sketchy business ido

Do I understand correctly that this happened in Talinn, Barcelona, Cyprus and Venice before anything was done?

+1

Grats on the 1.8 Million

speaking of HANd SIGNALS, check this video out of the durrrr challenge. Theres a ton of people bhind tom and around 3:40 of the vid some guy suddenly crosses his arms and put his hand on his chin probably signalling "it's a bluff", i had a thread up several months about this but it got deleted for some reason, just thought it was REALLY odd that people were standing behind tom and not behind marcello

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7eRyriVpDc

Why do you think Doyle did compliment Dario Minieri about his way to squeeze his cards on HSP ? They what cheating is and are aware it can occur anywhere, anytime.

What are the requirements for receiving press accreditation for these events?

How can the PPT and the EPT allow this to happen in the first place?

No background checks, no critical thoughts as to who is allowed to lurk around, and no real public announcements when suspicious conduct is revealed (EPT Tallinn).

The PPT management has obv thrown Ali out for a reason, press conference was obv a level, but a largely forgotten issue here is how this was allowed to happen in the first place.

It says a whole lot about just how easy it is to call yourself a poker blogger, and what state poker journalism is in.

No players need to allow press close to their seats, let alone behind them. There is simply no valid reason for doing so. If a journalist insists, then he is not interested in the actual game, but something else.

I know that this responsibility issue and the tournament directions' lack of precautions have been mentioned briefly before in this (otherwise mind blowing) thread, but I honestly feel like someone should ask themselves two questions:

1) Can ANYONE just walk into the floor on for instance an EPT event and roam around as they want? If so, why?

2) If cheating has been going on at other events and press has been thrown out, why does this remain on a hear-say basis?

The real issue at stake here is not Mr. Tekintagmac's reputation, nor the mentioned (fake?) poker blog and its so-called reporters. The only thing important to know is what the directors of these major tournaments will do in the future to avoid repetition. And there can only be one answer to this:

Man up and stop thinking about publicity, for the good of game and players.

at the start of the video, Neil Channing ( a well respected english poker pro) is in the background.

Talking with eddie hearn, the co-ordinator of matchroom sports.

Really dont think them two are involved in ANY cheating,

This is ludicrous, the problem starts right with the TD's who allow it because they are oblivious and just care about their money. I have twice caught cheaters at the WSOP, one person marking cards, the second one guy changed a card from the muck. I had a "quiet" word with the TD, and they promised to look at "the tapes". But they obviously didn't.

The only time they actually looked at the tapes (not wsop) was when I had less chips after a colour up, then they tried to say yes, they made a mistake, they over paid me (I was wound up for sure) despite having a picture of my stack before I left. You can't win with the idiots who run poker tournaments. There are no rules, and no integrity, but poker has always been that way. I've never been naive, and none of this bothers or surprises me. I assume everyone is dishonest until proven otherwise.

Meh, letting John Higgins off the hook is a bit like cheating.

Where is between Ali and FRench player fabrice soulier

it is our friend !

And she actually did it.

You have to provide name and info about your media outlet, mostly by sending URL of your website. There isn't a whole lot of actual in-depth verifications I suppose but WSOP and EPT are not that easy-going about giving press passes. If anything, they usually don't have that much space for press and they do usually check on what is published. In the case of EPT/WSOP it's obvious that they can't check often on the many websites that do coverages.

As for PPT, they're a little softer on press passes, heck the first year there was free champagne for journalists (lol). As far as I can tell WPT in US are the most hard-ass about press presence in the field. Smaller fields and spaces (like Bellagio) gotta be a good reason.

They did not "allow" it, it's just hard to spot, even harder to prove, and there is a lot of mayhem even in the tightest ran mtts imo.

Probably because they didn't find proof. Seems so far-fetched when you think about it, but I agree they should have investigated more (especially in WPT Barcelona where Ali actually won the whole thing).

Understaffed?

Anybody can call oneself 'poker blogger', seems pretty obvious. A blog is a blog and is hardly a "poker media" per se. That tournament organizers do go as far down as accrediting one-man or two-people "operations" says a lot on the actual need for them to ensure widest publicization possible. My point in previous interventions btw. As far as "poker journalism" I'm not sure I agree since real poker journalists are not to blame here obv.

Again this is just not possible for obv reasons. Then ban press from tournaments period. You have to be able to differentiate a random blogger standing very close at the same spot for a longtime and a legit journalist who just has to be somewhere at some point to actually see what's going on (no, the don't provide goggles in live poker yet).

Never seen/heard that. No journalist INSISTS on being at particular spot but do expect to have a fair view of the action. Thinking press should stand like 6 feet from table is pure nonsense. If anything, you would have to be standing in the middle of the neighbouring table. What you don't realize apparently is that there is most of the time barely any room to simply walk between two tables. That is an issue btw, and sometimes it just makes correct coverage impossible anyway. In some instances they cram mtt tables in one little corner of the room just to open cash table, never mind if they stay empty for hours on. Best examples of this can be found in Gran Casino Barcelona or in various casinos in London during major mtts.

Even spectators can do that on most Day 1 of mtts. Why? Because it's always been like that and until now it generated minor incidents but never was a major, major concern. Until that case, that is.

Very concerning. Solution is obvious. Better screening before hand (legit medias) unknown faces having to show serious credentials.

I can't agree more. But for some obscure reason, it seems like the one major concern of tournament organizers is MONEY. Whatever brings in the most of it is considered a good thing, regardless of the risk/reward.

Also, it is a well known concept that bad press is better than no press. I did not make this up it's just a basic advertising thing.

And finally, but I want to stress out that I need solid confirmation on this, but it looks like 9th place money was NOT redistributed by Partouche. I'm sure all of you ppls will appreciate this if confirmed (not first hand info so have to tag it as rumor for now).

My 2 cents...

Yes, insanely enough there doesn't seem to be money(!) for this.

"Real" poker media is of course not to blame, but will have to prove consistently that it is serious about its purpose. This will make it easier for organizers to turn down shady operations. A way of doing this could for instance be to be more critical and worry less about endorsements, affiliate relationships and all the other pillars of poker journalism. It is baffling that no one bothered to investigate or report further if the rumors about revoked press passes in Tallinn are in fact true.

Again, if organizers take the handing out of press accreditations more seriously and if journalists are aware of their conduct, this will be a slight problem only.

Tricky, agreed. Still, however, it is imo the press' responsibility to make every precaution possible in order to not create any kind of questionable situations, no matter the conditions.

100% agreed of course.

THIS is the real problem.

Yes please.

Thank you,

- A colleague.

Also, if the re-distribution of the 9th place money did in fact not take place, how does this sum up the whole PPT "experience"? Already in September, there were rumors about cheating taking place at the tables, then Ali and now this.

And why is no one writing about it?

The French media have reported that the 9th place money might be given to a charity:

http://www.madeinpoker.com/joueurs/c...inal-6069.html

"Enfin, les 110 000 euros de prix promis à la neuvième place devraient soit être répartis entre la huitième et la première place, soit être versés à un organisme caritatif : la somme est pour le moment bloquée."

"Finally, 110,000 euros of prize promised to ninth place should either be divided between the eighth and first place or be paid to charity: the sum is currently blocked."

I think one of the German stories also said that it would go to a charity.

Not to be against charity but where the **** does a casino get off giving away the players money?

They should do as they do in other sports. Everyone else gains one place after the scammer.

Will they charge him with Fraud, or is there a specific gambling-related crime there?

It gets funnier....

One media reporting that the money is 'sealed', another indicating that the money HAS been redistributed already, and yet another saying that it will go to charity (that last one is pretty hilarious I think if they actually do it), and for now NO COMMENT from Partouche...... (why bother, its just 130k)..

But lets keep the best one for last. Here are the final results, as indicated by the very site of Partouche :

1 Vanessa Selbst 1,300 000 €
2 Raphaël Kroll 800, 000 €
3 Fabrice Soulier 500,000 €
4 Tommi Etelapera 360, 000 €
5 Ibrahim Raouf 300,000 €
6 Soren Konsgaard 240,000 €
7 Cyril André 187,500 €
8 Tobias Reinkemeier 110, 300 €

Anything strikes you as odd?

I'm not making it up, you can see for yourselves here :

http://www.partouchepokertour.com/blog/fr/

(I'm expecting them to correct but let's see how long it takes...)

So :

[ ] Did Ali T cheat ?
[ ] Is Reinkemeier getting cheated ?
[ ] Are the finalists cheated ?
[ ] All of the above ?

Nice auto-level at the very least...

This is starting to be a bit too recurrent with Partouche imo... They have organized a tournament in Spain called Partouche Million where 1M€ was announced (hence the name) but in the end there was just 733.000€ missing given the huge disinterest in the event. In his blog, french pro Ludovic Lacay called the 3.300€ buyin thing a 'big failure' and blogged about the (quote) 'unexperimented floors and dealers, players count stopped at 89).

Also it's a fact that Partouche is making tons of € on the back of players with a really big cut in fees (PokerNews US had their hairs standing straight on their head when calculating the whole thing during 1st PPT 2008), which obv the 4% govt tax is not necessary helping.

Altogether this is just redundant mishandling from a casino group who was ordered by court to release 100M€ to debtors, barely covered by a 400M€+ bank loan contracted instead of selling their casinos who are in debt for three straight years now (debt > what they own).

I mean, I have nothing personal against Partouche but at what point do they get on the grip that they need to be spotless instead of dancing on the deck of a once shiny ship that is more and more reminiscent of the Titanic?

That being said, kudos for exposing Ali T (after all that I actually hope for them the whole thing will be proven true ^^) and to Vanessa, a really great champion and the future best female player ever (working a Harvard law doctorate in the meantime, WOW!!).

Im not sure I understand here, Im not reading through 30 pages either, well not right now at least. What I dont understand is why if he knew his opponent was holding 88 why would he call the all in with Q5 suited? Also is the signaler the photog that lifts his hand to his chest after looking at the guys hole cards?

Fraud it is. No word on the cops having watched the infamous videos. Maybe its like those vids of 9/11 @ Pentagon and the public will never see them....

Any word from Ali ? I mean, it's all good to charge him, but how about actually getting a hand on him???

TrustyATX, I believe it was 98.

Hmmm,

Interestingly it's a requirement by French law that any casino licence holders pay a yearly donation to charitable organisations (something to that effect, i don't know specifics) on top of the high tax rates they pay.


Seems to wrap it all up very neatly for them.

89off indeed. But he didnt really need to cheat at this point. That the video posted raises doubts is in itself amazing, who would be stoopid enough to cheat when a camera is rolling ? Nevermind those of the casinos which apparently gave them away...