I mean, I can understand players cheating. I can also understand players cheating, getting caught, then cheating again. Where there is lots of money involved, there will always be cheating.

What I cant understand is how this guy pops up in the NVG every year with a thread about him cheating - and still not get a punch in the face at least.

Can someone please explain?

Most people aren't that dumb?

He could steal a million from you and likely get away with it, but if you punch him he will call the cops and try get you sent to jail. The World is weird like that. So yeah, punching his face in would be dumb. Got to be smarter than that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yza2wHZgW3o

actually last part of email suggests that stars security will view the hastings/hayes cheating much more seriously & they will likely be barred from future play on the amaya sites. hastings was playing much higher the 1kHU.

fanboys need not worry though. now that he knows he will likely be barred from amaya, he has reverted to bashing all online poker sites on twitter as untrustworthy while at the same time taking up the cause for regulated online poker in the usa.
http://brianchastings.com/2015/08/em...-lisa-boscola/

now we have a big cheater speaking for usa poker players.

yeah b/c some allegations and some weird posts are a proof nowadays and regulatory organizations will read the whole thread ...

so let me sum things up ... the angry nvg mob wants PS to post details about the investigation, wants sponsored pros who (might) knew to be "fired", and wants BHs accounts to be closed.

so let's ignore the facts, that PS never posts details about investigations (and probably are not even allowed to due to regulation) and that other ppl also knew (but didn't come forward). also let's assume anyone outside of 2p2 would believe that NVG is the "Judge and Jury" and that what's been posted online, is somehow a true statement and a proof.

so PS would ban BH and the Banker and the later will get fired from his current job ... nvg is happy

but what's, when new allegations come up ... does it need a 'famous' poster like Bakes or can any random user point fingers on. what if someone would blame ivey and he doesn't post here, to defend himself. or what's, if a "proof" like a screenshot of a skype message or a PM is faked. or try a simple example ... what if BH goes to the regulatory commission and says "hey, PS banned me b/c someone posted BS online"

ppl itt are so super short-sighted ... sure it is OBVIOUS that BH has committed MA and i'm happy the community has ppl like Bakes, BUT for heavens sake be smart.

PS can't ban ppl just b/c there are allegations! and the stupid PM written to Bakes is no proof. what if hastings claims his 2p2 account was hacked and he wasn't aware of it? PS would have to judge based on some gossip on the internet.

and if ppl writing BS about PS and they don't care for VPNing ... that's simple not true. they got several ppl and if you read the specific threads, it seems that PS is the poker room, that is most active. where's your mob mentality, when it comes to VPN- and MAing on other sites ... yes, no one cares b/c there's no big thread on nvg.

fact is, some ways of cheating are hard to detect (and pls don't bring up the BS that PS could hire hackers to get proofs) and there will always be cheaters, who don't get caught/punished. and yes, it bugs me, that VPNing is a problem ... but i would rather keep this status quo, than to have an environment, where you have to proof, you're innocent, just b/c someone made allegations in a forum. it's simple, if PS or any other operator would be so unprofessional and let forums posters rule, things would go down south asap.


i wonder why you waste your time for this while it seems you don't put any effort into making the licensed brands (e.g. PP and 888) a better place. MAing and VPNing happens on both sites and i wouldn't be surprised if it even happens in NJ or NV ... not to mention all the other problems ... but mkay, that wouldn't be cool and actual work .. right?

Ok, I will admit that I don´t play Holdem all that much, but my conclusion from those stats would be that super-mega LAG style (36/30/15 lmfao) just doesn´t work anymore these days. I´d love to know how many players could turn a profit at 500z while playing this kind of style. My guess is nobody will be able to do that.

except they are reading the whole thread & other threads...

So don't post dude. The biggest reason for these loss is the crushing bots making the games a lot harder. Vini(ex cardrunners pro) seems like a shill for the bot makers. He was nowhere to be seen when people started hearing about bots yet now hes going full-on ****** against someone who does the same thing that hundreds of others do.

From that post on his site: It's likely that less than 5% of Americans even know what that word means. Odd to throw that into an open letter to a Congresswoman. Regardless, if I wanted to impress a state senator with my vocabulary, I would certainly make sure the big words are spelled correctly.

how many straw man arguments there are in this post? seems like a lot to me

i agree with you. in both threads mods have displayed questionable judgement or have been purposefully obtuse. i know for a fact that not all mods share those views so we should be careful of grouping them all together, especially the green mods. i prefer that they come into these threads and make their opinions known so we can learn what kind people they might be.

in the end i guess it doesn't really matter what these particular mods think. they don't have any real responsibility here except mostly for janitorial work & apparently they can be de-modded at any time & for any reason. problem is a casual or new forum member can't help but see that their account name is a different color & will likely assume they are affiliated with the site in some way. i know i used to think that when i first joined 2+2.

what matters is what mason malmuth or mat sklansky think is in the best of interest of 2+2. can you imagine what this site would be like if the mods we are questioning ran it?

i have never met mason malmuth & if i did i am sure there would things i disagreed with him about across many subjects including the operation of this site, but the man has my respect for a couple of reasons:

1. he never let this site turn into a shill site like cardplayer magazine, for example, among others. can you imagine what this site would be like if 2+2 chased every last dollar possible during the boom times?

2. his publishing company continues to put out some of the best poker content in the world and from what he has said in the past, he is more generous in sharing those revenues with the authors than the industry in general.

3. he got grief for asking that the sticky content links be controlled, but i respect his good business sense in protecting the revenues of the publishing business. to some degree those revenues must have allowed mason to keep 2+2 a legitimate forum. i prefer mason have a more few bucks in his pocket and so the ability to say fu to the worst players in this industry.

and he was right when he said 2+2 is the center of the poker universe. recall the grief he got for that? go over to pokernews.com & check out how this particular cheating scandal was covered there. they gave the perpetrator multiple softball interviews, edited interviews where his girlfriend made questionable comments or brian looked foolish trying to wave those comments off. is there even an article about this subject posted there?? not to say there are not other great poker sites around, but imo 2+2 is most important for the poker economy in general.

and btw mat sklansky has already posted his opinion in the atf thread.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...8&postcount=50

Just based on the never-ending witchhunt, Ike's probably going to end up losing his sponsorship deal no matter what. If he speaks out, which could risk breaking the terms of an NDA, it likely happens sooner and with much uglier consequences. He's in a pretty bad bind.

How much did Bakes lose? I don't ever remember seeing a #.

Ike isn't gonna lose his sponsorship because of any of this

Brian,(I know you're reading this!)

*Dysthymic


And yeah I totally feel you on the dysthymic ennui front, maybe i'll go back to skiing some fresh powder

I had a friend in high school who used esoteric words all the time in an effort to impress others. Unfortunately for him no one was impressed.

I assay this epistle to be extraneous.

there's still hope .

Isn't it actually Amaya investigating Brian Hastings?

This is how PokerStars has always handled these matters, suddenly it's proof of ... what exactly?

nanonoko's not a 500z reg. that part just means it happens to be the last stake he was found at. i asked a couple of friends wtf happened with him, and they do say he's too aggro. that being said, people *always* used to say that about him, but his 09-12 PTR graph (which is basically what got him notoriety and sponsorship) was a straight line up to 2 million dollars + rakeback + missed hands.

brian trashed a poster earlier in this thread (on his blog or facebook im not sure) about being a whiner about training sites, and that he just needs to work harder. does nanonoko need to work harder? every day, week, month, year that goes by in the poker world, i hear of more and more people that just can't cut it. i'm sure it's all their work ethic.

brian has a smart and opportunistic career arc: build up a roll playing NLHE, start incorporating PLO when those games dry up, become skilled live after black friday, play mixed games online, switch back to live. he deserves kudos for that. but in reality his career arc is this:

build up a roll playing NLHE, **** on the games by teaching people to be x-1 as good as him, switch to plo, **** on the games by teaching people to be x-1 as good as him (also cheat isildur - never forget), become a skilled live player, play mixed games online, cheat people by multiaccounting in the "wild west", fully commit to live.

i just hope he comes to the realization one day what an abortion his career is and stops trying to be a big deal every step of the way because the bottom line is he and his ideologies are so ****ing bad for business.

amaya is conducting an internal investigation into cheating on their site when they investigate hastings & hayes

you want the gambling commission which controls their license (and so their ability to operate) to conduct an external investigation. meaning the commission looks into a.) is amaya taking appropriate actions to ensure a fair game is being offered on their site (so far evidence is to the contrary) b.)
are representatives/employees of their site (aka ike haxton, for example--but unfair to say just him) aware of cheating & not taking action thereby being complicit in cheating on Amaya as employees of Amaya c.)is Amaya more worried about their own self-interest (aka a cheating scandal involving their own sponsored players damaging their brand,revenue & potentially getting access to other market) than offering a fair games to the entire player pool.

in short, you want the gambling commission to get in their & look up their ass a bit. there is a reason company's hate being audited by 3rd parties or government regulators.

remember we are talking about the news stars & tilt now--Amaya. a company that wants to get into the USA. not the old stars with isai in charge. i don't think anyone would have a problem with the old stars coming into the USA

I suspect he will lose it because these high stakes Pros are more trouble than they are worth when that money could be better spend locking up some B-List celeb to play on the site who won't ever be directly or indirectly linked to scandals involving the hustling of customers.

Knowing about cheating on his employer's site and by whom and not telling his employer about it (assuming he did not tell) would only be the excuse needed.

On a serious note, I do wish Brian would stop advocating for online poker legalization/regulation in the U.S.

We need stand-up people like Richy Muny doing the leg work, not a high stakes pro who is awash in controversy.

If a politician receives a correspondence from Brian he will most likely google him and he will instantly see all these threads accusing him of doing shady things which sheds a bad light on online poker.

If were gonna have Brian advocate for us, we should just ask Stoxpoker to join the cause too.

Wow, some serious misconstruing of my point going on.

I don't speak for 2p2, Stars, Ike, or any other moderator.

PokerStars does care about cheating. PokerStars doesn't comment on open investigations. Assertions to the contrary are insulting to the professionals who investigate *every* report of cheating, foolish in light of PS's history and reputation in the industry as a the standard-bearer in game security, and just generally ignorant and stupid. PokerStars doesn't owe "the community" details on the investigation, even when it is complete.

Similarly: Ike doesn't owe 2p2 an explanation. He doesn't owe "the community" an explanation.

Regarding my "mob" comment: in what ways does his fitness to be an unpaid moderator of (I think?) the HSNL forum change based on the different possible scenarios? This is in parallel to any benefit of the doubt I personally think Ike should be extended based on his history of ethical behavior. This is more specifically to "why do you think that a bunch of people in NVG demanding information is, or should be, in some way meaningful to Ike?" He's a high stakes professional sponsored player with potentially large swings in his future earnings on the line in this investigation. You're, by and large, a bunch of witch hunting micro stakes players or US locked out players, who don't know the facts from his point of view. What you want is, and should be, pretty irrelevant to him (and possibly to the whole universe).

Regarding other pros making comments in this thread: So? Maybe his contract is different. Maybe his contact with Stars was different. Maybe the contact from Stars happened after the other communications. Maybe the other people have been scolded/fired/etc? Maybe he's part of the ongoing investigation and cannot comment on it? Etc.

Finally, so many people in this thread and others talk to the impact on the reputation of "the game," or of "online poker," etc. I feel at this point it's pretty demonstrably false that anything like this has any impact at all. We, the participants of this forum, live in a bubble. The average person who "knows about" poker from TV, googling to find an online site, etc, will never know about this situation, the original isildur situation, ZJ's MAAing, or any of the other 100 "huge mega scandals promised to bring down the industry."