I don't agree with those saying he should have just gone to pokerstars and snitched on someone who he might consider a friend obviously Ike isn't a snitch otherwise this discussion would not be discussed.

I'm not sure Ike should be accused of cheating here also, for those saying Ike is a cheater can someone explain to me how Ike profits from Brian multi-accounting? Obviously what Ike done was wrong but to accuse him of cheating hmm?

That said the GTO play by Ike was to tell Brian to not multi-account, and if Brian was any kind of friend he would not put Ike in that position after Ike tells him so, especially since Ike is sponsored pro, and has a obligation to pokerstars.

Obviously the GTO machine still needs a little tweaking.

Yes, you have made yourself clearer.

I disagree though with your first paragraph regarding Hastings. He basically came in here and told everyone to go f themselves that he will do what he likes no matter who it affects. We are representative of the community and if he can be so rude and arrogant towards us in addition to continuing to use the forum as he has, then I believe he owes explanations on moral and common decency grounds. And yes, these grounds are relevant and will be acknowledged by anyone with any sense of ethics.

I agree re: the mod stuff. I mean, it is somewhat relevant that Ike is a mod but it is hardly a big deal in the sense of people caring much outside of here. I'm sure there are mods who have never cheated in any way but they are probably still not as good at modding as Ike. Personally I don't care about any mod or mod issues or mod rights being stripped. It has minor relevance as far as I'm concerned.

Regarding Ike's requirements/obligations as a sponsored pro: well that is kind of the point in that sure he is not a brother in law and it is just a mutually beneficial business contract and so he is not obliged morally and should be able to step away when there are obvious wrongdoings not being fairly addressed by his employer. He is representing PS & the community and if PS are acting like cowboys then, as one who has also been caught acting the cowboy to some degree, he should be able to distance himself to both try and save his own name and for the good of the game going forward. Stars thus far strat on this and similar issues in the past have been far from GTO and if it continues to be like that then I believe he should walk from them. He is not obliged to stick around in a dirty business arrangement (if it continually proves to be so) and I think, given how it has played out and how he has unfortunately become more involved than he probably deserves, he would regret staying more than if he walked away.

People sat to play Noel Hayes believing they had an edge on him. Hastings was of course NH and Ike knew about this. He willingly gained an unfair advantage as people would not have sat with Hastings & Ike if they had known. No way. They were prepared to forego EV in potential hands v Ike as overall there was potentially more EV to sit in the game due to hands played v the whale. Except the whale was one of the best players in the World.

I don't know how this can't be understood tbh.

It is definitely a form of cheating/colluding. The fact that he is a sponsored pro on the same site obviously makes it worse. Sure he was put in an awkward position and didn't set out to cheat, but he did mess up by saying nothing and then by sitting in the games. That was a big faux pas.

I'm still confused how anyone could have possibly thought NH was a whale by the time Ike new.

Everyone is well aware people multi account and you have a huge whale who is presumably playing very well out of no where... hmmm.

Yeah, I wonder also

Haha yeah I actually agree with this. I remember thinking well before May that this couldn't be NoelHayes unless he had a brain transplant.

But it is still pretty much irrelevant. He was still posing as NH, lots of people didn't know and sat unsuspectingly and played differently. Ike knew and clearly should not have sat unless he was sure everyone at the table knew.

Does that not change the context of Ike sitting though? I see a big difference between knowing from day 1 and sitting than knowing and sitting after everyone (should have been) was well aware it wasn't a whale.

Between your database and Russian PTR how hard is it to figure out after 5 months of play?

It chnages the context a bit, yes.

But there were always going to be some who didn't know, and even those who worked out it was no whale, still didn't know it was one of the best in the World. It's pretty clear that some people still sat unsuspectingly. It's a messy scene for sure but now that the kaka has hit the fan, it looks terrible that as a sponsored pro he knew and was sitting. It sure has played out bad for Ike and he will possibly end up losing more than Hastings which is not fair. But at least he can maintain his integrity. Hastings has many Everest's to climb to gain that back.

Honestly, I've just seen this now. Can some people who he still listens to please get a hold of him and tell him to just shut up. How ridiculously clueless can one human be. He is obviously the last person needed for this and needs to stay as far away from it as possible.

5=,

Cool. I think we understand each other pretty well, and likely agree on almost everything. I don't know if I totally agree that stars' strategy in similar situations in the past has been poor or even not optimal. I think they don't always satisfy the people who are most informed and most likely to care about how the situation was handled, but I think they probably put a lot of thought into how big that set of people is relative to the other customers and potential customers. Idk, I haven't followed every ~scandal.

Regarding the collusion stuff:

It's actually a pretty murky situation, I think. It's entirely possible there were times where NH was sitting with a couple people who would never sit with Ike, and Ike got to join the game while thinking "sweet, these people would never play with me and BH, but now I get the action!" Similarly, does Ike have a requirement to leave any game BH sits in (basically any game Ike would have been interested in playing) any time NH shows up? Overall it's a **** situation, but I don't think I would call it collusion without more information, as opposed to some form of ~cheating less than or different to collusion. It's not like there's yet any evidence of squeezing, softplay, etc, as opposed to the much subtler "he got to play in games that potentially would not have existed without the whale account existing to get them going," which is ... idk, weird. Hard to prove. Etc. Like, are you going to interview anyone who lost in those games and say "so you were playing 6max with 3 pros, Ike, and whale. Would you have played this game if you knew that whale was BH? Oh, you wouldn't? Then here's your money back." Just gross.

Re: BH's letter to a senator - eh, who cares. Like, he's just embarassing himself here. He's not going to actually get more visibility to a senator than someone else. The random staffer that reads the email isn't going to be like "holy cow, 3 bracelets, amazing! I should listen to this guy!" and the senator's not going to be like "omg, an undergrad degree in economics from Cornell, crazy! I've never seen an argument from someone like that before!"

Brian isn't important for the moment in my opinion-we all know what he did and he won't talk for it whatever happens.We will see if Ike will be slave of PS and continue to say what they want to see or he will act in the right way and reveal the truth-who know about this Mulctiaccounting,who swapped % and so on.

Sorry, but I'm just totally flabbergasted by this guy. All this senator has to do is google him (chances of her or an employee doing this are pretty high if they decide to follow up duh) and 4th hit down the crap starts with immediate links and quotes of all he said here including the PM to Bakes and flashbacks to the Isildur stuff. The guy is covered in controversy and can bring nothing but trouble to any debate towards legalization in the US.

I am very very seriously requesting that anyone who believes they have any influence at all over BH to please pull him aside and tell him to stop talking. Like really really really throw a bucket of water over him and tell him to stay away from this stuff.

But yeah, as Citanul says, it will probably just be some random staffer who reads it and hopefully it's a quick scan and then the bin. Let's hope so. He still needs to be told to stfu and not attempt to do anything like that again. Or maybe he thinks the google machine is banned in the Senate. Man.

Ike-

Did you have any financial involvement with BH?

Hi Ike, I know you as a person with integrity and you are a role-model in the online community.
I think your response is fine albeit late, and the real culprit is not you.

I think you (should) have a great future with Pokerstars, but I also think that you should start sharing the info you posess about cheaters. Can you please reveal to the community all other multi-accounts, cheats and shared accounts you are privy to in the Pokerstars cash games and the cheats who play them so the community can protect ourselves against cheaters. Lets say from the last 2-3 years.

You did a mistake when you played with NoelHayes instead of reporting it to your employer but you can still protect other players if you come clean with that info right away. It will not look good if its revealed later on that you know that player xxxx played on account yyyy in the same games as you from Canada/Mexico/Ireland or Malta location for example.

It maybe seem a bit unfair that you are arguably hold to a higher standard, but you are a ambassador to the game trough your Pokerstars sponsorship. And hopefully you will help the players in the dark with this information from the past and the future.

Agree with you on this point. But you and others who keep trotting out the 'contract' defense need to ask yourselves why he didn't say he was contractually or legally unable to speak.

I want to make it clear that I'm not alleging collusion at all. But given the situation it is 100% appropriate for posters to ask questions that would clarify the extent of wrongdoing. Trusting Stars and/or the people involved in the wrongdoing to sort it out on their own with no accountability is pretty lol. 2p2 isn't the perfect watchdog but in this case it's what we have (and has proven a useful forum to force action on scandals in the past).

Since you opened the door to paraphrase viewpoints, I'll characterize your seamless shift, from "omg he's not talking, that's his right, everyone leave him alone that doesn't prove anything" to "now he's admitted wrongdoing, but he's got a history of being a nice guy so leave him alone". And at the same time you're rationalizing that he and Stars may never come back and answer those questions, and that's ok. Well it's not.

Also regarding the mob/witch hunt accusations, are you being quoted in the post up above? Did you reply to me/others and then delete it? You're a mod and should help to keep things from spiraling out of control. Continually insulting other people in the discussion is not constructive. Please stop.

You and others keep blaming the 'contract'. Ike didn't. Exactly what language do you think exists in his contract that gives him a pass on answering any questions at all? That's not the way NDAs work, and that's not the way the law works. Maybe we need one of the legal experts in here to comment.

nice to see a high stakes plo regular like yourself come in here & ask these questions. no one has ever doubted your integrity, but this just cements it for me. many of the other high stakes players can't do the same. pretty clear why.

Who are all the other people who knew that aren't sponsored by PS slaves of if they don't reveal this info? Has there been any evidence to suggest that people playing in the game were swapping pieces with Noel/Brian?

comical that some of you want to make a guy a hero for admitting to being a a cheater (and likely a cheater for a while). ike haxton will always be known as just another cheater,unless he starts speaking up about cheating & helps clean up the games.

ike could have responded sooner. instead he wanted this to go away. but when the heat got turned up, he confessed. nowhere in his confession does he say he asked stars 8 weeks ago to speak up. nowhere. he likely just asked them in the last day or two & had wait for their response & approval. that is a big maybe though. why??

because vanessa selbst is a sponsored pro & went to law school & is pretty intelligent (except when she posts here). she knew what the restrictions are in her contract, yet she spoke up.

if you don't want to go through your entire life as a fool. re-read ike's confession and try to figure out why he chose his word so carefully. and i will give you a hint, stars was not going to let him lie about it on here to protect his fading rep.

amaya, get rid of these cheaters, all of them. you don't need them. the poker community will respect you for cleaning up the games.

that has been the excuse just about every mod brought up in both threads.

Is it just me or is it that this thread is just 4-5 of the same people arguing the same points over and over again?

Hi Gregorio!
There is absolutely no evidence of swaping pieces but some people here suggested that and I think that is possible despite that I dont think that this will be proven.Sorry for my comment about Ike being PS slave but I think freedom of speech worths more than money.I understand that I offend some people by this and I am sorry,but what is a person called,who is paid to keep quiet?

Yup, this is just pathetic, shameful and so disappointing. There really are no good guys left in poker it seems.

Joan Rivers was right.

buried in the last 15-20 pages of the stinger88 multi-accounting thread is ike haxton's confession to knowledge of cheating on pokerstars. disappointing news for sure from a pokerstars pro & 2+2 moderator. however, ike is not the only well known player & 2+2 moderator who was suspected of knowing about cheating. time for shaun deeb to come in here & confess what he knows.

ike's confession to knowledge of cheating

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond to this thread. Because this is under review by PokerStars, I need to include them in anything I say in public, which took more time than I had hoped.

First of all, I'd like to thank Bakes for having the courage to be the guy to start the public conversation about the NoelHayes account. That decision comes with risks and headaches that no one else was willing to take on. Anyone who cares about the integrity of high stakes games online should be thankful to him.

What he has said about me in this thread is true. In early May I became aware that Hastings was playing on the NoelHayes account and I didn't do anything about it. I was far from the first or only person who knew, but due to my relationship with Stars I had a greater responsibility to act and I was better situated to get something done quickly had I tried. I regret taking the apathetic and irresponsible route and if I find myself in a similar position in the future I will report the cheating immediately. I apologize to anyone who was adversely affected by my inaction.

Due to my relationship with PokerStars and the fact that there is still an ongoing review of the NoelHayes account, I will be somewhat constrained in what I can say in the future, but I’m happy to now be able to post this reply.


the stinger88 ma'ing thread where this confession was made has over 3,000 posts & getting difficult to manuever in, but if you feel educating yourself to cheating is worthwhile i recommend you read through the last 15 pages or so.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...-post-1541885/

Hotwarmcold's attention seeking = just as bad as cheating.

From worst to not as worst

Brian Hastings MA'ing > hotwarmcold > Ike's involvement