August 4, 2008
Justin Shronk is also disappointed in Tiffany Michelle’s decision to sign with UB, and he made no bones about his feelings in an open, thoughtful letter to her on the PokerRoad website. In his Pokerazzi column dated today, he notes that he wants the best for his friend but believes this sponsorship deal is not it, and he hopes she goes the way of Eric “Rizen” Lynch and detaches herself from the UB brand.
Shronk’s letter in full is reprinted here:
BACKGROUND: I worked with Tiffany Michelle as Multimedia Manager for PokerNews from February to October of ‘07. Tiffany was our first on-camera hostess at the LAPC in February ‘07 and we worked together everyday at the ‘07 WSOP. I still consider her a good friend and respected colleague.
Tiff,
As is everyone that knows you, I’m really proud of what you did in the recent WSOP Main Event – and not just for placing 17th, someone does that every year. I took genuine joy in watching the poise with which you handled yourself every single day of the tournament. Maybe it was the lack of testosterone, or maybe it was your experience in front of cameras and crowds, but it’s not often you see a first-timer displaying more class than a lot of the players who’ve been there before.
That being said, as proud and happy as I’ve been for you, I’ve been equally disappointed with some of your choices – namely your association with Ultimate Bet. At this point, no one needs the details of the cheating scandal spelled out, and you probably know more about it than I do. This letter isn’t meant as an indictment of Ultimate Bet as a company – for that you can read the news releases or forums. Ultimate Bet is presumably now as clean as any other site, but it’s the past behavior of their owners that makes your decision such a terrible one. The current owners of Ultimate Bet are accused of dishonest and borderline criminal activity – and by representing the site you’re helping these same people make money.
More…
July 1, 2008
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…
June 4, 2008
Happenings at the WSOP while Ultimate Bet has signed another known online player:
Update: Tom Schneider interview with Gary Wise at roundersradio.com sometime between 5 and 7pm PT
Things got underway at noon in event #7, $2,000 NL holdem, 1,593 put up the money in their chase for a bracelet. The $10k Mixed Event World Championship will get underway at 5pm. There’s been talk about how this will all turn out. Some have expressed their concerns about the structure. The WSOP structure sheet says that 8 hands of each game will be played. However, there’s no way they can get 64 hands dealt in an hour, so how will the rotation be dealt with the next increase in blind/ante level. With triple draw 2-7, will there be two players out of action in a hand while cards are dealt to the other 6? Imagine what David Singer would think of that!
Speaking of Singer, he’s currently at the $1,500 PL holdem final table, which is getting the cold shoulder from ESPN while they cover the more attractive to TV final table. The action at that table will start shortly.
The $1,000 NL/rebuys tournament is underway and in a shocking development, day 1 chip leader Phil Ivey is out before the money. Play is currently at hand-for hand, so expect a long 10-minute period of not-so agonizing bubble play. Also on their day 2 is the $1,500 Omaha 8 or better tournament, both tournaments should reach their respective final tables sometime early Thursday morning.
More later this evening…
