought we had already knocked Ivey out, well Ivey basically bought back into the tournament. So you had thought you had knocked one of the best players in the world out of the tournament, just to find him at the head table with a chip lead.

What bothers me about these two situations is both of these players have been caught cheating online and had their accounts banned on certain sites. Now they have been hired by other online poker sites to be spokesmen for them.

In a way these sites condone cheating. How can they tell the average player that multi accounting, or buying an account is wrong, when they have spokesmen who have been caught doing this.

Also I don't like what this says for the game of online poker. Online poker has just had a major cheating scandal on Absolute Poker where two people high up in the company where playing and seeing hole cards. It's believed that they stole nearly 7 million from their customers.

We are fighting a fight to make online poker legal and make it legit. How can it be legit, and how can players trust these poker sites when high ups outright cheat, and they hirer cheaters to promote their product?

Forum: Poker News

WSOP to delay final table

Pocket_Aces — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:18:11 GMT

I don't know if anybody seen this, but the world series of poker is planning on delaying the final table.

The plan is to let ESPN do all the editing, show it on tv up to the final table, then show the final table live.

Was wondering what some of your thoughts are on this?

Forum: Poker

Taking Coin Flips early in MTT

Pocket_Aces — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:05:42 GMT

I was listening to a radio show the other day and they got into a discussion about taking coin flips early in a MTT tournament.

I believe the person they were talking to was an online pro and his nickname was the Waco Kid.

His stance was that he never passes up a situation to gather chips that is +EV. So if on the first hand of a tournament a guy moves all-in, accidentally shows AK, he has pocket 2's and knows he will be heads up, he says he will call this every time.

It kind of goes against what I first learned about playing poker tournaments. I normally play survival mode and pass up little edges.

Was wondering what others thought of this?

Forum: Poker

ePassporte Discontinues US Poker Deposit Services

Poker_All_In — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:14:08 GMT

I got this from Poker News
http://www.pokernews.com/news/2008/04/epassporte-discontinues-us-poker-deposit-services.htm

According to reports emanating from numerous sources, online payment processor ePassporte has discontinued its deposit services to online poker sites for US residents. A statement announcing ePassporte's decision to withdraw was previously mailed to officials of sites using the service, details of which are now being leaked to the general public.

To date, ePassporte has not issued a public statement on their decision to withdraw, but were pressured by US authorities to exit the market. As ePassporte's letter stated, the move was in response to "a widespread investigation of Internet gambling, including poker, by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Southern New York." This is the same jursidiction involved in the high-profile case against NETeller founders Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre last year. The ePassporte letter also included this: "Although we do not believe we have done anything illegal, we do not wish to be associated with anything that might be considered illegal by the United States Government."

Poker-discussion forums were abuzz with the news that ePassporte had disappeared as a deposit option on major sites serving the US market. One major site formerly offering ePassporte services, Full Tilt, communicated in an e-mail that, "We have recently been notified by ePassporte that they are no longer able to facilitate deposits or withdrawals between ePassporte and Full Tilt Poker player accounts." Also frequently excerpted on forums was an e-mail from CakePoker, which said in part, "We have received notice from ePassporte today that they are unable to continue to provide CakePoker with merchant e-wallet services. We have since confirmed that this situation is not unique to CakePoker and is, in fact, industry wide."

EPassporte continues to have a thriving business in other market sectors. Some industry watchers believed that the firm's previous decision to service only online poker, and not other forms of online gambling, would protect the company regarding specific US legal moves against online gambling. Unofficial reports suggest that customers are still able to withdraw ePassporte funds from their online accounts via electronic file transfer and ATM card methods.

Forum: Poker

Any good strategies for Razz Poker?

White — Thur, 06 Mar 2008 12:35:57 GMT

Hello to all the poker lovers.I am genuinely interested in poker games but the area I am keenly interested is Razz Poker. I have been trying my hand on this and I have developed a liking for this. I want to be good at this game and for this I would like to know any good strategies that can help me to be a better player.

Hope that you people would help your poker friend.

Forum: Poker

Chris Vaughn and Sorel 'Imper1um' Mizzi Speak, Part 2

Poker_All_In — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 20:02:14 GMT

Online Poker: Chris Vaughn and Sorel 'Imper1um' Mizzi Speak, Part 2

December 06, 2007
John Caldwell

In Part One of our interview with Sorel and Chris, we learned about the facts concerning the sale of Vaughn's account the night he won the Full Tilt $1 Million Guaranteed.

In Part Two of the interview, we discuss the reaction of Full Tilt and the poker community as a whole. In addition, we discuss Vaughn's subsequent PokerStars Sunday Million win, and where Mizzi and Vaughn go from here.

John Caldwell: So, now, let's talk about the process of Full Tilt discovering that this had gone on. What was the first piece of communication you received and when did you know it was going to be a real issue?

Chris Vaughn: I guess someone contacted them and asked for an investigation. I assume they did this to PokerStars and Full Tilt both. Full Tilt found reason to believe that we were in violation of their rules. They temporarily suspended our accounts to investigate and the correspondence began. They had questions, and they had to use their technology to investigate what they thought happened and it took a couple weeks of just going back and forth. Their questions were pretty cut and dried, as in: What happened? Did you disconnect? That kind of thing.

JC: And so in the meantime your account was frozen?

CV: Correct.

JC: The money you couldn't cash out?

CV: Correct.

JC: And so that money is now on to Soren Kongsgaard? (Kongsgaard was the runner-up in the Full Tilt tournament in question.)

CV: Yes.

JC: Have you been officially told that your account has been closed at Full Tilt?

CV: Correct.

JC: So, is there any type of statement that says you're not welcome to open another account with them?

CV: Correct, yes there is.

JC: So, Sorel On to you. As an Internet pro, I assume not being able to play at Full Tilt is like a baseball player being told he can't play in the American League. How has this, and the surrounding attention, affected you?

Sorel Mizzi: The attention that I've received has been astronomical, both positive and negative. On the extreme side, the physical threats that I've received have been tough on me mentally, even if I don't believe them to be credible. And my goal in 2007 was to win the online player of the year. I was locked in and I felt my chances were very good. However, the inability to accumulate the necessary points by eliminating a huge resource in Full Tilt Poker has thrown these strong chances away. I am now limited as an online pro. I have lost good friends and my credibility.

JC: So, what can you say about this experience?

SM: Well, first of all I'd like to come out with an apology, because I know that what I did was wrong. The more I think about it, the more I believe what I did was wrong and it's something that I want the poker community to know that I would never do again. And my primary focus, like I said, was to be a contender for the online player of the year and because of all these things that have happened, my resource from Full Tilt has been cut off and I can no longer play on there, so I think I'm more inclined to focus on the live tournament arena and sort of move more away from online as the year ends. Hopefully people can forgive me for what I've done and I can move forward with my life and not be known as someone who cheats or someone who multi-accounts, rather, known for my achievements online and my achievements live. That's kind of what I'm hoping from the situation.

JC: You brought up something I think is interesting. You said that there's good elements and bad that have been reacted to positively and negatively. Tell me a little bit about the positive reaction. I assume this is from people from the culture of online poker who don't see this as problematic?

SM: There have been a lot of people and a lot of the PMs (personal messages) have been very positive, that I've gotten. There's a lot of people that don't think what I did was a huge issue and those people, instead of posting on the forums and getting lynched, they decided to PM me directly and tell me how they felt about the situation. And the truth of the matter is, the whole thing has been blown severely out of proportion and I think that I've suffered enough, to be honest. I mean, the fact that I can no longer make a run at the online player of the year, my account is closed on Full Tilt for good, I lost the good amount of money that would've been helpful and I've also lost a lot of people, or a lot of friends and a lot of fan base because of the issue. But the positive from it is like a lot of the players have come up to me personally and a lot of players have PM'ed me, like I said, and told me that they're still friends with me and they still believe in me and they still have trust for me and everything like that and I really appreciate those comments. Although there's a lot of people who seem to think that, this is not a big issue, the more and more I think about it, the more I realize that it is a big issue.

The support that I have received from both my family and close inner circle of friends has truly helped me cope with this disastrous situation. Even upon arriving to Las Vegas this week to play the Venetian and Five Diamond, having other big known pros pull me aside and offer support has helped me pick up a little bit. I have been advised as to my course of action and hope that everyone was able to see I felt a need to express myself in a professional and sincere manner. Most importantly, making light of the story in a setting that is both professional and appropriate. But, so yeah, I've received a lot of support from people that I know in the community and people who have said that they still think that I have a lot of potential for the future and that this situation shouldn't really affect me as much. A lot of people are optimistic that my reputation will be recovered and I'll have the credibility that I once did have and a lot of people have told me that this will all pass over which I'm really looking forward to happening.

JC: Chris, do you feel it's fair that you be held to a different standard because you are a member of the poker media?

CV: Separately from working in poker, I think that anyone who enters a poker tournament should be held to all of the same standards. I feel that any random player that plays the Sunday Million should have the same ethical standards that a poker journalist should have. That's not to say that poker journalists should have more standards than the average player or less. It's something that, maybe because of my opportunity to work in the poker media that I might understand better than some others, because I understand the history of online poker stuff like this and I understand the kind of trouble that can be gotten into by doing things like this, because I work for a major poker magazine. I obviously should've behaved myself in a much different manner, for sure.

JC: So, how have the people at Bluff reacted to you?

CV: They've treated this as a poor decision that I made, on my own, in my personal life. They've been very supportive of me. You know, the people I work with have been some of the people that have been most supportive through all this. I've had people that have had my back that have really helped me a lot that have offered me continued and pretty unconditional support, so, I'm very proud to be working there. They, I think, have shown a lot of character throughout this, when, I put them in a spot where they didn't necessarily even need to be.

JC: As Chris Vaughn, online poker player, how does it make you feel that there are going to be people out there, especially poker media people, who are going to say you're affiliated with something that was really, really bad for poker? How are you going to deal with that personally going forward and how do you deal with those people?

CV: I'm angry at myself and I expect other people to be angry at me. I wish there was something I could do. I can't. I think I just have to listen to their concerns and address them. I don't think there's any real response that I can give anyone at this point that's really going to change anything that we did. I can apologize, I apologize on behalf of myself, and on behalf of the magazine I work for. You know, it's embarrassing I'm embarrassed of myself.

JC: Chris, Let's talk about the Sunday Million tournament you won on October 28th. You and I have spoken a few times throughout this process. You have always maintained that you sat at your own computer, and played that tournament with absolutely no assistance from any other player, is that correct?

CV: Correct.

JC: Ok, and every piece of evidence out there seems to indicate that that is exactly what happened. Anything to say about Stars? Has Stars been in touch with you at all?

CV: No, not at all.

JC: And your account is still open and active?

CV: Sure. I play on it all the time.

JC: Last question for you both, let's start with you, Chris. Who do you feel personally the worst for in this entire situation?

CV: We've both been through a lot in this. We've taken a lot of heat. We've taken a lot of heat in different ways. It's hard to say. You said "feel bad." The best way to put it is I feel sorry for myself. It's difficult to wake up and think about this everyday for sure. Do we deserve it? Probably. You know, it's a hard lesson learned. You deal with it everyday you wake up, you try not to read the posts, you read them. It's ruined a lot of days, it's ruined a month, but you just have to deal with it one day at a time and yes, it's real easy to feel sorry for yourself. But I think you have to accept blame and as far as feeling bad, I think you have to feel bad for the players that were involved in the tournament where you cheated them out of their money. All of a sudden they're playing a world-class player. It was me and now all of a sudden, you were putting

JC: A world-class player in your seat?

CV: Sure, right, and of course once you realize what's happened, you start to accept that and you really start to feel bad for everyone else that was involved. It's hard not to feel bad for Sorel too because he's gonna feel this a lot more than I will. It sucks for everyone.

JC: Sorel, same question for you. Who do you feel the worst for in this situation?

SM: I feel equally bad for me, as I do for Chris, as I do for the players involved in this. To be perfectly honest, at the time, I didn't think of how it would affect the players as much as the financial gain and playing the tournament. I think I had a really bad Sunday that time, so it was a new opportunity for me and I was excited about it. But, I think that we all have equally suffered from this. The poker sites have probably suffered a little bit, and we have suffered. To have that amount of money taken away from us, and the suspension of the accounts and Chris being a respected member of the media. It's just been a really terrible situation for everyone and it's something that should've never happened and I think that we all, equally, have suffered. I think that Chris and I have suffered the same amount as the players have suffered. I really hope that everyone can move forward and forget about the situation. I have had a clean track record online for over two years and nothing like this has ever happened and I hope that people will respect me like they once did and look at me as ambassador of the game, because that's what I want to be. I want to be an ambassador for the game because I love poker and I love everything about it and it's something I see myself doing for a very long time.

JC: Sorel, when someone sees you on the tournament floor what do you want them to know?

SM: I want them to think of a young, nave 21-year-old who made a mistake and is trying to put it all behind him and move forward. I think I've grown through this situation and I've realized that a lot of my morals and beliefs have changed about the situation and I want them to think that I am working on a better me and I'm trying. I want them to think that I've gained maturity throughout this whole situation and that it's something that I never see myself doing again and it's something that I look down upon.

Statement from Bluff Media on the Chris Vaughn situation:

"Bluff Media in no way, shape, or form condones the actions of Chris Vaughn. We were extremely unhappy, and disappointed. However we feel that Chris has always acted in a professional manner at BLUFF in the past, and we have no plans for terminating his employment with the company. He has been given a warning, and is on probation. We hope that we can all move past this, and learn from it."

Forum: Poker

Chris Vaughn and Sorel 'Imper1um' Mizzi Speak, Part 1

Poker_All_In — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 19:58:42 GMT

December 05, 2007
John Caldwell

Before Oct. 21st, Chris Vaughn was generally known in the poker world because of his work as Managing Editor for Bluff Magazine. On that night, Vaughn won the $1 Million Guaranteed on Full Tilt under his 'BluffMagCV' screen name. Not only had lightning struck, but it would soon seem to have struck twice, for a week later Vaughn virtually repeated the feat, capturing (as 'SlippyJacks') the Sunday Million on PokerStars. Other players dreamed about a similar breakthrough performance.

Except rumors were quickly afoot that the first of the victories officially posted by Vaughn wasn't quite what it seemed, that in fact this might have been a case of 'account selling' --- the practice of turning over an account late in a major online tournament to a potent, star online player. The practice has come to light only in recent months, after several account-selling incidents were discussed on major poker forums. It was quickly recognized that a star player taking over one of these accounts was gaining a significant edge over his remaining players, who would have no idea that a new tough player, perhaps with a radically different style, had suddenly assumed a seat at the table.

Had that happened here? No one knew for sure, though speculation quickly focused on young online star Sorel 'Imper1um' Mizzi, a friend of Vaughn's. An investigation into the Oct. 21st Full Tilt tournament soon began, and unofficial word of Mizzi's role in the tourney began to spread.

However, it wasn't until the runner-up in the Oct. 21st event, Soren Kongsgaard, recently posted an e-mail he had received from Full Tilt that the rumored disqualification of Vaughn's account was confirmed. Kongsgaard had suffered a tough loss at that, being blinded out during heads-up play after a lengthy loss of his Internet connection. The letter, though, confirmed that Kongsgaard would be moved up to the winner's spot, with all other money finishers in the event bumped up one spot as well.

Faced with the evidence and growing outcry on poker forums, Vaughn and Mizzi contacted PokerNews about going public with the events of that night and related matters. Vaughn and Mizzi agreed to a lengthy interview which will be presented here in two parts, detailing the purchase of Vaughn's account and the practice of account selling in general.

John Caldwell: Chris, tell me a little bit about where you were during your Full Tilt win. At what stage you started receiving communications and how you reacted to them and basically what happened after that?

Chris Vaughn: Oh, I think there was something around... I think we were at three tables left. I want to say maybe there were 24 people. I was below average stack I wasn't one of the shortest stacks but definitely below average. I don't remember time, details like that. I just remember that I had definitely had - had just gotten to the point where I was starting to really look at first, second, third, like those big numbers, you know? Realistically, in a poker tournament, you have to get really deep to really start looking at those numbers and I guess I - I had gotten that deep, for sure. So, I was playing it... obviously the situation I was in financially as a 24-year-old journalist the numbers got pretty big, you know? They were pretty effective, so this really led to I guess me talking to Sorel about this.

JC: So Sorel called you at some stage ?

CV: No, no no, what initially happened was I guess everyone in the half the field in the tournament had gotten disconnected at some point. I had started to lag, I guess is what they call it, a little bit. Which means, I wasn't timing out, but I was freezing a little bit, and I work like five minutes, literally from where I live. And so I was considering driving down to work. I'm more comfortable playing there, I play at work a lot most of the time, on Sundays, and I was considering playing there and , he was one of the people that I would trust to play while I did it. And, you know we were on instant messenger and I sent him a message and, it pretty quickly led to a discussion about selling the account rather than just letting him play for a few minutes. The reason I sold the account had nothing to do with my connection. The reason I initially contacted him probably more so had to do with connection, but selling the account was completely a financial decision and was in no way anything else.

JC: And so it was a financial thing, so you guys came to a deal on the spot for Sorel to buy the account.

CV: Correct.

JC: There were about 24 people left in the tournament, and at that point you, I assume, logged off.

CV: I gave him my password and he logged in.

PN: Right, so you logged off the account, and Sorel logged in. Sorel, is this something you do a lot and is it part of the gameplan? Is this the first time you've done this?

Sorel Mizzi: No, I'm not a I'm not a cheater; I'm not a multi-accounter. I acted fast without malice and didn't intend to hurt Chris and myself, opponents, or the entire poker community. This is something that was a one-time it was a one-time thing and I clearly didn't give it much thought, which is exactly why I got caught, because... of actually logging into his account which would be traced. But, I want to make it clear that this is something that was an isolated incident and it's not something that I've done in the past.

JC: So this is the first time you've ever done this you've never bought an account before online, late in a tournament?

SM: Never.

JC: ... and then taken it over?

SM: Right.

JC: So, are you aware though, the message boards and such would lead you to believe that there's sort of these 'associations,' for lack of a better word, of online players who do seek out players who are still in late in big Sunday tournaments and do buy the accounts or maybe ghost for a piece or something like that. And is that a common practice have you ever participated in that sort of thing?

SM: Well, there's a lot of speculation happening on the forums people want to believe what want to believe the worst. The fact of the matter is that yes, there's a lot of things going on where players are being ghosted in the middle or late in the late stages of the tournament by a better player and this is this is something that can never be regulated. And the fact that there is no one player per hand rule online really gives those people justification for doing this kind of thing. But, I know that it goes on in the high limits and in the low limits and there's absolutely nothing that can be done.

JC: So given that fact, which is something we hear a lot, that "there is no 'one player per hand' rule online and it's simply unenforceable," is this the kind of thing where you've done that type of stuff before, where you may have a guy who's down to eight players in a big tournament, and you'll sit behind him on Messenger and something and do that, or is that not your style?

SM: No, this isn't something like I said I mean, this isn't something I regularly do. You know, sometimes people ask me after the hand what they should've done in a situation and I gladly respond to that, but this isn't something I regularly do. You know, a lot of the reason I did what I did is because, not just because of the obvious monetary reward, but also because of the thrill of being deep in a tournament and I still get that that... {pauses}. I don't get deep in Sunday majors often and, when I have the opportunity to actually play deep in a tournament - it's a very... exciting thing for me, because and it's not just because of the money, it's because I love playing deep in a tournament. It's just a passion for - for playing poker, basically. But, to get back to your question, I haven't done this before in the past and I know that there are people who do this regularly and you know, like that's I mean I know it's not against the rules whether or not it's ethical or unethical is another question and that's for each individual person to decide for themselves, but, I mean....

JC: But let's specify that you're talking about ghosting here, as opposed to buying accounts.

SM: Right.

JC: It is against the rules if you buy an account.

SM: It is against the rules if you log into the computer, but as far as I know, I mean out of the five or six years that online poker has been has been going, no one's been penalized for this kind of activity. So, with that in mind, I never I didn't give it much thought and I didn't think what I was doing would cause this kind of the kind of uproar and the kind of....

JC: Drama?

SM: Yeah, that - that exact, that happened and it it was just all a shock to me, but, with that being said I still think what I did was wrong and I I feel disgusted at myself and I really I don't like the fact that it's been really hard for me to cope with it.

JC: When the scuttlebutt started coming out, obviously you spend a lot of time on message boards as well, so you're very familiar with that culture. But when the scuttlebutt on the message boards came out, hey "I hear this," "I hear that," whatever, were you concerned at that point that this would become an issue and if so, why didn't you take action then?

SM: So you're saying, when the first forum thread came out?

JC: Right, when the first forum thread came out, "We hear that CVBluffMag {Vaughn's Full Tilt account} was taken over by Sorel," or someone - anyone for that matter, and you knew it was yourself obviously, how did that make you feel and what did you do at that time and how do you feel about what you did?

SM: Well, I didn't really do anything. I kind of, I actually remember the night that I saw the post and the point that I was actually leaving to go on a flight the next morning to Vegas and I think I left looking at the post with like 70 or 80 responses and I kind of just let it evolve I kind of just let people speak about the issue rather than me talk about what I did or what happened. And I think it's not a very good environment, you know, the public forums to basically talk about this kind of issue because there's just way too much, {pauses} I mean, you've seen it there's just way too much hatred and it's just not pretty, so this is why I wanted to do this with PokerNews to basically address everyone's concerns in a professional manner in a professional atmosphere and I... I think that my initial reaction was just not to make a comment. I had planned on making a comment the very night after, but, I actually was scheduled to come to Vegas at twelve o'clock and my flight got overbooked, so I ended up coming late at night because I had to go to Phoenix first, so I actually saw the thread progress a day after a day after all the all the posts were made, so I didn't actually see what was going on until after. So I had decided initially not to make a response and then once I saw all the threads being made about it, I basically I didn't really know what to say I wanted to come out with an apology and basically tell the truth, but I was advised that I should do it in a more professional manner and not not resort to the forums, so.

JC: Chris, you did respond, online. The perception I got from reading the threads was that you had responded at some point.

CV: Yeah, I think the one response I remember making was I responded once on TwoPlusTwo saying that someone else had no involvement in this and my other post was to say that the interview would not be done with Bluff Magazine I think those are the only two times I ever posted on it.

JC: And you went on the 'BigPokerSundays' internet radio show on ThePokerRoad.com, and responded. I re-listened to that interview again last night.

CV: OK

PN: Do you regret what you said on there do you think Haralabos and Huff's assessment of what you said on there is fair?

CV: The question for one the question threw me off guard. I absolutely knew what they were talking about - I mean, obviously, I'm not stupid. It caught me off guard I didn't think they would ask it. I probably wouldn't have done the show, you know. It was I wasn't ready to be asked a question about this. You have to understand anytime either of us got asked anything about this. We're not talking about other people that have been in solo incidents. We're both involved in this and it's really difficult to answer questions like this when someone else is directly affected by what you say. But that being said, it threw me off guard and I just lied.

PN: And do you now regret that?

CV: Oh yeah, of course I do. I mean, it's I regretted it the second I got off the air, I was like oh, that's bad, that was that was bad what I just did I knew it was bad when I was saying it, I knew it was I mean it was just, it was my instinct to lie, I got caught off guard. It's just like when you, when this happened with the account, it was like is what I'm doing wrong? I know it's wrong, I absolutely know it's wrong. Even if I don't think I can get in trouble for it. Even if I'm not sure if it's against the rules. I know what I'm doing is wrong. I know it's unfair. It's just like when they asked me the question on the show, I panicked and I lied. You know, I I had the chance to apologize to Scott Huff one of the hosts of the show who's, who's really nice about all this. I just, I'd love to go back on the show and apologize. I hate that I lied about it. I wish that I could take it back and I wish I could go back right now and at least say no comment and wait for a better spot, you know, but yeah, I mean, absolutely I lied. I think everyone knows that now.

Forum: Poker

Chip Reese Dead at 56 :(

Poker_All_In — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 01:32:55 GMT

One of the Greatest High-Stakes Cash Game Players Passes On

David Chip Reese, the three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, longtime cash-game star, and member of the Poker Hall of Fame, has died. He was 56.

Card Player has learned that Reese was sent home from the hospital last night and passed away in his sleep. Card Player's original information reported that he died at the hospital.

Reese, the Ohio native who learned to play poker while attending Dartmouth, was a regular in the biggest cash games and was considered the best seven-card stud player in the world. Doyle Brunson held Reeses play in such high regard that he pegged him to pen the chapter on stud for his book Super System.

He affirmed his position as one of the worlds best all-around players in 2006 when he won the $50,000 WSOP H.O.R.S.E. event ($1.8 million). He also won bracelets in 1982 and 1978 ($5,000 limit stud and $1,000 stud split).

Please check back with CardPlayer.com for more information when further details become available.

Forum: Poker

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chipraker420 — Thur, 25 Oct 2007 18:01:45 GMT

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Forum: Anything goes