Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

Sorel Mizzi, a well known poker professional, seems to have got his name tangled up in yet another alleged poker cheating scandal. The source of this alleged plot is an IM chat between Sorel Mizzi and Steve “thorladen” Weinstein posted on the TwoPlusTwo forum, where Mizzi (if the chat is indeed his) appears to be urging Weinstein to use a sort of business software tool to cheat at multi-table tournaments.

The TwoPlusTwo forum details this chat and gives several posts on the issue as well. The idea of the supposed Mizzi scam is to use software to link computers via remote access and create multiple accounts. In the chat, Mizzi appears to suggest the use of a tool which he describes as “revolutionizes teaching/ghosting in poker (and) can also be used for multi-accounting,” to break the terms and conditions on online gaming sites. Mizzi also allegedly suggests involving other poker players like Chris Dombrowski and Aditya Agarwal in the scam.

According to the chat, Mizzi then goes on to explain how to use the tool. “Now there’s more than 1 way we can profit from this program…the most obvious is just watching and taking over for your stakes when they’re deep in a tournament. The beauty of it is ur not logging in from another IP, all you’re doing is controlling their mouse and keyboard and they can take it over again right away with the click of a mouse.”

Weinstein who seems to be uninformed about this makes this response: “while im certainly interested in whatever u thinking, if u want me in, but obviously I have to know who knows cuz I cant get busted… I have a lot of money online.”

The thread has spiked rumors about Sorel Mizzi and a cheating scandal, which led Mizzi to come right out and defend himself by posting a long reply in the same thread.

Mizzi also known as “Imper1um” claims that the chat is a fabrication of old conversations he has had. “The conversation in question contains bits and pieces of information from several conversations I’ve had with Thorladen and others over the course of about a year.” He also claimed that he had once been blackmailed by an extortionist who threatened to release the chat, which he did not take seriously.

After Daniel Negreanu called Annie Duke a “F**king C**t” in an interview, there has been a lot of backlash for Negreanu and support for Ms. Duke. The incident has been discussed by several poker news websites, podcasts and poker shows like This Week in Poker, all of whom agree that Negreanu had indeed overstepped the line when he used the most derogatory term and sexual reference to refer Annie Duke, a poker professional.

PokerStars however, does not seem to be taking a stand against Negreanu’s usage of the C word and made this statement: “Although Daniel Negreanu is a Team PokerStarsPro, he is an entity to himself and as such will always be encouraged to express his views and speak his mind as he would otherwise do so, PokerStars Pro or not.”

Duke took offense at PokerStars’ statement and their failing to condemn his use of the C word to refer to her and wrote them an open letter. “..This response condones its star player calling a female poker player a “f**king c**t” in public, she said.

In her letter, Duke questioned if PokerStars would have the same attitude and fail to denounce Negreanu’s behavior if Negreanu had made a derogatory racial remark against African Americans or an insulting anti-gay statement in an interview.

“This is not about his (Negreanu’s) views. It is about a particular word he chose to express those views. The word “c**t” is not an opinion, it is an abusive epithet, and PokerStars is completely ignoring the use of that term in their response,” Duke said.

PokerStars have only just created The Women’s Poker League and if the site fails to take a stand against the use of such language by one their prime endorsers, it may juts be possible that the poker community could end up thinking that the site shares Negreanu’s views on insulting women with the C word in public interviews. “PokerStars had an opportunity here to take a stand and express regret that Daniel would say such an offensive thing and failed to do so,” said Duke.

The only good thing that has come out from it is the resulting spike of publicity for both Duke and Negreanu, giving them good hits on all their sites and blogs.

Daniel Negreanu shocked the poker community with his comments about Annie Duke, when he called her a “F***ing C***” in a public interview. Although Duke has been known to have occasionally rubbed people the wrong way on account of her strong personality and has been the subject of criticism by many, Negreanu’s choice of words has left poker fans all across the world quite disappointed in him. Some have even called the player a misogynist.

Ms. Duke, a poker champion in her own right, has starred on the show Celebrity Apprentice and is known for her charity work in Darfour. Negreanu made these remarks in response to a question related to the Ladies WSOP, which recently permitted men to attend Apparently, Negreanu was incensed at the use of tampon shaped clips as card holders and Shaun Deeb who wore a dress to the event. Duke was supposed to have commended the players on getting into the spirit of things ands said, ‘Good for you, men, standing up for sexual equality.’ Negreanu called her words “baloney,” and told his interviewer that duke had later posted a statement on her blog where she claimed that the Ladies WSOP should have been abolished. Negreanu did not like this any more than he approved of her website message and said, “What irked me is that this woman has the audacity on her website to call herself ‘the best female poker player in the world’. So on one side of the coin she’s fighting for, ‘Oh, we’re all equal, there shouldn’t be any gender thing,’ but when appropriate she decides to call herself the best female poker player in the world.

So I’m like ‘how offensive are you, you f***ing c***? You want to say you’re speaking for women, yet you claim superiority over all of them.”

Negreanu is known to be a bit of “big mouth” and has fallen under public criticism for some other comments related to racism that he had made concerning the BET channel. What this mouth off will cost him is yet to be seen.

Alexa Fisher, may look like an ordinary little girl, but is in fact a poker professional in the making. Her favorite game is Omaha and when asked to choose between Disneyland and the World Series of Poker, this seven year old opted to visit the WSOP events in Vegas! So far, she has defeated Annie Duke (in a game of rock, paper and scissors) had ice cream with Barbara Enright and met Phil Hellmuth, Vanessa Hellabuyck and Johnny Chan.

Although she is too young to compete in poker tournaments, this little poker prodigy knows how to play more poker games than your average poker player. She has already mastered the rules and game play of over H.O.R.S.E., Omaha, Badugi and Deuce-to-seven lowball. Reportedly the little girl knows all poker disciplines to compete in the WSOP, but naturally will not be allowed to compete until she is legally of age in 2024.

She currently plays poker with her parents and has been taught to play real money games with them. And, despite not being able to properly pronounce the word “professional,” this adorable little girl aspires to be one. According to Alexa, “I know how to shuffle and deal the cards, raise, check, fold, and bluff. I also know how to play deuce-to-seven lowball, H.O.R.S.E., and badugi. I can now play any poker game with the best poker players in the world!”

Currently in first grade in Sippel Elementary in Texas, Alexa is straight-A student and has a fondness for mathematics –which may do her good in poker when she learns more complicated sums as she grows up. Her father is quite proud of his daughter and spoke about her poker skills saying, “She goes in levelheaded, and leaves levelheaded.”

Alexa is in no way a master poker player, and admits losing to her parents – although she has won sometimes as well. However, little Alexa also has a poker bankroll of her own and has played in charity poker games with some of the best poker players in the industry.

Samuel McMaster Jr, an ex insurance and securities agent and a professional poker player, was recently apprehended on 26 counts of felonies in the state of New Mexico. McMaster stands to face a maximum of 12 years on prison for charges of fraud, selling unregistered security while he was an unlicensed broker-dealer.

His sentence is pending for May 2011, giving McMaster almost 6 months to acquire the money and pay his victims back. The court is allowing the convicted felon to travel in the US and play poker in an effort to win the money for his 20 or more victims.

In this strange case of irony, McMaster who apparently liked to play poker with other people money will now have no choice but to play poker with his own funds and earn that same money back or face a sentence of 12 years. A 12 year sentence may almost end up a life sentence for McMaster who is currently 59 years old, leaving his victims with justice but no money. This may be why the court has allowed the felon to play poker and win back the money.

McMaster who had worked with the Santa Fe Financial Group, has stolen almost half a million dollars from the firm’s clients to fund his poker games. According to Phyllis H. Bowman, the lead Prosecutor “the financial records showed a lot of withdrawals from ATM machines at different casinos and we have lots of evidence to show he likes to play poker.”

McMaster has made a lot of money at the tables over the years, made an unusual plea to the court stating that he would pay $7,500 per month in restitution to those clients he had wronged. John Rhinehart, who is McMaster’s lawyer, came up with this deal which allows the felon to play poker tournaments and cash games in the US, but not get involved in the security industry.

“We do have the unusual case here where we are agreeing to delay sentencing for a period of time to allow Mr. McMaster to set a track record as to whether or not he can pay back $400,000 in restitution,” said Bowman.

Longest. Post Title. EVER.

Alright, so i read
today in “The Financial Times of London”(note, the link sucks, as after about 20 seconds you have to register
to read the article….i’ll summarise, but you can feel free to click
to the source if you can handle the registering…i barely could..)
that Full Tilt Poker is currently being investigated by a Federal Grand Jury in Manhattan.  The investigation is solely structured around weather specific gambling and or civil laws have been broken by the online poker room.

From the Financial Times:

FBI
agents or prosecutors have spoken to at least two people involved in
disputes with Full Tilt, paying special attention to the possibility of
money-laundering violations, those familiar with the inquiry say.

As
the investigation is under way at the moment (and, has apparently been
ongoing for a little while..) no one is commenting and no direct
information is getting out.  There have, however, been allusions to the
investigation looking to prosecute or consequence any pro players who
are associated with Full Tilt poker.

Now, in my opinion, this looks like a scare tactic brought on by the short time left before UIGEA comes into effect.  If you make the public see poker as an evil, addictive, money-laundering and illegal pass time, you will have more public support to muscle ahead with the outdated UIGEA.
If on the other hand, if people see all the good poker players do
(there are many reports of poker sites participating in fund-raisers for Haiti, as well as many other acts of selflessness), and realise that it is an acceptable pass time for most American’s, they will have a very difficult time holding back Barney Frank, the PPA, and all the others who see the potential for poker to do more good even than it does now.