PokerStars Stiffing Affiliates, Pauly Says

You gotta love the Hardcore Poker Show on Sirius 98 (moving to channel 158 tomorrow) … as they seem to know how to get the right guests at the right time to throw out a few doozies.

On yesterday\’s show they talk to Pauly — one of the Top Two Podcasters on Tao of Pokerati — who lets it be known that while player money from PokerStars may indeed be filtering back to American players via US banks … affiliates got a form letter saying they would not be paid, and I think it sounds like he\’s saying they have no intent to in the near future or ever.

Check with the Tao of Poker to see if he (or someone else) posts this letter. Until we see it I can\’t know if Pauly — who removed his PokerStars affiliate banners — is simply speaking the aggressive truth or just playing squeaky-wheel hardball or both. He is a New Yorker, after all — from the Southern District no less!

UPDATE: He has posted it.

Tony G, the owner of PokerNews is next on the show — and really, for all the voices that have been clamoring since \”Black Friday\”, he\’s one of the biggest names in poker with a direct connection to the money-flow from Full Tilt, Stars, and others to do an in-depth, candid interview.

Here\’s a clip from the show to give you a taste.

download
[audio:http://old.pokerati.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/tony-g-calls-people-out.mp3|titles=tony g calls people out]

And click here for the whole episode.

Controversial for sure … but his words seem to be less publicity-whorey than usual. The G says any American depositing money on any site is high-risk, and payout could be unlikely. While believing that Stars seems to be making good, he sees signs that Full Tilt accounts could be in greater jeopardy — and calls out Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey specifically to address the issue (either in public or private) and possibly offer up their personal assets to take care of players.

You do have to take Tony G with a grain of salt, as potential conflicts of interest abound — he represents PartyPoker, for one … but also owns PokerNews, which does (or did) a lot of business with Full Tilt and PokerStars as well as the WSOP. He also could just be looking to fill a \”good guy\” power vacuum in poker … but this interview doesn\’t seem loaded with the usual G bluster for attention; he conveys sincere concern in his offer to \”help\” and admits that he feels some responsibility to players that his site sent to Full Tilt.

He also says repeatedly that \”No US company has ever survived a DOJ prosecution.\”

Yeow. I have no clue if that\’s accurate or not … (I\’m still looking around for verification of the 92 percent conviction/guilty plea DOJ success rate I\’ve been touting) … but it\’s probably not far from reality. Whether or not there\’s any competitive tattle-tales in play, it seems a good bet that in the coming weeks we will see more facts emerge that simply can\’t be spun in a positive light … which may already explain the silence by some.