Russ Hamilton cheated to steal over $10 million and absolutely nothing happened to him
I think they took his Main Event winners banner down at the WSOP.
Insert Joaquin Phoenix Gladiator gif here.
Think you are all understating. Nobody is covering, inviting to special events, or treating people like Hamilton or Ferguson as anything but scumbags. They have been totally shunned. They can’t legally deny them to play something like wsop but nobody treats them at it as anything but a pariah.
That is what people need to do to Hellmuth.
They didn’t cheat this guy:
LOL they stole tens of millions of dollars come the fuck on
I’m not sure what we are disagreeing on. What should the poker community have done they didn’t do? Maybe I am wrong but can the wsop legally deny them access?
The lack of legal repercussions is the real crime.
Why do you think casinos can’t ban them - from the WSOP or otherwise? I’m fairly certain that casinos have the right to ban pretty much anyone for any reasons. They are private establishments and thus can deny service to whomever the choose (so long as it’s not discriminatory or violating some other random law).
I was under the impression they couldn’t from discussions around when Ferguson returned but I’m no expert. If they can be banned then I agree it’s insane they are not.
It’s like everything else
They stole from normal people so nobody cares
Count cards and win 10k and you’ll be perma’d
“Oh wow this sucks I get to keep the $10 million I stole but people give me dirty looks”
1 Like
I thought that was part of the issue. Their stealing wasn’t at their property. Had they cheated at one of their properties they would have been banned for sure.
Worse than being an entertaining scumbag Hellmuth was being a lame buzzkill nit. I know he’s been a villain but being a villain involves some theatricality that I can appreciate and Hellmuth had none of that. I was cringing at him throwing in random swear words like a kid trying to be cool.
1 Like
they dont need that precedent though - card counters get banned on properties they have never stepped foot on before. the casinos all share a blackbook with each other and if they recognize anyone in the book they will tresspass them on sight.
1 Like
Black book is a good analogy but that does require sites sharing data. In this case online and brick and mortar.
In the end, there needs to be more consequences in poker across the board. Hellmuth would be a good place to start.
Think there is something people are missing Hellmuth doesn’t act like this in big private games. He isn’t talking down to a billionaire, someone famous or a rich athlete. He is sucking up to them hoping to get something out of it.
Are these private games legit? I would be terrified of getting cheated.
In private games, Hellmuth can get punched in the face.
Every big city has private games where local whales will lose 5+ figures certain nights. Eventually someone doesn’t get paid and these games stop running for a bit.
Plenty of poker players and fans still come up to Ferguson for autographs and pictures at the series, but yeah the pros and knowledgeable regs treat him like a pariah.
Yes this is my experience. I played in lots of big private games prior to Covid. Vast majority of these games are all on credit and propped up by one whale and some other smaller whales. You are trusting the host to pay you out. I was a regular in a weekly game and was a massive winner one week. The host obviously couldn’t pay me that amount so he asked if he could “hold my money” until next week and would pay me 10% extra… I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. This happened a lot. Dealers also would routinely try to rake as much as they could without getting caught as they received a cut of the rake. Lots of mixed games and Multiple all ins were a nightmare to try and watch. Call them out and you aren’t getting invited back.
I’m sure there have been some forms of crazy cheating tactics that have gone on. The majority of the time it’s just a bunch of backed players all playing on the same bankroll fleecing the whales.
1 Like