Just to add something OP should be edited Ali was not dqed from EPT his fake reporters were kicked out, I hope WPT can do something to get the $ back from his win and other recent cashes. Glad the truth came out publicly with video evidence and if he gets prosecuted even better. And for the PN quote that's who first told me about the incident and she deserves some of the credit for getting these cheaters outed publicly

That makes me sick! Could be really bad for poker.


Also in before: "He is not actually german but turkish!"

Sorry to single you out here but this is very much the wrong approach IMO. I don't know, but it's a definite possibility that the "this could be really bad for poker" mindset has helped this guy to keep on doing this after already being caught in Tallinn. At the very least "this could be really bad for our casino/poker tour".

People should also not think that he is/was the only one doing this obv.

There's also this group of (was it Romanian) players that were touring the circuit, cheating at cashgames. They didn't use media credentials, just two young punks standing at the rail, while their player strategically picked a seat across from them, at a table closest to the rail.
They were spotted at Unibet Open Prague in 2009, and also EPT Vilamoura, and I guess EPT Copenhagen, as well.

Not sure if they've been back since. There was a lot of talk about it, so maybe that scared them a bit.
I heard one of the things they did was to use their tongue to signal which card of the flop the opponent had hit.

Fair enough, but they could at least cover the rest of the tournament while they are there. Again, there are many outlets who do. The Dutch crew is an example of great journalists who cover their own, but aren't outwardly biased. my problem is with the guys who walk around with a $80 camera who just post updates to some small-time forum.

I don't mind. But obviously there is a difference between a random poker follower and people running tours and tournaments. For them you might be right with what you said and I am glad the PPT went with the proactive approach.

this defiantly wont help attendance at random international events/poker tours.

Just clear out the floor from all these random media, except for maybe one single event photographer, and have Tatjana do some of those very interesting 'how many chips do you have' interviews during the breaks.
Everybody happy.

Again, it's about how many days they get sent out for.They can not cover the rest of it if theyre NOT there. As for the forum - sometimes that small forum has readers that are super excited about their member freerolling into an EPT and theyre supporting him and when he busts, they follow the rest on the Stars, Party, etc blog....

That's true, but this really needs tightening up. It's a shame for genuine bloggers but there are far too many people inside the ropes these days.

ummm.... everybody but the rest of the legitimate media who would then be shut out.

Exactly. Everybody.
They can cover the event from the rail, and get their soundbites and 'interesting hands' during the breaks.

Who is deciding if media is 'legitimate' anyway. Just because the company is an 'official live reporting partner' doesn't mean they're not hiring a bunch of incompetent fools that don't know that after losing a huge pot, a player doesn't want some smelly kid with a pen asking him 'what happened'.

He should have used The Cube

Not surprising.

Techniques were discussed in a previous thread.

The player does not need to answer to bloggers questions if he doesnt want to.

Hi,

my name is Hasan and I am a good freind of Ali. This whole thing is total bull****. Sorry to be so harsh, I talked with Ali this afternoon and he swore to me that he did not cheat in any way. The guy in the video in the background is not a good freind of his. He worked for Pokerboom.eu and is a sound and respected journalist. Ali is well known for his tournament skills and his Q5 call is pretty much standard in a shortstack BvB situation. He even thought about it for quite some time. If he were cheating he would have snapped after a so called "signal". I believe this whole debate is a racist theme. Many Germans and French are extreme racists, they believe we turkish players are weak and since Ali destroyed so many fields he played in they are creating a theme that he cannot be winning. Ali always wins in our homegames and he is not capable of cheating there and he makes very good calls due to an incredible feel for betting patterns and stuff like that. How come all you people are so sure he cheated, what happened to the line "not guilty until proved otherwise".


You should all be ashamed!!!

"they are creating a theme that he cannot be winning" is a weak defense, isn't it?

Of course he wouldnt snapcall if it was signalled are you ****ing ******ed?! If anyone here should be ashamed it should be you for associating yourself with scumbags, it says a lot about your character.

If there ever was any doubt in my mind about this sure as hell convinced me that he is guilty (being caught by both the EPT and Cannes should be plenty of evidence in itself).
Whats your last name Hasan, I wanna know who I should look out for next time I play in a live tournament.

edit: and you seem to be a racist as well, nice.

Ali is not a scumbag! There is no evidence, except for a video that shows nothing but Ali making a pretty standard call. Ali is simply a great poker player. Stop hating against him.

Hate to be the voice of reason here, but while that video is suspicious, it's not the smoking gun everyone wants it to be. You get about a 1/4 second look at his hand moving up to his chest. You can't sit here and tell me that it's incontrovertible proof of cheating. (Moreover, IF they were signaling, I doubt that quick movement was it, especially since he doesn't need to send the signal RIGHT AWAY...it could be any time before he acts.)

I have no idea whether there was cheating going on there; this video may be corroborating if there is other evidence (which it sounds like there is: existing rumors, sick hero-calls, if the cameraman knew the guy then obviously that's a big one.) But you 2+2 Hardy-Boys claiming this Youtube vid standing on its own is a smoking gun are delusional.

Were you there?

Horse ****. That was a pretty cute fake airblow just before he made the call, too.

"Aww, gee, I guess I have to call now."

This is a video from WPT Barcelona FT, he got accused for cheating during Partouche. I have not seen any video proof from there, tbh. And I agree about the WPT video.

Finally someone with some sense of reasoning here. I have known Ali for more than 10 years. He is a very nice person and he has been playing cards for quite some time now. It all started when he was totally destroying the games in a Czech Casino, some nerds that do not understand physical tells started whining to the floor that he was getting signals. The Floor banned him with no proof. The bad image was born and is it a coincidence that all the players who said he is a cheater were germans? No turkish or arabic people ever accused him... i think this whole thing is a racist attempt to ruin his image and his main source of income... he was one of very few well know german players of turkish origin.