When Hastings cheated Viktor Blom he got the 4 million dollars off full tilt really fast. Probably did the same thing here.

I believe that players don't have the option to turn the transfer function off/on.
If transfers are not going through, it will be for 1 of 2 reasons.

1. Account is under investigation.
2. Pokerstars has requested that the user provide updated ID documentation.

From the Pokerstars FAQ:

I am unable to send or receive transfers. Can you help?

Your account may need to pass an additional Security review prior to transfers being processed. In order to assist us with this review, we ask you to upload a copy of your government issued ID via the PokerStars Client, if you have not done so already, following the instructions below:
Log into your account via the PokerStars Client.
Navigate to ‘Help’ > ‘Contact Support / Upload Documents’.
In the pop-up screen that will appear select ‘Security’ and the ‘Documents’ sub-category.
Browse to files on your computer and upload them directly to us.
Please ensure you specify ‘Unable to send or receive transfers’ in the subject line.

If transfers were a toggle option, the first entry in the FAQ would be to toggle transfers to 'on'.

When my country was still allowed to do transfers, I ALWAYS had that option turned off. I've heard lots of stories of honest players being linked/banned with scammers/credit card frauds etc. via player transfers. I did 100s of transfers but I always emailed Stars the name of the player I was doing transfers with beforehand, so I could make sure that player was not in some kind of bad standing etc. Then I turned the function on, and immediately off again when transfers were done.

This is +2 years ago, and I honestly can't remember where in the settings I did it, or if I did it by email request, but I %100 sure did it, on very many occasions due to backing several players I didn't know irl. If that option has been removed since then, I don't really know.

So Ike sat in a game where a perceived whale was also sitting.....Meaning regs who normally wouldn't sit Ike also joined these games hoping to snag the whale?

But this whale was really Hastings and Ike was privy to this information?


That's pretty much a double rolling.


Hastings, I don't blame you using a VPN. But why choose a whale's account for this?... That's shady man.

No way you get all this heat if you VPN from a clean new account.


And Ike, I don't blame you for not outing a friend.

But sitting in the same games?

You've clearly fked up and I'm not sure you can avoid falling on your sword.

And I'm not talking about your 2p2 sword. Which I'm sure is the least of your problems in the grand scheme.

Agree with this, and this is what some who have posted a lot in this thread don't get (and get called stupid). Someone with Hasting's resources would have no problem setting up a neutral/new account to VPN on - I mean he purchased someone else's, who's a high profile rec, and get through any issues with identity verifications for cashing out, etc. That's mainly why this whole thing looks so bad.

Its not so easy to just set up a brandnew account and jump into skystakes without arising suspicion...
Way easier to use wealthy whale account which 1) doesnt look that strange bc guy have money & 2) gives u a fishy image from teh getgo

From prior posts it appears that a statement from Mr. Haxton is likely extremely relevant to concerns about game integrity that this scandal brought to light. Requesting such a statement is far from bringing out pitchforks.

Isaac Haxton is A. an Icon of the game B. was directly involved in the games where cheating occurred. C. is a hired ambassador for the company providing the game. D. long time member, participant and moderator at the site where the most discussion on the subject is being held. E. directly implicated as having knowledge of active cheating.
When someone as respected and high profile as Isaac Haxton cannot or will not even offer something as simple as- "I deplore cheating do not participate in cheating and hope to help end it's prevalence in the games"-. When there is "Zero upside" for an Iconic Ambassador to offer any type of reassurance about game integrity nor offer help to stop cheating. Well, I don't see a way to put a positive spin on the situation.

In other arenas of business if a company became aware that a person in their eimployment had and withheld information of a person cheating company customers out of a six or seven figure sum of money that person would at minimum no longer be employed. In other areas of business that person may very likely have criminal charges filed against them.
Outside of poker it would argued that it was egregious for anyone employed by the company offering the venue to withhold such information.

Im Canadian and there is no option for us to turn off the ability to receive transfers. The Stinger account is Canadian based.

The guy does make a pretty compelling point Jamie

My assumption, based on basically nothing, is that stars has asked Ike not to comment on the situation, either "for now" or "forever," and that he is complying. I'm honestly not sure why that isn't a more broadly held assumption, rather than that an open, intelligent person, who frequently takes unpopular stands on this forum, is in some way acting maliciously. (not that I think failing to provide fairly irrelevant details to a mob is legitimately malicious, even.)

sir,
vanessa selbst, also sponsored by pokerstars, has come into this thread and given her opinion. jason mercier, also sponsored by pokerstars,discussed noelhayes at a table with george danzer (also sponsored by pokerstars) which was shown to the world.

why is that you refer to us as a mob? is that your view of posters in this thread? and why do you feel the details are irrelevant? have you not read what has been posted here? the people posting in this thread are trying to get to the truth. something others want to avoid.

all that has been asked, and it has been asked for months, is that ike come into the forums and respond to serious allegations from a source that has proven to be very reputable, accurate & has stood up for the poker community. everyone wants to hear ike say is "i wasn't aware of the cheating."

no innocent person, in the history of innocent people, has hurt his cause by claiming his innocence. would you like to point out to us exactly where in the course of human history that wasn't that case?

First, the answers being sought are not "irrelevant details"

With all of the debacles involving online poker only a fool would ask people to blindly accept that silence equates to nobility. One of the reasons it may not be a "more broadly held assumption" is because, as the following post from Bakes demonstrates, There appears to only be two scenarios for why this cheating occurred for the length of time that it did.


Another point of relevance of Isaac Haxton knowing about the cheating of Brian Hastings follows

Citanul, trying to pretend that this thread exists due to hyperbole is preposterous.

Ike Haxton and Justin Bonomo basically lived together (same building in Vegas) and ofc ghosted etc etc etc. Justin Bonomo is a known cheat and only came clean because he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Ike never did, he got a sponsorship instead. It could very easily gone the other way around. Just variance i guess.

This thread reminds me of a conversation on a season of High Stakes Poker (likely the one with the "Silly Bands" guy) in which a pair of Pros were contending to perhaps the Silly Bands guy that ethics in poker and among poker players was higher than in other areas commerce/competition.

If I am remembering the exchange correctly, the correct response should have been ... ah, no.

All the rationalization and excuses from top players and even mods just affirms how dirty this game really is (both at the top and bottom). Shame, because it does not have to be that way and only is because too many people let it.

Hotwarmcold,

Good job on fighting the good fight.

Looking forward to all other threads being stripped of personal insults. I'm a big fan of this new NVG policy!

A lot of cowardly, milquetoast, ignorant, dismissive bull**** replies from mods between this thread and the ATF thread.

Actually Bonomo is pretty much the poster child for how to respond to this sort of situation, and the parallels are pretty solid to Hastings. When he was caught multiaccounting, no one thought he was the only one, he was just the guy who got caught. He responded, not by bitching about how broken the system was & how hypocritical everyone was being, but by serving out his ban, being AFAIK clean, weathering all the photoshop jokes, and pretty much rehabilitating himself.

As a graduate(?) of a top tier college, Hastings was supposed to be one of the guys who had enough non-poker experience to keep him grounded, unlike the likes of DogIsHead who dropped out and were all poker from their late teens. It's amazing to me the path by which Hastings has gone from talking about 'good of the game' to 'not in my interest', and the extent to which the sensible sounding idea of cutting out the haters and focusing on positivity can easily become an excuse for ignoring the awkward truths you'd rather not confront.

Sure, if you ignore his initial response. (A day or a couple of days -- can't exactly recall how long it was before he owned up to it.)

Edit: just want to make it clear that my response doesn't endorse in any way the ridiculous claim that Ike and Bonomo living in the same building somehow proved they were ghosting or otherwise cheating.

I honestly don't know why anyone one is surprised that mods on 2+2 are happy to cover things up for one of their own. A totally unaware Nazi-like inner circle mentality is essentially a prerequisite to being a top dog on this forum. Delete my comment, ban me or blah blah but it won't change the fact that my last sentence is true. So ironic that the holier than thou and self ordained sophisticats of pretty much everything logic and fairness related are blind and dishonest enough to say 1+1= 684 when it suits them.

You kinda sucks at math. Your nick name is also wrong.

And honestly, where the hell is DNegs? Another self proclaimed beacon of honesty. It was so obvious around the times of the FT scandals that his incessant clattering about the obvious wrong doings @ FT were more self serving than they were community orientated. He is the main voice of PS where there has obviously been shady stuff going on. Where is he? I always thought he was a phoney but liked his interview with Chicago Joey. He came across as a decent guy but I did cringe when he spoke about how truth is everything to him and he will always stand up for what is right no matter what? Ok Negs. You have millions in the bank. PS money is nice and you enjoy the role etc etc but you can live basically the same life without them. Shady stuff is going on that is bad for the community and the common good. Stars are basically condoning all of this. Where are you? Your bottom line will be affected if you speak out, but as you have proclaimed so many times to the whole World, you are an honest guy for whom integrity is everything. Please speak on this issue to help the community. Please take a stand on this issue to help the game and the community. You are willing to brag on social media about million dollar bets you won't even take. I bet you a million that you won't come out and say all this stuff is wrong and say PS need to do something about it. I bet you a million that you won't say a word that might affect your bottom line.

Is that a real wager? If so, I'm going to go pop some popcorn.

I love these bets that hold the same value as Lock money. Would be awesome if finally someone snaps it off and is owed $1M.

I mean, if I'm DN and actually reading this I would for sure take the $1M.

He got a point though. At every other oportunity stars pros are quick to jump in and give their 2 cents and in tis instance it went a bit silent after vanessa embarrassed herself. Kinda sad that it seems to be so easy for stars to silence each and any one of those.
Dnegs would get alot of streetcred if hed come in here and proclaim "i condone wat BH did and will do everything in my power that he gets lifetimebanned from stars, ftp and any stars livetournament or pokerroom - there is no place for people like tis in our community"

I dont see it happening at this point though

No you wouldn't because you'd be losing much more than $1M after you lost your sponsorship.