i really have to thank nat again, he doesn't enjoy the anonymity that most of us do and has really put his neck on the line for this whole community.

Thanks nat and stay safe

Who is Joe that brainwashdodo mentioned in one of his posts?

Edit: brainwasdodo says in one of his posts:

Joe Norton owns AP. He was born in 1950. Founder of an IT company. Is brainwashdodo insinuating that Norton is NioNio?

Devilfish,

if what you say is true, and it sounds very believable and supports the evidence that i have seen, you were probably ripped off by the superusers (they could see your hole cards) for a lot more than that. (100dollars??!!wtf)

and i can say that i have read nearly all of these threads and your name was only brought up because the whistleblower showed transfer histories for -Fred- kid55, and PhilHelmuth. I dont remember which username you had transfers with, but it doesnt matter. its not suspicious at all and there is zero evidence showing that you did anything wrong. also, i never saw any posts that accused you of any wrong doing, but i could be wrong.

thanks for posting in this thread, hopefully you can encourage others to do the same.

-NLL

p.s. someone bump the most recent cliffnotes for Devilfish.

This is not my work but pretty good notes so I thought I would bump.

Re: The UB Scandal Continues

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Better FORMATTING IN THIS ONE.

Here is a very short cliffnote of cliffnote summary for those of us who are time-challenged. What follows will be enough for the vast public (even non-poker people) who just want to know what happened. For details, read the entire thread and/or sort through the threads to selectively digest parts which you are interested in. Again, below is the summary of all summaries and (warning) it is short, leaving out details that others in the forum can provide or point you toward.

#1 – A popular online poker site, Ultimate Bet, discovered suspicious activity within its poker site through a combination of internal discovery and tips from poker players.

#2 – Ultimate Bet (herein “UB”) issued a press release announcing that several player accounts were closed as a result of their investigation into the manner. UB called these accounts “superuser” accounts and gave one such account a name – “NioNio.”

#3 – UB publicly stated the method through which the NioNio account (and other accounts involved) practiced unfair play was by gaining access to players’ hole cards. This was possible, UB stated in a press release, through a hole in their underlying software – namely, the audit system functionality built-in to the overall system was misused or abused. UB hired a third party consultancy to investigate. Many people believed that the issue would end there. Initial money refunds were made by UB to players who had lost money to the acknowledged superuser accounts.

#4 – Two unexpected events would draw further attention from the poker community and thus, lead to heightened scrutiny. First, UB stepped up its PR (public relations) efforts to quell or mitigate the damage to its reputation and perception of both cover up and rigged playing environment. Second, an anonymous person posted on a popular poker community forum (2+2) claiming to be a UB employee. These posts (by handle “brainwashdodo”) ignited a firestorm of interest.

#5 – brainwashdodo’s accusations that UB insiders were involved were thinly veiled but for the most part, he/she leaked account data which no one outside of UB’s employment should be able to access. Much of the data revolved around account transactions of suspected “superuser” accounts. It also included movement of money to/from “superuser” accounts and UB account of popular t.v. poker players which aroused even more interest and no shortage of semi-hysteria.This gave brainwashdodo some benefit of doubt and some credibility.

#6 – Poker community at 2+2 began to rigorously dissect the leaked information from brainwashdodo. Further, players began investigating other aspects of the situation such as : a) UB ownership history, b) UB software development and programmers involved, c) statistical histories relating to publicly disclosed superuser accounts, and d) anomalies pertaining to other past and current UB player accounts.

#7 – UB players began to send inquiries into UB about other player accounts believed to have statistically suspicious play and win patterns. Sure enough, UB confirmed many of these submissions. UB would later issue a follow up press release announcing additional superuser account names. With each new superuser account revealed, some I the poker community focused on the expanding refund pool but almost all players would hunker down and focus on the real question … “Who is behind the cheating? And what are the specific implications and broader ramifications?

#8 – UB steps up its PR by deploying its longtime spokesperson Annie Duke to conduct interviews. UB’s position and messages become routinely consistent: all of today’s problems are a consequence of yesterday’s ownership and their blunders. The “new” ownership is working to sort through it all. Again, the PR (as before) seems to have drawn more suspicion and scrutiny to the matter then deflect it. Now, the poker community gets even deeper into its investigation of the ownership structure (it seems to hold the golden keys to everything and provides all answers) AND catching the bad guys (vs. a shared focus on unearthing more and more accounts for the short term gain of cash refunds). The 2+2 community’s threads begin to reflect a sentiment of vigilance, vengeance, ad justice.

#9 – Meanwhile, poker community continues to analyze all of the suspicious accounts. Nat Arem, central to outing the owner of Absolute Poker who cheated his customers out of millions, is again at the center of the efforts to unearth the truth. Nat and rest of gang begin to hone I on a handful of publicly outed superuser accounts. The trail of evidence leads them to a groundbreaking finding!

#10 – The superuser account at the heart of this hub-and-spoke chain of accounts involved in cheating belong to none other than UB owner and poker pro Russ Hamilton. The hard evidence was obtained through UB account records, addresses, and property records. It is discovered that Russ is not acting alone. He has conspirators. Poker community is now following the trails of evidence to identify those conspirators.

There is where things have been left off.

A lot of open questions still remain but many believe that they will all come to light in due time. The investigation is more in-depth and faster than ever now. So, by the time you read this it will already be outdated.

Here are some of those open questions posed in the forums at random times:
Q: Who is Russ Hamilton’s partners in crime?
Q: What is the current UB ownership structure?Q: How extensive and deep is the UB software vulnerability? (note: This is relevant as the underlying software is used in a host of their poker sites in a licensee/licensor model of delivery)
Q: How much total money has been siphoned off the poker public by these crooks?
Q: What are the legal recourse available and should players even seek legal recourse? Could they? Looks like there is recent precedence of racketeering, money laudering, and tax evasion charges with racketeering being the one that sticks but it is all conjecture at this point due to the ext question which is --
Q: Who do we report this evidence backed crime to? FBI? IRS? State AGs? Maistream media? Grassroots outing campaign?
Q: What role did Freddy Deeb, Phil Helmuth, and Annie Duke have? (as of now, there is no determination until more data is discovered)
Q: Is Russ a limb or the head of this ring of fraud or racket? Is he the mastermind or the puppet?
Q: What does this mean for other, larger poker sites that essentially operate under the same rules (that is, not much rules)?
Q: Are the public faces like Annie Duke and Howard Lederer going to “spin” this around to make a case for the regulated, legalization of online poker and in so doing evade the real question of “are YOU directly or indirectly involved in this scandal?” Can they continue on as self-appointed ambassadors of poker and de facto self-appointed representatives of player rights when they are sitting on both sides of the fence? No one has accused either of them formally yet but the perception problem alone brings problems of their visible roles.

The list of questions fall off the page and fill a book.

To end: More is believed to be discovered. All are staying tuned for those breaking news as real life really indeed is better than fiction.

I'm sure I screwed this up as it's based on recall of reading the thread. Save your attacks if I made mistakes and just focus on correctig any. I just figured it was better to summarize than not.[/quote]

well if dave is calling russ every time he needs more $$ from ub then russ is still clearly involved in the day to day operations at ub

Go to his profile and read all fifteen posts he made. He was informative in the beginning and I agree he was vague and confusing to say the least in later posts but it did seem like he was trying to get some message out without actually saying it. Who knows though? Certainly not me.

Im pretty sure he is not talking about anytime recently.

The Freddy Deeb pokercast has been delayed at least one day and possibly until next week. Technical problems at the studio, and Freddy might not be available tomorrow.

I agree, he is trying to push us into a direction with hints. He smiled when someone mentioned the guy from ielogic (?)

As I understand it no one has accused you of being involved in this mess.

One qestion though that might help us is:

Do you remember what the name was of the company you received 1% in and what company you eventually ended up owning 1% in?

does anyone know the last date that devilfish received a transfer from the fred account

Transactions posted by brainwashdodo in post 87 of the annie duke thread
from the -fred- account

235628526 -5000.00 Transfer To Devilfish 2006-JUN-01 06:35:40 PM customer req
266215961 -15000.00 Transfer To Devilfish 2006-JUN-14 03:58:29 PM customer req
374406862 -30000.00 Transfer To Devilfish 2006-SEP-01 06:38:09 PM customer req

it seems to me he had an objective, wanted us to look at the one post about the computer guy, and kept talking acronym. and mentioned the 3 musketeers?

and i know he said he wasnt BWDD, but he sure talked like him. im assuming BWDD isnt allowed to be here due to being paid, so this could be his friend...lol

ok thanks

i think dave knows mansour well, in fact wikipedia says he was recommended to russ hamilton by mansour when he joined ub