Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov appears in the Documentary "Thieves by Law".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imNE5CEjZW4#t=6m15s

Safe to say this is the same guy...
start at 8:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNntVJbaOqw

just watched whole documentary, was pretty interesting/insane.

Good. Screw Justin smith, Feldman, and all these degens. Some of us earn our way through the poker ranks and do it the right way. Good riddance to all of them.

what a sicko , hope they catch you speeding and they plant meth in your car . let me guess it wasn't yours. im guessing joe the hammer wasn't a blacksmith.

This made me LOL. I hope you are joking?

Sicko? Not quite, I just don't slurp up to top players who do all this nonsense. They deserve whatever they get if they're gonna do that stuff.

No I'm not joking. I'm tired of poker being in the news for all the wrong reasons. How do we ever expect the game to grow and/or ever get legalized online in a countrywide fashion when every month there are stories like this?

This is correct. Justin has lots of friends who should know better than to let him get involved with this. We need to police ourselves.

Good luck policing yourselves. You never know how negotiable your ethics are until you're under great financial pressure. The problem with poker life is that almost everyone will suffer that fate at one point or another in their career, so nearly everyone predisposed to being a scumbag becomes one sooner or later.

The charges against them have nothing to do with poker at all. I don't think any of them even play poker anymore aside from here and there.

I guess since their names are popular in the poker community and they have accomplishments in poker then maybe the media might misrepresent the poker connection, but their alleged involvement in this has absolutely zero to do with poker.

ETA: specifically speaking of the names you mentioned.

is it possible boosted didn't know russian mafia was involved?

Very possible IMO. He could have just known "a guy" who would take action and also knew people looking to lay bets.

Did anyone ITT actually read the indictment? It alleges Justin Smith has way more involvement than just being a middle man who connected "a guy" and a rich person trying to bet on a sporting event.

I think you've illustrated why gambling is considered a vice.

Yup, best link I've seen on YouTube in ages.

To say this has nothing to do with poker is not accurate and not only because illegal poker games are part of the indictment and just as illegal as the sportsbetting operation. Many of the high stakes poker fish that guys like boosted J, Phil Laak, and scores of other live pros salivate to get into games with are also sports bettors. Ideally they like to play fish in private home games not games at commerce where seven other tough regs are seated and ten more are on the list waiting. It is not a shock that Kenny Tran was kicked out of commerce for recruiting fish to private games. In poker games the strong pros like to talk to the fish, making the environment friendly is part of the skill set of good live high stakes pros. There is no doubt over the course of a few hours nine men gambling at a table are eventually going to discuss sports and sports gambling. I have played thousands of hours live in my life in private games and in casinos and virtually every friendly table eventually ends up discussing sports betting at some point. Guys like Boosted J who play tournament poker in vegas, and on the WPT and are established respected guys in the poker world probably know thirty different guys who could set them up with accounts. Of those thirty ten have probably said to them "if you know any high rollers who bet sports hook them into me and my office and you will get a cut of losses, and you have no risk if they win". It is betting sports not selling meth or running guns across the border. It is legal in two states in america and not legal in 48. The laws are absurd. The guy lives in hollywood hills, has been with the same girl for like ten years and seems like a decent guy. In hollywood hills a real nice area he probably knew a dozen guys or more that bet sports and it seemed like a logical fit. Is it illegal? absolutely. Is it a joke that it is illegal? absolutely.

Now this guy and few others are going to be put under pressure by the DOJ to RAT OUT MAJOR MAJOR RUSSIAN MOBSTERS or face the full weight of the criminal justice system. These are not small time hoods these are MAJOR guys and this really sucks and is really scary.

The same DOJ that let the FTP bosses walk without any real punishment are now going to put guys like boostedj in an IMPOSSIBLE AND TERRIFYING POSITION. RAT OUT REAL TOUGH PEOPLE OR GET LOCKED UP.

I wish him and the other guys in his position the best

I did not real the indictment TD, What does the indictment claim boosted was doing in this operation? Do they expect us to believe the NY Russian mob needed some muscle so they called boostedJ?

I saw a picture and comments regarding Alex Rodriguez in this story. Question: Poker is explicitly legalized and regulated in the United States (or at least in a large number of states) and Justin Verlander wants to play a WPT event during the baseball offseason. Given that scenario, and also that the Department of Labor has recognized and classified Professional Poker Player as a legitimate occupation, will major league baseball still care that an active player would be "gambling?"

Would MLB even have the right to prevent this? I assume that no baseball player would be prevented from playing a chess or Scrabble tournament for money. Would Major League Baseball prevent a player from playing in a bridge tournament (also a card game of course) which had entry fees and cash prizes?

EDIT: Yes, I know that those players were involved in a game that was ill-advised and illegal for a lot of reasons. That's why I changed the scenarito to one where MLB is worried about a player "gambling,", as stated in the article.

I'm not trying to stir things up here. I'm just wondering, with poker being more legitimized almost by the day, at one point does it become nobody's business (legally or contractually) whether someone plays or not?

When asked to get involved Boosted was told "100% no risk".

Too early for that?

84 pages. ugh

They claim in the indictment he was part of a bookmaking operation. He is not accused of establishing credit and other aspects of actually running a book like some poker players, Abe M for example. Also not part of the extortion or muscle end of it. I think they are claiming he had a referral type relationship and they will be coming down on him to rat out the hierarchy or go down with them. Since it is a racketeering indictment he is legally responsible for any crimes committed by others in the indictment. That is the part of the broad brush of RICO that always makes NY mobsters go down. Justin is now in that same horrible position. Awful spot to be in and its going to be a long time before it gets sorted out.

uh, yeah i did, and uh, no it doesnt.

i don't see retaliation if someone rats. The bosses must expect all the little non-connected outsiders to sing to the cops...
..which makes me wonder if any of the real bosses were dumb enough to make themselves vulnerable.

No retaliation? Major connected Russian mobsters? Seriously Joe? I disagree 100%.

The sick part is it's such hypocritical BS. Tonight I could go to a private rakes illegal 5-10 game called "the sherrifs game " in LA. The guy has 2 tables I have only played in it a few times but I hear he has 5 tables when he runs tournaments. Yes he is a sheriff. His initials are MM no its not Mason LOL and no is dont have the balls to post his full name. But I guarantee you the other cops know about it, he is breaking more laws then boostedj did and NOTHING is going to happen to him .

There is a world of difference between running an illegal poker game vs. running an illegal game with the aid/support of suspected members of organized crime.

The poker players caught in this net are royally F#$#ed. Turning into informants vs. the high profile Russians might mean a life in the witness protection program. while not cooperating with the investigation might mean long sentences in federal prison and forfeiture of most of their assets.