Holy ****. Do you have any idea how they did it? If someone knows your bank account numbers and the last 4 of your SSN can they really initiate withdrawals and deposits with no problem?

Aren't there a lot of casinos in FL? I would advise moving back with the family, get a part time job and then play at the casinos there until you build your roll up enough again. Or you could do the same in Vegas and live out of your car again.

Wow, unbelievable, bikeking. Sorry to hear that. Hope it looks better for you regarding getting at least some of it back.

Since you want to stay in Vegas, at least you don't have rent to pay. I would get on with Lyft, and if that doesn't pay much, I'd get a 9-5 temporarily, since you have a skillset from your previous job, and just grind or Lyft in the evenings. Seems like many times when you're down toward the bottom of your roll, and you need to win, is when you don't, so I'd get a job as a safety net while you build your roll back up. GL. Keep us updated.

Bike, I think you need to go the lawsuit route 100% of the time. There's no way I'd just lose 40k and say "oh well, that's life". You did nothing wrong and don't deserve to lose it.

I think that if an attorney feels you have a strong chance of winning, they would agree to do the work for little to no payment up front. Based on what you've written, I don't see why an attorney would feel you had anything less than a strong chance. Even if you end up losing a part of it to legal fees after, it's still a win.

I don't believe your bank story. No way could such large transactions go through without your account being locked. 40 k and living in your car? Sounded fishy from the start.

He seems more concerned about the possibility of having to move back home than losing I mean getting 40k stolen. Yeah, something isnt adding up here.

It has been a solid three weeks of nonstop phone calls, emails, and research fighting to get my own money back with dismal results. Spike, Pure Aggression, & others can verify I don't really have much value in lying about my financial situation after maintaining a thread and vlogging, wouldn't I just want to drop it and disappear? It doesn't affect my life so believe what you will and thank you to those who have reached out offering any help and advice.

Perhaps I am slightly less obsessed with losing 43k than others would be. I didn't become a professional poker player for the money, in fact I left a 6 figure job industry for it. I wasn't living in my car because I couldn't afford a place, it was cheap and I found I could maintain a healthy & balanced lifestyle without standard accommodations. Also, it probably sounds super cliche, but as a Christian money is really not the most important thing to me and God didn't change being who He is nor did this catch Him by surprise so it's simply a matter of trusting Him where to go next. I'm still making multiple phone calls and emails daily but it's been pretty frustrating running into brick walls.

The poker news article said you were let go of your job and couldnt find another one Something about alledgedly forging a signature.

True I did not straight up quit an aviation job for poker. However graduating with Suma Cum Laude honors holding all the avionics certs possible as well as a secret security clearance there are a wide variety of jobs available, many contracting jobs require overseas travel in war zones for several months at a time. So it was a difficult job search in searching for doing something I would enjoy. Because I worked for a private contractor company all they confirm are employment dates and salary, so I wasn't carrying around a bad recommendation from my previous employer. I also have an addictive type of personality and don't half invest myself into things I don't think are worth it so my job search was narrowed a lot simply on my own part. I didn't want to simply take any job in aviation while I continued to search for what I really wanted, and living at home afforded me that time. Aviation is still a growing industry especially for avionics it's not really the job market for me in as much that I found I lived a greater quality of life not working a 9 to 5. No one has ever been on their death bed and said "man looking back on everything, I wish I worked more overtime."

An evangelical christian that gambles for a living, yet doesnt covet money. Now I've heard it all

What about the signature forging allegation? You conveniently skipped over that.

If you'd like to debate faith and poker that almost requires a whole new thread. This is a topic I'm well versed in being a Pastors kid my whole life. It's on my list of future articles for Pokernews. Apologetics is one of my favorite subjects.
Details on why I was let go boiled down to it was an employee who had been 2 years longer than me and I was nearly at the same point as him in the self paced training program after 8 months of working 60 hour weeks. One day he refused to claim a signature of his on a test we had done the previous week, and it boiled down to his word against mine and signing off work in the aviation buisness is serious buisness so it was easier to let the new guy go when you have new employees being hired almost every week than try and resolve what actually happened, this all happened in one day so I really didn't have time to talk with anyone else or consider my options other than quitting the company versus being fired and filing wrongful termination, I was just a kid fresh out of school. Geez I'm turning into a genuine twoplustwoer with these keyboard wars, good day sir.

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Andrew, I apologize for some of these folks being disrespectful to you. NEVER KICK SOMEONE WHEN THEY're DOWN! I thought about this story a few times today and feel terrible for you. You have a great attitude, but please inquire about a lawyer. What happened to you is disgusting. Makes me sick.

A friend of mine ordered some kind of drug (idk which one) that's supposed to stop balding hair from an "online pharmacy". The next day he got a call from his bank saying they blocked a large transaction from overseas. Needless to say, the medicine never arrived.

This stuff does happen, especially to people who are careless about ordering from unknown companies that are probably set up in Africa to steel your information.
I always tell people not to keep all of your eggs in one basket, for these reasons (as well as potential software or cyber warfare issues).

I think if Andrew owed someone 50K and then comes up with a story like this, then yes say your FOS but I don't see why he would just make something up for the sake of making up a story.

In the future start a second account like at ameritrade and funnel some $ in there and maybe a small cash savings account at a separate bank. That's what i do, fight variance with the bank accounts too lad.

People make up stories like this quite often in the poker world when they go busto.

This guy. Lol

It IS surprising that the bank didn't block these transactions after the 1st one given the heightened identity theft awareness nowadays. I believe bikeking said he had withdrawn money while overseas before, but the fact that they were just under 10k amounts each time and multiple withdrawls should've raised the bank's eyebrows and made them take further action. I know bike said that they tried to contact him and weren't able to, so the bank at that point should have locked the acct and made bike contact THEM. Which if it was indeed him trying to withdraw, he surely would have contacted them upon attempting to withdraw the next 10k. What's the name of this wack bank, bike?

I also wonder if someone very close to you was involved, bike, because how would some random know exactly when you were going to be out of the country AND that you didn't have international phone service?

Yeah the fact that the bank let multiple transactions through is the craziest thing on the whole situation imo. TBF, back when I used to use western union I did quite a few transactions although for much lower amounts as I lost my first 4 or 5 deposits online before I started exercising brm and taking it more seriously. Just about every time the bank would flag it and with some sites there was a time limit for how soon the transaction had to be completed and picked up by whomever I was sending it to so I had asked my bank if there was a way to avoid this annoyance as sometimes the deposit wouldn't go through and I'd to wait another day. They said they would make a note on my account to expect multiple international transactions and I didn't have a problem with another deposit. And for this trip I had notified them I would be out of country during these dates, so I suppose they saw that, saw i had verified my social security number and decided it was ok although you'd think they would lean on the side of caution and hold it. SunTrust bank is who I was banking with. As far as someone close to me doing this, I suppose it's not entirely out of the question but I also put this on Facebook and Twitter so others did know I was out of country.

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If you do buy stuff online or do any kind of electronic transactions short of paying bills, always use a credit card, never a debit card connected to your checking account. You have less liability with a credit card, and obviously the most that can be taken is your card limit.

But yeah, there's no reason not to distribute your life roll among multiple bank accounts, and even keeping some of it in physical form. The smaller banks and credit unions don't charge monthly fees.

Wait, so what's the current status? Did losing the $43k affect your ability to continue playing or was your liferoll completely separate?

Most of my money was in my bank I would make weekly deposits as being "publicly homeless" I didn't want to carry a large amount on me or in my car. Left with a little under couple grand in cash and a little less than a grand online, so it's not like I'm down to my last tank of gas or anything.

A lawfirm last week told me this is why companies such as Life Lock exist for situations such as this and they carry their own insurance for coverage of things like this. I have contacted the government for my earnings statement as well as filing a complaint with the IC3 who investigates cases of identity theft and my earnings statement might reveal any fraudulent activity that has occurred. Thus far nothing else has occurred, as I stated earlier it would actually help my case if something had happened as I would have more evidence to show the bank my identity was in jeopardy. Honestly still unsure exactly of my next steps.

I have played four dailys this past week which I'm not even rolled for now but I saw they were short handed to start and a decent chance of overlay, 3 of them were the 1am Rio $500 guarantee and those I chopped heads up all 3 nights. There's typically an overlay during the weekdays as they need 12 people to get the guarantee and usually only have 4 or 5 to start, so you're playing shorthanded against rec players who have no idea what icm stands for or push/fold (guy folded A6s face up 3 handed to a BvsB jam for 4bb.) So that's shown a profit of $630 this week.
I played in Troopers meetup game last night but the games weren't as good, my first table was atrocious as in two orbits we saw two flops and I picked up to another table with Pure Aggression that was decent but a couple fish busted and then it just a couple regs and three old ladies with $50 stacks so I left that with a $55 profit after maybe an hour of play.

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Thats brutal... Fwiw poker vlogger Mr Dorson had the same issues. He said his bank card was copied at a gas station in LV and they took like 20k which was all he had. He had to stop playing and get a job but the bank gave him everything back eventually (it took couple of weeks/months). .. So there is some hope I guess.... Good luck man....

YOU STOLE MY JOKE YOU PRICK!!!

I hope everything works out for you, Bikeking, and you get your money back.

Will you be talking about this on your vlog?