Dave, we have mutual friends and I think your cool etc, your blog is fkn awesome and I love reading it and respect your opinion. However I know you and Rutter are vgood mates. On the tables he is an absolute ****. There is no 2 ways about it. I am pretty much a bumhunter ffs and even I think he is way out of line, every single day. I know alot of ppl and he is apparently a nice bloke, I dont doubt it irl - but online is as scummy as they come and you sticking up for him, making a blog post about EXACTLY what your mate does, and not outing him, is pretty ridiculous.

The reason why people talk about him specifically is because he puts his name out there, goes on TV, pretends to be some sort of face of UK poker (with Sky or whatever) - the others are unknowns from China, he has voluntarily outed himself - much like Andrew Feldman did whilst being a total **** on Betfair years ago.

The main reason nobody starts games, is because everyone on ipoker is a **** and its a case of if you cant beat 'em join 'em.

However at least admit to what your are (a bumhunter, like I do) instead of pretending to be this poster boy for UK poker, when your just a scumbag. Also theres a difference between bumhunter and scumbag, a scumbag will block the last seat in a 4max game (as your mate does) so no game runs - a bumhunter is a modern glorified term for someone that game selects.

lol- i literally tried many many times to play on ipoker and start tables at midstakes 6 max but i couldnt because i would get grimmed when trying to start tables about 10 times / hour. guys would be sitting alone at 6 max tables, i would join, they would play 1 hand then quit. Pathetic that they lose business cuz of so many scum infesting this network.

Dan - I take your points, I was just surprised because I've railed Stu play before and I literally never saw what he was doing that caused all the hatred? However I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I don't really know what "table-blocking" is (lollivepro). From what I've seen, he doesn't do anything that I don't see 5x worse every-time I try play on iPoker - not defending it at all, I'm pretty against "game selecting" for the most part, I don't really do it at all but I'm sure I lose money by not thinking more about it - (PLO admittedly), which almost always leads to me getting very tilted and cracking a bottle of red wine open to calm myself down

It's such a shame what's happened to online poker but I can't see it changing ever.

Everytime everyone plays, they should pick their favorite stake and sit 1 empty table of that stake, and be prerared to play vs anyone that sits for minimum 10minutes on that table, if everyone did that you'd have so many great games all the time.

You are ofc right, but I think everyone who read what I said knew I was being flippant to enhance my point. I actually HATE the word fish, and actively try not to use it ever.

lildavefish

good job

stop posting plz

lighten up, it was just a joke

Thats cool its just odd how ur so vocal about it, even in your blog and you dont mention your best mate is the worst culprit since Andrew Feldman. I personally hate the idea of having to play anyone. But I do believe tho hu tables should be min quit times and if u are sitting then u should have to play anyone for 10mins. But it is a democracy and anyone can choose to do what they like with their own money.

The table blocking thing: ipoker have 4max tables, say 3 people are sitting seats 1-3, all additedely waiting for a fish, there is an emtpy seat for such a player, regardless if the other 3 are playing or 2 are sitting out, its pretty ridiculous for Stuart to come and sit in seat 4 and immediately sit out, not posting. That in turn blocks the seat for the fish and also keeps the game 3 handed, meaning the fish cannot join at all. Most times it is 3 ppl 2 sitting out and an empty seat - Stuart will come and sit in that seat and 3 ppl are now sitting out with essentially a dead table. He does it on purpose so said fish wont/cant sit at that table so it moves on to the next table where he is doing the same thing. He also did this using a trick where he could sit at more than the allocated 16 tables by sitting with $0 again blocking seats for fish.

Edit: Also fwiw the reason u see him doing the exact same stuff 5x people do etc is because of course people are just as bad, but like I already pointed out he has chosen to stay in the public somewhat and not hide who he is. People cant really have a go at 30 random chinese people except using their screenames to out them, Stuart Rutter has made it known who he is, with TV time etc and still thinks its ok to do what he does. If you wanna be a poster boy for UK poker or be some sort of authority on it, dont do all the scumbag stuff then get surprised why people are picking you out of the bunch

Scummy behaviour in poker sucks but its just something you have to accept. Like yes you will all lose money to collusion, bots, table blocking, ptr info, and other things. Look out for it by all means but at the end of the day when I played I just accepted that I would have my win rate damaged because it is a dodgy world and its hard to police poker over the internet

haha yh - that was my old FTP screen-name, I hilariously (and somewhat embarrassingly I think) actually had no idea that fish = weaker poker player when i made the name either, I chose it cos I worked in a fish and chip shop when i was leaving school , I'm cool.

I see, I've never even heard of table blocking before that's weird. Thinking about it, I remember loads of times thinking "why the hell this guy just sat here sititng out, seems stupid" guess that's why, god im dumb lol. That is really bad - surely that would be easy enough for the sites to stop by just putting a system in where you HAVE to take the first big blind or you get off the table? I'm sure i'm not the first person to suggest this either

I didn't (and prolly wont ever) call people out over it in public so if i dont call people I don't know out I'm not going to call friends of mine out (there are fwiw good mates of mine I think are WORSE than stu, but maybe i'm wrong - the table blocking business sounds pretty bad)

I felt, from reading this thread (which i always read) there was just loads of scape-goatism (obv not a word but go with it) so felt like providing some balance. Wasn't defending the behavior which I still don't like just thought I might provide some balance. You do make a lot of sense however so i understand better

Been some good responses to the post tho, out of interest what do you think the sites should do to clean this type of stuff up? DO you think it's even possible or you reckon it's gone to far.

I think my idea of every reg just starting 1 empty table every time they play and not sitting out regardless of who sits is great, if only you could persuade every to do it lol (obv impossible) like I said in that blog the hardest thing about this stuff is the people who make LEAST effort to help change are going to make lots of interim monies.

Thanks for the reply Dan

just thought id post here to see if any of u guys could help me out.
my name is craig and some of you who play PLO on ipoker may know me as 'playahatersball.'

for the last few years i played on chilipoker and had no issues with them until recent months when they were taking 2-4 weeks to pay out withdrawals. despite the delay, they still paid each time until now.

on february 27th i requested a withdrawal to my moneybookers accnt and still have yet to receive it almost two months later. I am quite worried that i may never receive my money since their unexpected merger with poker770 in early march. If any of you guys have any contacts at chilipoker or upper management at ipoker who can help resolve my issue, I will be forever indebted to you. PM me if you can help me out.
good luck at the tables
craig

Was aimed at dave

ah ok, i started to realize that myself anyway lol

Well, this just isn't true. Unless someone can tell me what else he's been up to besides table camping? Not defending him here, I have to put up with his **** every session and it's annoying as f.

So tabelblocking is something bumhunters get pissed off of. LOL, grow a pair! "player 1 2 3 sitting out waiting for a fish, and tbl blocker joins DAMN." hypocrites

At least i know the game is good when i play with nutter

What kind of rakeback/ bonuses do you guys get on ipoker?

Fair enough

This could defo have lead to a cool discussion though, I actually been speaking to Stu and others about it a ton recently actually, I think it'd be cool for him to post ITT but he thinks (and he's prolly right) he'll just get abused to the hilt.

If everyone had a bit more vision you could defo improve things - or maybe you couldn't and I'm wrong - I just think no-one actually wants to solve the the problems, everyone would rather hide behind a "XXX player is such a scumbag" and then take the "well if he does it i'll do it" attitude.

I don't even have any problems with game-selecting I think it's pretty shrewd, but I think the aggressive way its executed online is taking the game in a pretty terrible direction.

He won't post because he knows he is in the wrong.

You continue to discuss things you're not familiar with, how can you defend your friend in one sentence and then say you're not even familiar with how he conducts himself at the tables in the next.....

I'm not defending him. I wasn't encouraging him to post ITT to defend his actions (thats nothing to do with me, having a bunch of people think a friend of mine is a scumbag isn't something I care about - My personal opinion of this stuff is prolly harsher than most of yours and I've said/written/talked to friends about it loads of times. As for the topic itself I would consider myself VERY familiar with it. ) I was encouraging him to post because I felt like, ironically almost, he might be one of the people most likely to promote a change of attitude in the whole "game selecting" debate. I know you'd prolly be pretty surprised by some of his actual opinions on the subject as well.

The point I'm making is how is saying "X player is the worst" then behaving just ever so slightly better, any way better than what he does? Why not everybody, if they actually care, really try and make things different by NOT acting like this? (this isn't aimed specifically at you btw I don't know who you are etc so sorry if the tone suggests it is) I just think most people want to hate on a few specific people to excuse their behavior.

So i guess I am defending him in the aspect of refuting the claims made over and over ITT that HE IS HUGELY responsible for the state of the games, which I think just isn't true. (and the fact he is a friend of mine is irrelevant to that - admittedly I might not have noticed as much if I didn't know him)

Literally if everyone just tried a little bit to do it differently then I think the changes would be pretty rapid. This is the point I wanted to make. Not to defend or call anyone out etc. It's a big ask but if if it ever happens online poker could get soso much better.

imo right or wrong the only thing that will drastically change the state of the games is if we get more fish - captain obvious statement there! People (bumhunters) wouldnt be so desperate as they are these days. Sadly there is no magic formula to get people to come online and spew off their inheritance/salaries (I know that sounds bad and predatory but its the reality), unless USA come back and make their games worldwide or more countires open up their player pools and stop regulating the **** out of it we are in trouble and it will only get worse. That is really the ONLY way things will get better. Yes you can make a nicer environment by the things you suggest Dave, but I really dont think it'll make too much difference long run if there isnt more liquidity due to fish, convince me otherwise I'm all ears and would love it to be better. I'm just a pessimist. I do think if it wasnt such a cut throat world people would be more open to creating a better environment but because we are all so desperate for fish/good games its sort of dog eat dog.

I also think people like Galfond, admirable tho he is really dont get the point that if everyone has to play everyone then only the very very select top 1% of the players will get all the money, so they are in effect bumhunting themselves and trying to create an environment where they can eat better. I dont really trust many people in poker due to what I've seen over the years so I wouldnt put it past anyone, even Galfond. Again I'm a pessimist.

What we need is more fish, circa 2005 Party Poker style games and nobody would be complaining about Rutter type **** because nobody will be as desperate as they are today.

As an aside but not really too relevant but I thought it was interesting to share: I was at a party last night and speaking to a friend of mine who is involved in a hedgefund type operation, he mentioned to me that his mate an ex-banker has just admitted he spewed off £5m online gambling through a combination of casinos AND poker, his life is ruined. Terrible terrible situation and I feel the guy, but those are the types of people that make online poker survive, not regs passing money back and forth. We need fish, rich ones at that. Its a horrible reality but this is the 'industry' if you look at it as black and white as that - you sadly cannot cover over the fact that essentially the only way people really win money is because of donks doing their money. The immediate thought I had was 'wonder what his sn was' or 'i bet ive played with him', 'does he still play' etc.

C'est la vie.

It appears that 'grimming' is one of the few things ipoker will do something about.I've reported players a couple of times and both times they've received temporary bans.it's not much but probably worth doing.
The nicest thing I can say about nutterrutter is that at least he doesn't do this, he won't even sit in to take my big blind.

If 3 people are sitting out not playing waiting for a fish to join I 100% support anyone who will take the 4th seat and block the table. If there is someone sitting at a table alone who you don't want to play HU don't sit. If someone sits you and you don't want to play them, get up and leave the table (after playing either 0 or 2 hands, don't grim ffs). There's no excuse for any table to have 2 or more regs and cards to not be in the air. If all he's doing is blocking scumbags who sit out on a bunch of tables waiting for fish he 100% should block them from getting the fish. I just took all my money off ipoker because of the way the midstakes games are and I'm someone who starts tables literally every session I play and ~20% of my hands are HU none at HU tables. Congrats regs for killing your own games and congrats ipoker for allowing them to do it.

I play 5 different sites all with a huge assortment of scumbags table camping, sitting out when regs try to start games, sitting out and waiting when a fish busts and then snap sitting in when he reloads and i can say with no exaggeration that nutterutter is worse in all these scumbag maneuvers than anyone ive come across in my 3+ years of playing mid-highstakes online poker.