Words of warning - My story with Brendon “Brendooor/Brendon1717” Rubie:

[MONSTER DONG]

Words of warning - My story with Brendon “Brendooor/Brendon1717” Rubie:

Around two years ago Brendon came to me for tournament backing after blowing 125k in a 25/50 HU PLO rage. I began staking him without much thought because he crushes online tourneys. Over the months to follow, he makes us both some money. He then tells me that he won $8000 on his brothers full tilt account. In this instance, I accepted responsibility for his ignorance, not understanding the rules of a staking deal; and did not require him to give me half of winnings as to which I am entitled. I explained to him this is not acceptable under our, or any, staking agreement as he is essentially just multi-accounting under his own money on the side; which he claimed to understand.

Later that year, Brendon won the Melbourne champs and chooses to cease our staking arrangement and go on his own money. After he wins Melbourne champs, Brendon went on a desperate attempt to get sponsored by playing every big buy in tournament both live and online. including the $100k at Aussie Millions. At the $100k in 2011 he was frantically trying to sell enough action for a buy in after the event had already started. An acquaintance of ours at the time stated through a text message he would buy 10% of each of us but couldn't give us the money immediately as he was busy. We both accept his stake however this left Brendon $10,000 short of a buy in for the tournament and did not have the money available to play. I lent him the $10,000 and said I would just get the money from the acquaintance. Neither of us cashed in the tournament and our staker (whom regularly plays $100k’s) turns out to be a huge gambling addict and is unable to give me the money. I see him in Perth a few months later and he gives me a $20,000 cheque... which bounced.

I try getting in contact with him for months more. Contacting his business, all his mates...no one has heard from him or seen him. This money has to be written off until I or someone runs into him one day. I stupidly decided not to tell Brendon about not getting the money back until a while down the track when he started picking up his bankroll again. I figured why bother him with it when he doesn't have the money to pay me back anyway? He's a sensitive guy behind all the smugness and didn't want to knock his confidence. The way I saw it, the only outcome of that would be that it'd put him in a worse state of mind and that’s not something that would interest me.

A few months later he is caught out for multi accounting under a friend’s username during WCOOP event and his username was exposed. This reminded me of an event where a guy played exactly like Brendon...3 and 4 betting me relentlessly. Surely enough, I look back on that particular tournament and that account was Brendon’s multi-account; not only does he not stop multi accounting, but he doesn't even have the decency to not take advantage of the in-depth knowledge he has on my game, where as I am taking him for an inexperienced recreational player. He 'sincerely' apologised to me saying that he just didn't want anyone at all knowing it was him because he was embarrassed. I said I'd forgive but not forget and we continued being friends.

Brendon goes broke again and comes to be for backing. Although he wronged me in the past, I know he will win me a lot of money. I made the business decision to begin staking him again.

During WSOP 2011 my Hotmail address was hacked. Someone from India stole a bunch of money on ‘Stars, Neteller and Moneybookers. Due to keeping the integrity of the sites I won't disclose where I got money back and where I couldn't. Overall it was a cheap lesson to keep my money more secure. I subsequently told all my horses, including Brendon, that Hotmail is insecure and to change all poker accounts associated with it. My other horses did so, Brendon did not because 'he's always used Hotmail and has got too much stuff in there. In December 2011 Brendon wins the championship cup on BWIN for $40k and comes very close to clearing his makeup after some time in the red. A few days later he gets hacked on there for $32,000. He says he got onto it straight away and he thinks we'll get the money back. He didn’t. I tell Brendon that this could have been prevented by not using Hotmail like I said.

He becomes irrational, saying, ‘how I could possibly blame him for this natural disaster-like incident’. He keeps emailing BWIN trying to recoup some of the money but still no love. By this time the 2012 Aussie Millions has begun and we are now in Melbourne. He plays the opening event under my stake and wins it for $200,000. We go for a coffee the next day to discuss the money and our future business dealings. He pays me my half of the $200,000 and says he wants to go on his own action. I ask if he was sure, as he still owed me $32k from BWIN and $10k which I advanced him on behalf of our acquaintance to play the $100k the previous year.

Without mention of the lost money on BWIN, he insinuated that my advancing him money on behalf of our acquaintance was an acceptance of responsibility by me to recoup the money on both of our behalves. Although his was certainly not the situation as I viewed it I conceded that it was unfair of me not to tell him this until now. In my defence, I kept this information from his as he was already in significant makeup and I thought that the notion of greater debt would not be good for his ego, which is actually quite delicate.

We argue further and he unequivocally states that he is not giving me the money under any circumstances. We move onto the BWIN ‘hacked’ fund for which there is no evidence of money dumping on Poker Table Ratings. I explain to him that because I told him the necessary precautions he should take when handling my money and because of this he owes me the full amount hacked. I explain that when he's handling my money it is his responsibility to look after it. Me telling him not to use Hotmail, is akin to me giving him $32,000 at the start of Aussie Millions and him not putting it in the safe in his room and having it stolen by the maids. Just to be clear, nothing like this has ever happened to me at crown even when I have left valuables out of the safe.

We cannot come to a financial resolution, however we come to the agreement that we will send a letter to 6 respected members of the poker community explaining the situation and seek their candour to find an amicable solution. Brendon says he will begin writing the letter that night, I check it and add some missing facts to give an accurate representation of what happened.

The following day I receive a phone call to meet him at a cafe at crown. I go down to meet him and he says “so I don't think it’s right that we get other people to dictate the money... I spoke to a good business friend of mine and...(rant rant rant, talking ****)”. I tell him to cut to the chase because I couldn't be bothered hearing about what his unidentified 'business friend' had to say. He pauses for a little while then says “I've decided I'm not going to give you any of the money, unless you choose to accept half of the BWIN money for $16k”. I call him a few obscenities and tell him to send me my online funds that he has immediately. He already had the amount converted to AUD in his pocket and gives it to me.

Like a child that has just finished watching an episode of The Sopranos, he tells me that I have 24hrs to accept his offer to which he will be putting in writing for me to formally accept. Despite any two-bit moron knowing that a contract signed under duress is null and void, I agree to his ultimatum, accepting that $16/42k is better than $0/42k.

I still feel I am entitled to other 26k, as does almost everyone I have spoken to about the situation. I called Brendon today at 1pm asking him if he still does not want to negotiate as I will be releasing a public statement on our dealings together. I said that I would happily take the rest of the BWIN funds to make everything go away even though I feel as if I’m being ripped off.

The last thing I want out of this is to have a public **** fight, however he has not left me with a choice and I feel I have to warn people about dealing with Brendon in the future.

[SEABEAST]

Cliff notes:

Brendooor first caught multi-accounting small buyin FTP tourneys on his brothers account while backed by Jono for 'all tourneys' on his main account

Then WCOOP rolls around and he's caught multi-accounting there too, including playing especially aggro vs Jono deep in WCOOPs because they are friends and he knows how he plays

Jono keeps backing him anyway because he's a good player, Brendooor wins ChampionChip for 30k, then 12 days later without having requested a cashout at all he "gets hacked", and all the money in his account gets "chip dumped" to another player

Brendooor can supply no evidence of genuine hacking or chip dumping, support send an email saying they are closing Brendooors account and will never re-open it

Brendooor refuses to put the money lost on makeup, Jono and Brendooor fight about it, Brendooor wins a live tourney for $200k a week later and quits the stake while they settle

During the settlement Jono brings up an outstanding debt of $10k he lent Brendooor to play the $100k, Brendooor decides he doesn't have to pay that money back because the guy taking the 10% disappeared from the poker community and never paid him.

Brendooor has given Jono $16k for half the ChampionChip score and none of the $10k. Jono feels this is unacceptable so is posting to out Brendooor for his previous indiscretions.

[Connissuer]

Lame situation are you still friends or is this outing mean your relationship is over, its not really anyones fault he got hacked although you did warn him I think the correct thing would be for you to take half the loss or void the whole cash and put it back into makeup.

As for the 10k you should have told him when it happened, as is it would be on his and your best interest if he paid you the 10k just my opinion gl op.

[mjw006]

Personally I think this is absurd.

Backer clearly asks the stakee to change the email accounts to avoid the situation. The stakee does not comply for some random reason (Just because he has lots of other stuff on there doesn't mean he cannot link his poker accounts to something different). As far as I am concerned, it becomes the stakee's full responsibility at that point in time.

In a case where there was no real warnings/suggestions from the backer, I think 50% would be acceptable to MU. The responsibility lies with the stakee to not be exploited in that way, yet at the same time it can often be hard to forsee these things.

In this case, it was forseen and warning was given. He is responsible for the full amount IMO.


He clearly owes the $10k. He 'borrowed' the money. He did not forgo the responsibility of that money just because time elapsed. Sure, Jono could have told him about it earlier, but it sounds like he definitely had his best interests at heart by not telling him immediately. It's very much a lose/lose situation for Jono, but for what? For lending someone $10k? Seems wrong to me, and as far as I'm concerned he owes this $10k ainec.

Hope it gets sorted Dong, GL.


CLIFFS: Rubie owes $26k IMO.

[random_chu]

mjw straight up nails it.

the only area of flexibility is in reference to the hacked amount. as matt says, given the fact that jono warned about the perils of hotmail, warnings which were then ignored, makes it reasonable for the whole amount to be owed.

as for the 10k, any refusal to repay this is theft, and it's not even close.

[overthaline]

looks like some fun things goin on in here how about these other accounts he was playing on during wcoop or scoop whaaaatever get revealed just to add someeee m0000rrrreeee

[marek_heinz]

Obviously he's a scammer and a scumbag and owes you the money, but you know what, you knew this before the last round of staking and still went through with it

[Shan]

obv he owes the money, chance he wasn't hacked at all. Marek is spot on too

[mjw006]

Originally Posted by marek_heinz

Obviously he's a scammer and a scumbag and owes you the money, but you know what, you knew this before the last round of staking and still went through with it

Eh, reasonable point however it seems they were still friends despite anything that had gone on... AND he still made him money as anticipated, he just should have got a lot more than he did is all...

[SEABEAST]

yeah i passed on backing rubie despite having had heated arguments with people where i took the side that he was a very good MTTer. scumbags gonna scumbag...

[Rubie Tuesday]

[bazooka87]

omgomgomg amazing first post

[Berky]

Jonno informed me about the hacking situation a while ago. I talked to Brendon about the 'hacking' situation at the table during Event #1 of the Aussie Millions. His story/explenation was EXTREMELY shady and had a lot of holes/illogical parts about it.

Pretty obvious IMO that he owes him 26k. Given Brendon's history he will be busto soon and ask for staking.

[mement_mori]

Originally Posted by marek_heinz

Obviously he's a scammer and a scumbag and owes you the money, but you know what, you knew this before the last round of staking and still went through with it

Seriously why would you post something like this.

GL Dong and thanks for the heads-up, hope he does the right thing and pays you back.

[jayg320]

If he's so good y does he keep going broke? And agree with the comments above he stillowes 26k. His stories seems so shady. Not sure if its believable.