It didnt’t really bother me when Poker Spot folded, because that guy had history. And I laughed about the money Aces Poker stole, because anyone who trusted them couldn’t ever spot a cheat. The Ultimate Bet scandal wasn’t really that surprising, as we’d heard stories about him for years. And it never shocked me when they cheated me in Atlantic City, or went partners against me in Vegas, or at Foxwoods tried to do a runner with my funds. The nips, the moves, the cheats, the angle shooters, and those that were just plain thieves. For the past ten years when the stars put on their caps and badges and smiled for the TV, we used to smile to ourselves. And then we’d laugh as we’d tick off the big names in poker and say, “But he’s really just a little scumbag, isn’t he?” Because they pretty much all were. And that’s the way it’s always been.

I didn’t always think like that, of course, and neither did you. I came into poker just like yourself, wide eyed and dough faced and on the back of a little bit of luck. Full of passion for the game and a romantic view of the poker world and a desire to be accepted by the rambling gambling men who ruled. It’s natural when you have a pocketful of money and a bellyful of gamble and all the confidence in the world, it’s natural that when it comes to people you can be a little naïve. I certainly was, and so probably were you.

I’m ashamed that I have sat by in silence while you all cheated, stole, and lied. I know you, you thieving tournament directors, you scumbag poker players, you dirtbag angle shooters with your names stitched on your shirts. I know you. And I’m ashamed that I’ve sat here for twenty years and let you rule the poker world as long as I was still getting paid.

But you get wiser because you have to. My circle got small and my radar got sharp and I could count all the people that I could really trust on maybe one hand. And I told them they could trust me. And pretty much everyone else were scumbags and cheats. In poker, that’s the way it’s always been. That’s the way it’s been for me, and that’s the way it is for you. And we don’t ever talk out of turn. Because in this world if you shit where you eat, then you’ll end up hungry. That’s what you need to know about poker. That’s what you need to know about me.

I’ve been around long enough so that just one more scam, cheat, or mismanagement of funds, one more of those should be just like more water off another duck’s back. But something happened to me when Full Tilt Poker collapsed. This one is different. This has laid me low. It’s not just anger I feel, it’s not just disdain, and I can’t sit here like I always do and smile to myself and point fingers and call them scum. Because what I feel more than anything else right now, is shame.

I am ashamed of you, Howard, and you, Chris, as well. Your actions have made me ashamed. But I’m also ashamed of every one of you that owns Full Tilt Poker stock and has sat in silence. You don’t want to give that money back. It’s nothing to do with you. You were just someone getting paid. You’re sitting in silence and running around and playing in tournaments and talking to your lawyer and feeling sorry for yourself. Shame on you, shame on your silence every last one. But that’s not all. Shame on those of you taking money to wear logos now, in the past and in the future, no matter the site. I’m ashamed that your moral code stops at every paycheck, that you ignore and turn your back and sweep under the rug rather than demand an answer. I’m ashamed of your goddamn hypocrisy and your proclamations about morality while your hush money spills out of your goddamn ass. I’m ashamed of those of you who are quick to condemn another rather than ask those tough questions of yourself. I’m ashamed of those of you who are willing to turn a blind eye because it involves your friends. I’m ashamed that not one of you really care about anyone but yourself, because how could poker ever remotely be called a sport when none of you have a shred of respect? And I’m ashamed that a bunch of fat cat dot com millionaires will never ever be able to imagine any perspective other than their own.

Most of all, of course, I’m ashamed of myself. I’m ashamed that I have sat by in silence while you all cheated, stole, and lied. I refused to speak up. I know you, you thieving tournament directors, you scumbag poker players, you dirtbag angle shooters with your names stitched on your shirts. I know you. And I’m ashamed that I’ve sat here for twenty years and let you rule the poker world as long as I was still getting paid. I’m ashamed that I will demand all day for ethics, honesty, and transparency as long as there is no personal sacrifice involved. I’m ashamed that I only want to clean things up as long as they don’t affect the bottom line. You take your ethics and shove them. You take your integrity and stuff it. Shame on you. You’re no better than the rest of them. And I’m no better than you.

In glass houses, don’t throw stones. Know thyself. The most naïve thing any one of us could think is that what’s left is honest. The most cowardly thing any of us could say right now is don’t upset the apple cart. And the most shameful thing any of us could be right now is happy to not demand answers as long as we are still getting paid. The only thing stopping player power is the players themselves. And that is totally shameful. This is only poker like it always has been, nothing new. And maybe that’s the most shameful thing of all.

Don’t sweat it Chris. I’m not really ashamed of you. I always knew you were just a little scumbag.

Hmm, again, not claiming to really get these non-poker lawsuits, but sounds like it could all be as inconsequential as Crispin Leyser vs. Jamie Gold. Possibly truly scandalous, maybe not, but either way, don’t these guys understand real gamblers have a lot pending on gambling matters these days … and we don’t need douchebag pro athletes screwing things up for us by making gambling look “shady” or “bad”!

Jeesh … if you’re gonna bet against a friend, colleague, or client — especially with potential match fixing perceptions in play — you gotta at least tweet about it. Friggin’ non-poker amateurs.

At least they didn’t do whatever they did online.

Oklahoma Johnny Hale was scootering around the record-setting WSOP-Seniors event last night once they got down to about nine tables … he was splashing pots with $5 commemorative chips from Palace Station honoring members of “The Seniors” Poker Player Hall of Fame.

The chip plausibly stimulating additional action on the table I happened to be watching bore a familiar mug … none other than disgraced poker pioneer Russ Hamilton, which presumably could make for quite the collector’s item.

Jack Ward has only seen his fortunes in the WSOP-Seniors event improve since taking down the pot with a Russ Hamilton Hall of Fame overlay.

The winner of that pot, btw, and the hotly desired piece of poker memorabilia, was Jack Ward, from Gulfport, Miss. Not all the Johnny Hale splash pots happened to feature Russ Hamilton chips … there were also some Vince Burgios, Johnny Moss’s, TJ Cloutiers, and others. But since taking down the Hamilton coin, Ward jumped from about 50k in chips to 519k, which had him on the verge of elimination in Day 2 starting Day 3, today, in 7th position with 23 players remaining.

En route, Ward also happened to take out Berry Johnston, a current member of the Seniors Hall of Fame, who lasted longest amongst that group and finished in 39th place.

UPDATE: At this moment there are currently 13 left, with Team Pokerati’s Tom Schneider out in 14th, and newfound fan favorite Jack Ward in 10th.

You can follow the chip-for-chip action here.

Investigations into Hamilton Role in UB Cheating Scandals Ongoing

Meanwhile, Wicked Chops seem to be getting onto the multi-part longform-narrative bandwagon, perhaps realizing that’s the really the only way to tell the full story of the biggest poker cheating scam in history, and possibly a multibillion-dollar black eye to an online poker industry still struggling for legitimacy.

Be sure to read Part 1 of WCP’s The Ultimate Bet Super-User Scandal, as they piece together initial Nat Arem discoveries, Haley Hintze’s continuing investigative research, and their own original reporting to weave together a tale of how “Russ Hamilton pulled the strings to develop a super-user ‘tool’ that cheated friends, associates, and UltimateBet customers out of millions of dollars.”

While it seems like Wicked Chops may be putting together something more akin to the Warren Report while Haley nails down the dirty details of Umbrella Man, it seems clear that before all is said and done with Cereus, we’ll be looking at a true-crime aga of online poker shenanigans that goes far beyond any one man on a single chip playing dirty.

@JimShipley wrote:

How rigged was the beer pong seeding you fuck! You’re in the effin ladies bracket. Fuller and I play last yrs champion if we win?

From there the evidence was mounting. 2+2 posters did a statistical analysis and noticed discrepancies that stretched far beyond the realm of variance:

Facing all these allegations and (screams for a life-ban from poker), @Pokerati admitted “Indeed, there absolutely was no random draw involved! But I’m not sorry … I’d do it again!” In the meantime Beer Pong officials and Pokerati Corporate have invited the Kahnawake Gaming Commission to investigate.

Perhaps pressuring me into this ethical compromise, John Katkin had to back out as my partner, and that left me with untested PokerNews young-gun Drew Flynn as his replacement. though I think my team actually improves with the addition of a player under 30, I just couldn’t trust the results in this situation to a truly fair and honest game.

As details of the scandal have come to light, doctored pairings revealed:

• I purposely put my team up against two presumably hot-and-young Hogs & Heifers bartenders, figuring it’s no-lose even if we do lose.
• If we do win, there’s a chance Team Pokerati’s next match will be against Ty Stewart and Brian Balsbaugh … I’ve wanted to chat with Stewart pre-WSOP for a while now, but just hadn’t gotten to it. Plus, I think they will likely be weak drinkers.
• If they lose, it would be Tiffany Michelle / Lisa Parsons … again, two attractive women bouncing wet balls. And if Team Pokerati is out after Round 1 … then it’s a four-girl free-for-all! Good for TV!
• There’s only one other two-lady team, Melanie Weisner / Vanessa Ping. I purposely matched them up in the first round against my poker-newsbuddy @FtrainPoker because he has a thing for petite Asian girls … and Ping seemed my best bet there.
• Was gonna put him against the Hogs team of Luci & Pedro … because I wanted to throw at least one chick his way, and even if she weren’t his type, just seemed like there’s a good chance Pedro might be gay and that could work for Ftrain, too.
• Put this year’s favorites of Todd Brunson and Brett Jungblutt against a Hogs Team in the first round, because these folks play a lot of beer pong and make for a really tough match right from the start.
• Intentionally put Team Erick/Erica against Chad Brown and Vanessa Rousso in round 1 … because they’re all make for such dern cute poker couplings. Will be good for video and help capture the chick-flick audience.
• There was a typo in the spelling of @AlCantHang’s name, and thus I put Matt Stout and his partner “Allen Rasah” against host Hoyt Corkins … well not sure why, just because.
• In a match-up between Allie Prescott / Shaun Deeb vs. Rick Fuller / Jim Shipley … all these guys are good trash-talking buds, so again figured good for TV … and because they talk so much trash let’s see how they do in a bracket loaded with tough beer-pong semi-pros from Team Hogs, including last year’s champion.

“There’s actually more to the scandal than that,” Pokerati editor DanM admitted. “A lot of thought went into how to create the best scenarios regardless of who has the better beer pong skills.”

Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, Doyle Brunson happened to back out of his own Beer Pong Invitational 3 the day before the bracket was to be released. Supposedly he just had some travel and/or health matters to attend to, but word on the street is that he might have caught wind of the conspiracy and did not want his name to be associated with such shenanigans. Todd’s name being sullied by all this was fine, though.

Click here to see the 32-team single elimination bracket for the BBPI 3 …

According to, now former employees of Pitbull Gaming, the owners decided to tell the night shift that they were going to make maintenance to the building. The night shift crew were suspicious about this and decided to stay to see what was really going to happen. The employees saw how a truck started gathering all the office equipment. This is the moment when employees went to the police and explained the situation and went back with the police in order to stop the process. Apparently, there are some arrests and right now the employees are in court explaining the situation to the authorities, to explain them that he is in a “flight risk” situation and should not let the owners out of Costa Rica.

From LasVegasVegas:

Pitbull Poker has seemingly closed its doors for business.
Players can visit the website but are unable to login to the poker client, and sources say the owners in Costa Rica were seen moving out computers in the middle of the night.

Pitbull was originally launched under WSOP.com, a domain registered by former Binions employee Federico Schiavio … Recently Pitbull Poker had been accused of having “superuser” accounts, similar to the Absolute Poker scandal, in which one player can see everyone else’s hole cards.

WSOP.com was one of the first big post-boom poker lawsuits … with Harrah’s successfully wrangling the domain name from the old Binion’s tech guy who held onto it after Binion’s handed over the keys to the WSOP.

Part 1 dives into the beginnings and how Hamilton got involved and possibly recruited help. Here is a portion of the post:

There are three reasonable scenarios for how the cheating spread, as spread it surely did:

1) One or more software engineers working on the UB code recognized the illicit profit potential for themselves, and also began to slice money from the games;

2) Hamilton himself recruited one or more Costa Rican workers to assist him in the cheating, as a way of expanding the total money being stolen;

3) Someone at UB caught Hamilton — probably noticing unusual withdrawal amounts relative to the amount of play Hamilton was logging — and decided to cut himself in for a slice of the action.

From some time in 2006, I believe, it was game on in a big way for the cheats. I’d heard whispers as far back as 2005 that something was wrong with the cash games at UB, but I played there very little, only at small stakes, and couldn’t really speak to it.

The post in its entirety can be found here.

Doesn’t sound like necessarily new info — but regardless, the kinda rehash that both sides of online-poker legislation will try to claim as an example of why we need to legalize/ban online poker.

It’s a bit confusing, but Poker News Daily seems to have broken down the allegations of superuser accounts, stack shaving, odd hand history formats, and software glitches. The latest, as of a few days ago and just before the topic was closed by 2+2, original poster chesterboy wrote the following:

I believe all relevant people and companies have have been identified.

If there was wrongdoing, I believe I should be hearing back from some people that can verify the stories, especially if the sweatshop story has any truth to it.

If there was no wrongdoing, I am now back in productive dialogue with [Network Manager Dave Brenes], and we should be able to verify these things in a somewhat timely manner.

I am sorry things had to get this unpleasant to get an appropriate reaction from pitbull. So far the only verified shortcomings of pitbull are poor communication and slow response times. Kevin, while having a questionable history has not yet been shown to have done anything wrong here. I too do not have a perfect past though it may not show up on the internet so easily. We can’t condemn someone in this case for past wrongdoings.

They have been misleading regarding licenses but this is standard for the industry and not something I intend to pursue if there is no evidence of cheating on the site. I play in a state where poker is banned so it benefits me that some companies are willing to bend the law. Being that they are in Costa Rica it is possible they have not broken any laws.

Anyone have any history with Pitbull? Does anyone even play at Pitbull?

Today’s news sent online gambling stocks soaring overseas. That’s because some financial analysts see the settlement as possibly leading to others, thus reducing uncertainty in the industry and opening the door to industry consolidation and expansion outside the U.S

Moreover, it’s taken some hard work to educate the masses on our semi-complex issue, but it’s good to see the message the (super-influential) non-poker media is putting out there:

… some legal scholars and Internet gambling proponents see the government crackdown as a disconnect between 21st-century technology and the 20th-century laws used to protect Americans from gambling.

The Justice position is considered controversial with some members of Congress and gaming analysts arguing it has steered U.S. players to unregulated offshore sites. “The U.S. government has now succeeded in driving out the reputable publicly-traded Internet gaming operators,” said Joseph M. Kelley, a professor of business law at the State College at Buffalo, who has also served as an expert witness for gaming and government interests. “It has not decreased online gambling, but has reduced the ability to monitor suspicious transactions.”

Watch Joe Navarro on Russ Hamilton Video on RawVegas.tv

Watch RUSS HAMILTON UltimateBet Super-User Cheating Scandal (Exclusive Video) on RawVegas.tv

Kudos, btw, to the WCP/RV guys for reminding us that old school gotcha journo-ing does have a purpose.

Hi Everyone,

Here is a quick update on the recent software issues.

Please note that all players were refunded for these problems and the software has been fixed.

Tournament #2120428

A player IYKISA was playing a tournament on December 20th, 2008.

IYKISA’s chip count was reset twice during this tournament because of a software malfunction involving satellites.

First his chip count was reset from 2970 to 3000 when he won the first satellite (TID 2120487), gaining 30 tournament chips.

When he won the second satellite (TID 2120480) his chips were reset from 3720 to 3000, losing 720 tournament chips.
Both “resets” account for 690 tourney chips disappearing from the tables, meaning the winner standing up with 269,310 instead of the expected 270,000.

Ring Game’s #1162170993 and #1136089263

I also wanted to share the additional information I have regarding the malfunction with a hand involving Phil Hellmuth’s (#1162170993) on December 20th and another incorrect payout on December 2nd in Hand #1136089263.

I am still reviewing these investigations with our software department but it appears that the malfunction with hand #1162170993 occurred because of new software code released on December 10, 2008. In this software release, new functionality was added to our platform that removed players from heads up tables if they were inactive at the table for a lengthy amount of time. We believe that a problem with this new functionality was the cause of the malfunction.

Currently, my understanding of the incorrect payout involving hand #1136089263, is that the root cause of this issue related to the transferring of players from one of our game servers to another. At the time of this hand our software department transferred players to another game server while fixing a load issue, shortly after we launched the CEREUS platform.

We take these software issues extremely seriously and I will post more details about them soon.

Paul Leggett

Now only if they could issue players the hand histories they’ve requested and the full list of superusers, they’ll be on to something.

As we explained in our press release, the incorrect payout was caused by a software malfunction. The software malfunction occurred when the winning player was disconnected from the hand at the precise millisecond the software was determining whom to award the prize. This in conjunction with the “player’s state” data being cleared from memory caused this extremely improbable incident to occur.

Originally we were unable to reproduce the error in our test environment, until we programatically forced a disconnect to happen at the precise millisecond the hand was being awarded.

We have never had an issue like this reported previously and we have reviewed all of our database and application logs for December and November and have been unable to find any historical occurrences. We are continuing to go back further into the historical data to ensure no hands from the past need to be corrected. Analyzing this data takes time but we will continue to go back further and further into our history to ensure no one else was affected.

Leggett’s entire statement can be found at the Ultimate Bet blog.

Tokwiro Enterprises, who own Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, issued their own statement on the matter, after the jump:

WINNING HAND CORRECTION

MONTREAL (DECEMBER 23, 2008) – Tokwiro Enterprises (“Tokwiro”) issued the following statement today, concerning the correction of a winning hand played on the CEREUS Poker Network on Saturday, December 20, 2008.

Paul Leggett, Tokwiro’s Chief Operations Officer stated:

On Saturday, December 20, 2008, two players DOUBLEBALLER and PHILHELLMUTH were playing heads up at a 200/400 table on UltimateBet.com. DOUBLEBALLER won hand #1162170993. The software malfunctioned and awarded the losing player PHILHELLMUTH the pot, instead of the actual winner DOUBLEBALLER. After learning of the incident, we credited the player the correct prize to his account. We then began an investigation into the malfunction. We have now completed our preliminary investigation into the software malfunction regarding an incorrect payout in hand #1162170993 on the CEREUS Poker Network.

We have concluded that the malfunction occurred because the winning player disconnected from the table at the precise millisecond when the software was awarding the pot, in conjunction with the “player’s state” data being cleared from the memory cache.

Phil Hellmuth, who was involved in this incident, said, “The only time in my life where I’ve had one pair beat three of a kind is when I made a big bluff in a poker tournament and now because of a software malfunction in online poker. I am one of the most watched players on the Internet, and all I can say is that it is pretty obvious that there was no malicious intent and even more obvious that UB handled this problem well. Sometimes these things happen on the Internet. The important thing here is that I continue to have a ton of trust in UB’s software and new management team.”

There is a prevention system in place designed to protect hand results against disconnections. However, after conducting an extensive source code analysis, we found logic in our code that we have enhanced to further ensure this malfunction cannot reoccur. We were able to reproduce the error on our testing systems by forcing a hand to disconnect its winning player at the precise millisecond the hand in question was awarding the pot and simultaneously flushing the “player’s state” data. Had the disconnection happened literally a millisecond sooner or later the error would not have transpired.

While enhancing the software to prevent this malfunction from occurring again, we introduced a new defect that caused 36 hands to award incorrect payouts. All players have been reimbursed for these hands as well.

We have implemented a new method into the code and updated the game servers. Both errors are no longer reproducible. Furthermore, we are conducting extensive tests to simulate every possible disconnection scenario to ensure this type of malfunction cannot occur in the future.

We are currently reviewing historical hands in our database to see if there ever were similar incidents in the past. Thus far, our investigation has been unable to unearth any additional historical occurrences of this malfunction. Our investigation will continue until we are satisfied that there are no additional historical occurrences.

We recognize the severity of these issues and we will continue to give them the attention they deserve until we are absolutely certain that they cannot happen again.

Stage #1165492664: Razz Normal $0.25/$0.50 – 2008-12-22 12:55:02 (ET)
Seat 2 – SOTXBREEZE ($5.15 in chips)
Seat 5 – BTKNIGHTSYO ($13.05 in chips)
Seat 6 – PROJECTUBER ($4.40 in chips)
Seat 7 – DEADWRONG111 ($5.50 in chips)
SOTXBREEZE – Ante $0.05
PROJECTUBER – Ante $0.05
BTKNIGHTSYO – Ante $0.05
*** 3rd STREET ***
SOTXBREEZE – Pocket [H H Jd]
BTKNIGHTSYO – Pocket [H H 8d]
PROJECTUBER – Pocket [Ad 4c 9d]
SOTXBREEZE – Bring-In $0.10
BTKNIGHTSYO – Raises $0.25 to $0.25
PROJECTUBER – Calls $0.25
SOTXBREEZE – Calls $0.15
*** 4TH STREET ***
SOTXBREEZE – Pocket [H H Jd 5c]
BTKNIGHTSYO – Pocket [H H 8d Ac]
PROJECTUBER – Pocket [Ad 4c 9d Qh]
BTKNIGHTSYO – Bets $0.25
PROJECTUBER – Calls $0.25
SOTXBREEZE – Calls $0.25
*** 5TH STREET ***
SOTXBREEZE – Pocket [H H Jd 5c 7c]
BTKNIGHTSYO – Pocket [H H 8d Ac 8s]
PROJECTUBER – Pocket [Ad 4c 9d Qh 7d]
SOTXBREEZE – Bets $0.50
BTKNIGHTSYO – Calls $0.50
PROJECTUBER – Raises $1 to $1
SOTXBREEZE – Calls $0.50
BTKNIGHTSYO – Calls $0.50
*** 6TH STREET ***
SOTXBREEZE – Pocket [H H Jd 5c 7c 3c]
BTKNIGHTSYO – Pocket [H H 8d Ac 8s 4d]
PROJECTUBER – Pocket [Ad 4c 9d Qh 7d Jh]
SOTXBREEZE – Checks
BTKNIGHTSYO – Bets $0.50
PROJECTUBER – Calls $0.50
SOTXBREEZE – Folds
*** RIVER ***
BTKNIGHTSYO – Pocket [H H 8d Ac 8s 4d H]
PROJECTUBER – Pocket [Ad 4c 9d Qh 7d Jh Kc]
PROJECTUBER – Checks
BTKNIGHTSYO – Bets $0.50
PROJECTUBER – Calls $0.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BTKNIGHTSYO – Shows [5h 3s 8d Ac 8s 4d Kh] (8,5,4,3,A)
PROJECTUBER – Mucks
DEADWRONG111 Collects $6.35 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($6.65) | Rake ($0.30)
Seat 2: SOTXBREEZE Folded on the 6TH STREET
Seat 5: BTKNIGHTSYO lost with 8,5,4,3,A [5h 3s 8d Ac 8s 4d Kh - B:Ac,P:3s,B:4d,P:5h,B:8d]
Seat 6: PROJECTUBER [Mucked] [Ad 4c 9d Qh 7d Jh Kc]

Good stuff. Goes well with FoxNews in the background: PokerRoad Radio, with Annie Duke

UPDATE: OK, I listened … and though I’m not sure I cared to know so many details about Annie Duke-Joe Reitman sex, she does answer some questions revealing why she didn’t participate with 60 Minutes (her claims of their falsehoods to lure her into the story seem totally believable to me — media people do say these things — though I do wonder could they have gone with a more regulation-oriented storyline had she or Paul Legget gone on camera), why she is indeed so confident about AP/UB/Cereus’ commitment to running an honorable business, why she remains a loyal face for the brand (it’s not the money), and how she wants to see Russ Hamilton burn in non-Atheist hell.

She also dances around questions about her rumored appearance on the upcoming season of The Apprentice in a way that semi-confirms she has intimate knowledge of a show beginning in March with a finale in May.

Assuming you understand others is a big mistake. Bypass the analysis and stick to your own work.

Oops, but oh well, too late now … The podcast is up.

Because Gary Wise relies on me to tell him and his listeners how to think Hevad Khan canceled … (right)click here to listen to/download the entire episode (including the opening segment with Dewey Tomko) or press the buttons below to hear my segment — where GW hems and haws as I analyze the 60 Minutes and Washington Post pieces, then speculate wildly on the cheating scandals and their relationship to the present business/legal/political landscape and what it all may or may not mean for the future of the entire world! poker industry.

Wise Hand Poker (feat. Dan from Pokerati) 42:08
RoundersRadio

Just wanted you guys to know that you will no longer see me as a redlined pro in their lobbies, nor will you see me wearing their patches at live events any more.

That is all for now,

Bax

More updates when available, in the meantime Bax still appears as a pro bounty on their site.

Update: Bax’s staking partner Eric “Sheets” Haber added the following in the 2+2 thread:

The reason why Bax is no longer a UB pro is simply because UB renegged on its deal with him.

I was there for the phone conversation and can attest that this is the case.

They called him and openly renegged on their agreement without explanation and should be ashamed for doing so imo.

Ultimate Bet reneging on a promise? Say it isn’t so!

* Tokwiro agreed not to prosecute the perpetrator in the Absolute Poker cheating, and to protect that individual’s identity, because this was the only way to ensure that the ability to cheat was fully discovered and disabled. Because of this decision, AP could continue operating and begin to reimburse affected players as quickly as possible.

Pretty sweet deal for the guy, huh? Wouldn’t you like to work for a company that will agree not to prosecute you for stealing millions from them, provided that you just show them how you did it, if caught? There is zero chance that this is true. It would have been easy for them to deconstruct this after-the-fact without this asshole’s help. Obviously they are protecting him either due to continued association/affiliation (likely), fear that he will spill the beans on everyone and everything else there (also likely), or both (most likely).

Must-read for anyone who wants to understand what all the hubbub is about.