I'll bet the other side for a reasonable 1.3:1 odds and escrow.

Ok.....?

Played a bunch with NoelHayes over scoop and in cash games. I'd be very surprised to find out it was Hastings. He showed some sort of knowledge about Ireland and the local poker scene there when asked by a random at my table. I have heard the account has been sold, and is not owned by the account maker anymore. At first I thought this was NoelHayes himself, who also has the BCB nickname. Also into Horse Racing, similar to the avatar. Its annoying a fairly obvious multiaccount can just pop up from nowhere, but everyone kinda knows anyway. Super surprised to see Brian mentioned in regard to the account.

https://twitter.com/bigcitybanker

Its been pretty common knowledge round circles in dublin for about a month now it was hastings on the account. People that know noel knew he was too smart to just jump into those high stakes games so it was only a matter of who it was and people close to noel revealed it was hastings pretty quickly. It was surprising how relaxed people were in keeping the whole situation secret. Not sure how much accounts like this sell for but don't imagine noel doing it for the money. He's fairly well off by all accounts. He's had some high profile jobs with gambling firms like boylesports, paddy power and tote in Ireland. He also had a large share of the horse our conor who won the grand national in the UK swell as shares in many other horses. He has always been known as ,how do i put this, a slimy individual though and a huge fanboy of high stakes players so who knows... Its also been said that mark davis acted as sort of a middleman for the transaction. Not sure if thats true though but would be surprised if it wasn't. Makes you wonder how big of a business buying and selling accounts is.

Given the veracity that Brian has shown in defending himself in the past, his silence on the NoelHayes accusation makes it fairly likely that he has used that account at some point.

I'll give an anecdote that shapes my opinion:

Back in 2013 I made some vociferous arguments urging people against backing Bet Rasie Fold on kickstarter. My tl;dr premise was that if Jay and Taylor were monetizing the film that they should allow lower stakes players a chance to buy a piece of the project (I heard through the grapevine that durrr had 100k in it), rather than request donations for mousepads and the like. At the time (and to this day) I was also pretty salty towards Jay and Taylor because I felt like they had financially profited and personally built their brand by creating a negative exteranlity product and manipulating a lot of their coaches and customers.

Brian and I met through a mutual friend in Vancouver and hung out a few times. Despite not having much of a personal relationship with him, he felt the need to call me out publicly and send me a PM privately in defense of Taylor, Jay, and Bet Raise Fold. He said I had "a lot of growing up to do", which is 100 percent correct, that Cardrunners wasn't the first player in the market, also 100 percent correct, and that we really can't begrudge people for taking advantage of a situation, 100 percent wrong.

Without any provocation, he also decided to share some personal financial information explaining that he is actually DOWN on CR lifetime. He said that it really bothers him that people have a misconception that he made all his money on CR (no Brian, it's actually from cheating Isildur ).

Basically, Brian says he bought a decent chunk of them in 2010, and presumably that investment lost ~50 percent of its value a year later, making the rest of his CR winnings basically a wash.

Now I'm going to directly copy/paste this part even though its a faux pas because the phrasing of it is important. His PM starts with:

"I started making videos for CR in 2005 as a means of having spending money while I was 17 and paranoid of trying to cash out underage. Got paid $1k/month and felt like king of my high school"

Now he doesn't actually say he was playing underage, but I highly doubt he could either a. get as good as he did without playing real money games b. make good videos without making them live action.

I found it a little ridiculous that Brian would share some personal financial information with me. I found it more ridiculous that he would admit to me that he played underage. Even crazier, he gave me a juicy anecdote about Taylor manipulating a scared 17 year old when I have an ax to grind with CR and would like nothing more than to see training sites burn to the ground.

Basically, since Brian has bent over backwards to defend himself in the past, why would he keep quiet now? A balanced cheating range would be to either a. always ignore accusations b. always deny them, and not just deny the ones that can't be proven and ignore the ones that are likely common knowledge.

Brian has been massively insufferable on social media this summer, and seems to be on the highest of high horses when it comes to his success and opinions. I can't imagine what it must be like to be a high school or college acquaintance of his and get literally daily brags from him about how rich he is.

But what if people made big bets against him this summer without knowing that he had been training in online mixed games against the best in the world?

And obviously David Baker feels slightly cheated by the Noelhayes account.

And although we know Brian makes constant denials of the Isildur cheating scandal, it's definitely a he-said she-said type of situation, and at the very least his colleague Brian Townsend did get caught (twice), and it's hard to believe that the two of them didn't talk strategy together.

So let's not pretend that this isn't a dirty business we are in. There are no "nicest guys in poker". There's your bottom line and that's it. Good luck at the tables.

FYI, Brian admits that he talked strategy with Townsend about Isildur, and Brian admits that Townsend bought hand histories but claims he never viewed those histories himself. For me the distinction is pointless because even though Brian may not have bought/viewed the hand histories he still directly benefited because the strategy discussions he had with Townsend came about directly from those histories (by Brian's own admission). Based on this I don't understand how Brian can claim nothing improper was done.

Here's the interview where Brian stated all this (link jumps to 9:50):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L4SposkR9Y#t=9m50s