WSOP Champ Implicated in Ultimate Bet Superuser Scandal
The UltimateBet Superuser scandal has taken a giant leap into the depths of criminal behavior. If anyone thought the May 29th statement was the end of it, sorry to burst your faith in integrity and good, um, faith.
Nat Arem, the rogue investigator who blew the top off the Absolute Poker scandal, has stepped in to assist with the UB investigation that never seems to end. And the most recent post on his blog, dated today, links some of the superuser accounts on UB to one of the site’s former owners, Russ Hamilton. Yep, that’s 1994 WSOP main event champion, Russ Hamilton. Supposedly, he no longer has a stake in the company, but there are conflicting reports as to his current involvement in UB business.
Here’s a brief excerpt from Arem’s blog:
But it showed that the registered address of at least some of the super user accounts belonged to Russ Hamilton, the former owner of UB.
I basically felt sick to my stomach. I talked to Russ on the phone a few times in the fall — brsavage got me in touch with him. We talked about how disgusting it was that this happened at AP. Russ expressed a strong opinion that he was going to do whatever it took to get things right and, at the time, I believed him that he was going to fight to get things at AP right. He even got me in touch with the guys at AP so I could go down there and meet with them on behalf of PokerNews and the community as a whole. This guy RAILED against the people at AP who were superusing.
Kevin Mathers says:
July 13th, 2008 at 4:24pm
That was all from posts on 2+2 last night, earlier in the week there was an alleged whistleblower that posted transaction histories between several UB regulars (Freddy Deeb’s name comes up)(Cliffnotes version at
http://tinyurl.com/ubscandals )
Nat Arem interview with Big Poker Sundays today at http://www.pokerroad.com/big_poker_sundays/7-13-08/ (about 25 minutes in)
Annie Duke did an interview with PokerRoad Radio on Thursday where she was trying to filibuster her way out of the situation: http://www.pokerroad.com/pokerroad_radio/7-10-08/ (about 35 minutes in)
Freddy Deeb is scheduled to do an interview with the 2+2 Pokercast in the next couple of days to give his side of the story
DanM says:
July 13th, 2008 at 5:25pm
Hmm, a one-time poker great who couldn’t quite accomplish much in the new poker era … gets in on this whole online thing, but still can’t beat the kids (even though he’s making money just off their play)… so resorts to cheating. sounds like a plausible storyline to me.
anonymous says:
July 13th, 2008 at 8:17pm
Russ is also one of the principal backers of Ultimate Blackjack Tournament which has failed miserably.