he's 100% knew and most likely has known since very early on.

Highly likely, but that's not 100%.
Maybe Brian thought that Joey became a bit too gossip'ish with all that podcastiing etc, to safely tell him about this early on...

watch 27:30-28:35.

i guarantee you joey knows a lot of things about a lot of things he'd rather us not know about.

how can you be so sure?

Joey seemingly have done nothing wrong, even if he knew that his friend played on this account. You cant expect him to "tell on his friend"

What he wrote earlier about stinger being in a good place in his life and "dont care about haters" makes him sound like the derpiest version of dnegs tho and i hope he wont keep that **** up.

Anyway, on to da next podcast.

Going to start a stream in a couple minutes and will talk about this and everything people have been saying ITT

+1 for yevgeniy timoshenko, like who is this kid and how was he so good on cash games / tournies on those european shows

also, why so less coverage of that guy? does he still play in big tournies / games? washed up?? IDK MAN OS MANY ****IN QUESTIONSSNFoNSFOS!

Seriously not your bad, Joey. Just uncomfortable for you. And that's all, if anyone tries to evaluate this in a grown up, fair way, with at least an oddment of empathy and logic.

Game is rough, and promoting it might be a slippery slope in the afterthought, but if I wouldn't have been in my biggest downsing ever 2 months ago, I would have snapped that offer to do a nutblocker-interview, instead of pulling a Colman there (sry napsus, I was titled as **** when we PM'ed)

You have success in playing poker, Joey, and then decided to entertain your fellows. Ofc some people will nitpick anything you do, because this is the internet. But regarding this situation and your role in it, it's blatantly laughable.

Keep on trucking!

Not a good look Joey.

Ask David Baker to be a guest and comment on the Stinger cheating on your podcast.

I feel a lot of the criticism pointed towards Joey is completely unjustified as a result of the situation. I think people need to realise that because Joey has a big podcast following now he will pretty much be in the worst spot possible if any of his close friends ever get involved in any sort of frowned upon situation. I think its quite ridiculous for anyone to question Joey's handling of the situation, give the man a break

Keep at it my man, all the best.

Basically what Anfiield said.

It's a ****ty situation for Joey but who here can really admit that they'd rat out a close friends of their's?

pretty much this ... not saying the whole situation (w/ BH) is cool / acceptable, but neither is Joey is a news site, nor was he responsible for the MA - also listening to the newest podcast so far (25mins), i don't see, that he is defending anyone but rather, that he's wondering, why every one seems so surprised ...


alos +1 for bakes as guest

Slightly disappointed in Joey's stance, especially the line "Well it's kinda how things work online right now"

Something like "While I don't agree with it, I will come to the aid of my friend" is a much more defensible position. Trying to defend multi accounting because everyone does it because that's just the climate in today's games is a pretty unethical rationalization.

It won't stop me from watching his podcast though.

he's not defending MA'ing, he's just acknowledging that MA'ing and VPN'ing is pretty standard on all networks these days due to the prohibitive legislative climate in various countries. and some people take it a step further and do it with more nefarious intentions than to just be able to play in games they ordinarily wouldn't be allowed to play in.

like, what do you guys want from him? a universal condemnation of online poker and a vow to end his friendship with the guy? get real

edit: intentions are a huge element to this sort of thing (i am of the opinion that brian's intentions were only mildly nefarious at worst) and unfortunately some people break the rules to get an edge over their competitors, but that's life in all industries and certainly not unique to poker.

Totally agree

anybody who still plays online poker for a living or makes decent money doing it does it with the full awareness that this type of stuff goes on and you have to be vigilant and watch out for yourself. the VPN'ing/MA'ing is not such a big deal on a network like ipoker because anybody is allowed to make like 8 diff accounts on all the various skins and you never really know who you're playing anyway. it sucks, but it's 100% gonna be this way while people in various countries are locked out of certain networks due to their geographical location.

Joey is clearly saying "Well everyone does it, so it's whatever"

How is that not defending Brian's MA here?

My stance is that lots of people do it, and it's scummy, and I find it to be completely unethical. I think most people who care about the integrity of the game have the same stance as I do.

I realize that Joey and Brian are friends, and he's in a tough spot, but he still could have handled it a bit differently.

what he's saying is that anybody who plays online poker is a victim of this sort of thing, oftentimes without us even knowing. it sucks, but some of us are just more realistic with our mentality and we don't get all outraged about it when it happens.

some people may disagree with me, and that's fine, but it seems pretty clear that brian wasn't MA'ing to specifically get an edge from certain people or to get action from those who had refused him in the past. the whole "he got practice before the bracelet bets tho, i naively assumed he was just gonna book that action being super rusty and out of shape, so i'm mad" is kinda ridiculous imo.

edit: i do agree that it's somewhat poor form to snap up an account that had prior history as a fun player, but i would imagine that random accounts are not in huge supply and it's a massive risk to use his own.

I'm not disagreeing with you there. However, there are two key points that you're missing:

Brian is a public figure in the poker world, and his actions reflect on the entire community.

It's arguably more important now than ever for us to act with integrity due to the legislation issues.

Joey, why did you burst out in laughter here?

Don't wanna fault you at all for anything but have to ask

im not missing those points, i just don't agree that it's as big a deal as some are making it out to be, nor do i think that it's going to have any material impact on state legislation efforts in USA#1

part of stars' agreement with the DOJ was that they would actively enforce a no americans policy, which means taking documented measures to identify and close accounts of people who try to VPN from the states (and they do). they're not going to be expected to do a perfect job of it and eliminate it entirely in order to obtain licenses in the future, they're just expected to identify it and act upon it whenever possible. that's basically not even up for debate.

Talking about the broader picture here, not just stars.

And I hope you're right about it not being a big deal, but we'll see what happens over the next couple weeks.

what broader picture? that makes no sense imo

federal legislation is not a pending issue nor is it something likely to be taken up anytime soon (only CA has a legit chance of doing something soon on the state level, afaik), and nowhere is favorable legislation more important than in USA#1