{"id":7100,"date":"2022-04-25T07:59:46","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T14:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/?p=7100"},"modified":"2022-04-25T10:01:47","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T17:01:47","slug":"self-inflicted-wounds-continue-to-damage-online-poker-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/news\/self-inflicted-wounds-continue-to-damage-online-poker-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-inflicted wounds continue to damage online poker efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When it rains, it pours, and for Poker Twitter, last week was monsoon season.<\/p>\n<p>First were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pocketfives.com\/articles\/alex-foxen-accuses-ali-imsirovic-of-cheating-at-live-and-online-poker-638144\/\">allegations<\/a> leveled by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pokernews.com\/news\/2020\/01\/global-poker-index-alex-foxen-repeats-wins-2019-gpi-player-o-36314.htm\">two-time Global Poker Index Player of the Year<\/a> Alex Foxen against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalpokerindex.com\/awards\/a-banner-year-for-ali-imsirovic-recognized-at-3rd-global-poker-awards\/\">current GPI POY Ali Imsirovic<\/a>. According to Foxen, Imsirovic is banned from GG Poker for multi-accounting and using real-time assistance.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Poker black-list can&#39;t come soon enough. <br \/>Ali is banned from GG for Multi-accounting and RTA. I have witnessed numerous chip dumps to horses, and many suspicious changes in play from people known to be his horses when deep in online MTTs.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Alex Foxen (@WAFoxen) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WAFoxen\/status\/1515900587522637824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 18, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Then there were the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pokernews.com\/news\/2022\/04\/bryn-kenney-martin-zamani-cheating-accusations-41076.htm\">accusations from Martin Zamani<\/a> that the all-time leader in tournament winnings, Bryn Kenney, ran a \u201ccult-like\u201d poker staking operation, with members colluding with one another.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Since we are in the midst of calling out cheaters <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BrynKenney?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BrynKenney<\/a>  and all his horses are basically forced to collude on GG esp in satties. \u201c do  what\u2019s best for the team\u201d he wouldn\u2019t let me play GG 5k plo events  on my account but on party I could play 10Ks if said horse ghost was.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Martin Zamani (@martin_zamani) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/martin_zamani\/status\/1517178128212250631?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 21, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Imsirovic hasn\u2019t responded publicly, but Kenney has.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/BrynKenney\/status\/1518252735556071425<\/p>\n<p>For this column, the veracity of the accusations doesn\u2019t matter. What matters is the perception of poker when these accusations (true or false) are thrust into the spotlight.<\/p>\n<h2>A Long History of Scandals<\/h2>\n<p>Cheating scandals and impropriety <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OPReport\/status\/1518230324571873280\">are nothing new in the poker world<\/a>. The industry has dealt with insider cheating scandals, online poker sites going bust and leaving players with nothing more than an IOU, and countless allegations of individuals or teams cheating their fellow poker players, from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pokernews.com\/news\/2014\/07\/germany-s-ali-tekintamgac-sentenced-to-3-years-in-prison-for-18790.htm\">Ali Tekintamgac<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/stones-poker-cheating-scandal\/\">Mike Postle<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pokernews.com\/news\/2017\/01\/borgata-chip-counterfeiter-christian-lusardi-released-prison-26797.htm\">Christian Lusardi<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to countless accusations of fraud and backing scams, ghosting, multi-accounting, and hole-carding, high-profile scandals have battered poker\u2019s reputation. This list would become unwieldy if it went back to the earliest days of online poker, but here\u2019s a highlight reel:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/upswingpoker.com\/ultimate-bet-absolute-poker-scandal\/\">The superuser scandals at Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pokernews.com\/news\/2021\/04\/10-years-after-poker-black-friday-38989.htm\">Black Friday and the subsequent failure of Full Tilt Poker<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/upswingpoker.com\/girah-jungleman-qureshi-scandal\/\">The Girah affair<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.onlinepokerreport.com\/11636\/former-lock-poker-pro-offers-insights-into-lock-poker\/\">Lock Poker<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.safestpokersites.com\/failed\/\">many other failed online poker sites<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pokerstrategy.com\/news\/world-of-poker\/Opinion:-The-Epic-Poker-League-Acted-Unethically_57191\/\">The Epic Poker League<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forumserver.twoplustwo.com\/29\/news-views-gossip\/guy-laliberte-says-he-got-ripped-off-ftp-1440567\/\">Guy Laliberte accuses poker pros of \u201cripping him off\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some of these are demonstratively worse than others, whether it\u2019s in size, scope or where it falls on the unethical to the illegal line. black l\u00a0 detail<\/p>\n<h2>Why We Can\u2019t Have Nice Things<\/h2>\n<p>These outlier events aren\u2019t representative of the larger poker community.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">These guys have damaged poker. Their scandals will scare away millions of players (esp online players). And, Imagine that you\u2019re a young player, and you look up to these guys, so you seek them out, only to find out that they are cheaters. So, you pursue another profession: sad!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/phil_hellmuth\/status\/1518047516578648064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 24, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, these stories serve as a confirmation bias, as the details are often so shocking that they become fodder for the mainstream press. And it\u2019s these stories that come up far too often in legislatures discussing legalizing online poker. They are a gift from the poker community to anti-poker advocates and skeptical lawmakers and have been for years.<\/p>\n<p>Sheldon Adelson was using this as one of his streams of attack on online poker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onlinepokerreport.com\/22239\/sheldon-adelson-poker-dfs-skill\/\">as far back as 2014<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThey could be flying high and out of control of themselves, and what are they going to do with the poker players that are experts at playing poker. They\u2019re just gonna clean everybody out? Like they do in the poker clubs and various casinos.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/video\/?316726-1\/house-hearing-state-online-gambling\">2013 Congressional hearing<\/a>, Congressman Billy Long (who is still representing Missouri\u2019s 7<sup>th<\/sup> District) asked the following about Chris Moneymaker\u2019s impact on poker and the subsequent Poker Boom:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSo that really put jet fuel into the whole Internet poker thing, which it thrived for several years until the Black Friday shutdown. But during that, there were some very high-profile cheating scandals where the operators of these sites were actually looking at your cards, at the other people they were playing cards, and with the skill of the poker players, I think 60 Minutes did a special on that. If this legislation goes through, how can people be assured that that type of activity does not continue, or starts in again I guess?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When New York was considering legalizing online poker, Assemblyman Gary Pretlow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pokernews.com\/news\/2016\/06\/ny-pretlow-says-no-skill-game-25116.htm\">told PokerNews<\/a> that cheating was still a concern:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI still have issues with people cheating. Demonstrations of geolocation have kind of settled my mind that they do work, and people outside of the jurisdiction won\u2019t be able to get in. But I still have an issue with five people sitting around the kitchen table on computers, all playing against you. The defense is that they have algorithms that protect against that, but right now, I don\u2019t trust that. It\u2019s a serious question I\u2019ve had for a while, and it hasn\u2019t been proven to me that doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Upshot<\/h2>\n<p>Essentially, the greed found at the highest stakes in the poker community is counterproductive to legalization.<\/p>\n<p>Poker should be one of the easiest forms of gambling to convince lawmakers to legalize due to its skill-based and peer-to-peer nature and ubiquitous presence in American culture. But until the poker community can stamp out these concerns (either through crackdowns or policies like <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/InfiniteEdgeKim\/status\/1518545075441225729\">capping the stakes at online poker sites<\/a>), when it comes to legalization, poker will continue to lag other forms of gambling like daily fantasy sports and sports betting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it rains, it pours, and for Poker Twitter, last week was monsoon season. First were allegations leveled by two-time Global Poker Index Player of the Year Alex Foxen against current GPI POY Ali Imsirovic. According to Foxen, Imsirovic is banned from GG Poker for multi-accounting and using real-time assistance. Poker black-list can&#39;t come soon [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[324],"tags":[603],"class_list":["post-7100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7100"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7117,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7100\/revisions\/7117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}