Posts Tagged ‘cliff josephy’

July 1, 2008

Rizen Relinqueshes UltimateBet Sponsorship

Eric Lynch Separates From UB Brand Less Than 30 Days After Signing

Eric “Rizen” Lynch announced yesterday on his blog that he is no longer associated with the UltimateBet brand.

He chose not to release any details:

After a lot of reflection and thought, I have decided to separate myself from the Ultimate Bet brand. I hope that everyone will respect my privacy, as I wish to not go into the decision in any great detail at this time. At this point in time I just believe that the things I’m trying to accomplish in my career are not in sync with the Ultimate Bet brand.

There are many interesting levels to this. Eric chose to sign on with UB as the online poker site just barely came clean about its superuser cheating scandal, and it came just after Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy signed a deal with UB. Evidently, Eric took a lot of crap from the forums for his decision, and whether that had anything to do with his withdrawal from the sponsorship remains to be told. But whatever made him end the deal must have been of a significant nature because he did it even before the main event of the WSOP.

Oh, and for those who thought the UB statement concluded the superuser scandal, it is by no means concluded. UB was careful to send out their statement of resolution the day before the WSOP began this summer, but what was not widely reported was another statement posted on the website less than a week later. It quietly notes that their oh-so-thorough investigation that took many months was not so thorough and numerous accounts involved in the scandal may have been missed.

Click below for the hush-hush sweep-it-under-the-rug release:

More…

Posted by California Jen at 1:33 pm

May 28, 2008

Why UB, Cliff?

It has been reported (and noted by Kajagugu) that Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy signed with UltimateBet to join its roster of pro players.

The interesting thing here is that most sites release a statement about new signings with a quote from the player. I’m so excited to be a part of this team, or something generic like that. But in this case, the only statement released was from Annie Duke: “A Star Player is one who has an undisputed high level of skill, lots of integrity, and is well respected in the world of online poker. One look at his impressive record reveals that JohnnyBax epitomizes a Star Player and is the perfect addition to our roster of respected and talented poker players.”

Strange that Cliff has nothing glowing to say about UB yet.

Even stranger that Cliff would sign with UB right now. RIGHT NOW. With bloggers calling them out, forum posters in a tizzy, and the poker community as a whole awaiting a non-forthcoming and much-delayed response to the cheating scandal, he signs a deal with the site.

*shaking my head*

UPDATE: Cliff did post the following on 2+2:

“Please understand that I would not sign with UB if I was not confident in current management. My signing with UB is contingent upon a satisfactory resolution of the “superuser” issue. I am hopeful a press release detailing the entire situation goes out shortly, players are reimbursed and satisfied, and UB can move forward and give players what they want.”

Posted by California Jen at 8:37 am