New and improved cliffs of the entire Jose "Girah" Macedo scandal

THE BEGINNING: SEARCHING FOR THE PRODIGY
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...e-info-964270/

THEN:

- New poster "LookingForProdigy" starts NVG thread asking for information about an mysterious Portuguese online poker player
- HS players including DogIsHead (DIH), Jungleman (JM), and sauce123 post ITT confirming that they know this player and he is indeed a terrific player. JM specifically claims, "I took him under my wing, and I'm gonna make him into a beast."

NOW:

- the "LookingForProdigy" account has since been confirmed as belonging to Jose "Girah" Macado (Girah), the prodigy in question
- all HS regs who knew Girah have denied knowing that he had multiple 2+2 accounts with which to hype himself
- Other confirmed or suspected Girah accounts (such as "fjfrm") post in this and other Girah threads, helping to lend Girah support and/or credibility
- JM later stated that he was asked to post vouching for Girah by DIH, although he was uncertain of the specific posts and phrasing he was asked to use.


THE LAUNCH OF THE POKER PRODIGY
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...rodigy-990495/

THEN:

- Girah posts an introduction to the 2+2 community in NVG
- Girah posts one chart claiming to have made $1.6M
- Girah refuses to give SNs, claiming this is on the advice of his lawyer
- DIH acknowledges helping Girah edit his introduction (given rampant speculations as to whether or not the level of English is good enough for a non-native speaker)
- Multiple HS regs and grinders post that Girah is legitimate, many of them stating they have talked to him via Skype and stating how sharp his poker mind is. Some even go so far as to be willing to bet anyone who disbelieves Girah's story 6 figures that he is not a level

NOW:

- DIH's admission of helping Girah edit one post has been greatly expanded: he has now admitted to posting on both Twitter and 2+2 under Girah's name, and acting as a mentor/older brother/agent for Girah, although he claims he acted only as his agent in contacting a few poker training sites prior to Girah obtaining professional representation
- DIH initially denied about ever acting as Girah's agent OR posting for him on 2+2. Both denials, and posts contradicting these statements and followed by DIH's retractions/explanations, can be found in the HS thread and DIH's Bluff article (links below). DIH denies any intent to deceive here; he claims he failed to remember (posting for DIH) or didn't think it was relevant since he was never officially Girah's agent

THE LOCK CHALLENGE SCANDAL

THEN:

- in the "I am Jose" thread, it is announced that Girah, a recently anointed Lock Pro, has been disqualified from a recent competition he won, prizes for which included a WSOP ME package, a cover on Bluff magazine, and a two year Team Lock contract
- Lock announces that the DQ is the result of "rules violations", the only one disclosed being an incident of another player using Girah's pro account ("Girahh")
- Girah also posts, claiming his backer, who he refuses to name, played 25/50 PLO on his account while he was sleeping, and that this is the reason for the disqualification
- Girah further claims that he won the contest legitimately through his own play, a statement Lock backs up in their statement, claiming that his account was audited and the win legitimate
- NVG posters in the thread question this claim when a review of HHs reveals that Girah was down for most of the challenge at his usual stakes (up to 5/10 NL 6 max) but switched to playing 100/200 HU NL and won ~$100K from "SamChauhaun", a mystery account that just happened to share the name of JM's RL mindset coach
- HS regs continue to vigorously defend Girah against NVG detractors

NOW:

- It has since been revealed that Girah's backer was DIH (he and JM having a 50/50 stake in Girah)
- Originally, DIH claimed he was responsible for the PLO session, but nothing else
- Later, DIH (in his Bluff interview) claimed that he was responsible for the 100K chip dump using the "SamChauhaun" account. He denied that this was for the purpose of winning the challenge, claiming the money was in order to stake Girah (having previously claimed the stake was for 5/10, and no higher than 10/20 6 max NL), and that he was unable to do a person to person transfer, so Girah suggested the chip dump as a solution without telling him (DIH) about the Lock challenge
- It has since been posted by Lock players and one former Lock pro that while the transfer limit on the site is $10K, there is no limit to the amount of times you can transfer, and the pro stated that he was able to transfer more, making the reason (as stated by DIH) for the chip dump being an inability to transfer funds highly suspect.
- DIH claimed in his original blog entry to be distressed over costing Girah the challenge because of the PLO match; he later stated he was furious at Girah for causing him to chip dump during the challenge
- In JM's 2nd interview with Noah and Vanessa, JM now claims responsibility for the 25/50 PLO session (a losing session of approximately $36K), admitting to playing on Girah's account "a few" times
- JM states that any 25/50 PLO sessions, and some 50/100 NL sessions, might be his
- JM states that the PLO session where he lost money on the account actually occurred after the chip dump, so the exact timing of this session is unclear at this time; it was previously believed to have occurred prior to the chip dump
- JM admits to knowing about the $100K chip dump, but states he also knew nothing about the Lock contest
- JM admits to also playing on the "SamChauhaun" account
- JM has since confirmed that two wins on the "Girahh" account, a ~$43K win against TylerSmith and a ~$25k win vs. "arnie92662". A third winning HS session vs. INeverFold! for just over $29K has not yet been confirmed as a JM match, although he concedes it is possible.
- All three of the HS matches referenced above have been confirmed as occurring after the $100K chip dump, and helped Girah to win the contest
- To this date, both DIH and JM deny having any knowledge of the Lock challenge when the chip dump and the account sharing occurred.

THE SKYPE SCAM AND THE AFTERMATH:

HS scandal thread: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/19...xpost-1079436/
**NON HS REGULARS ARE REQUESTED TO READ THE HS THREAD ONLY**
NVG thread I: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...xpost-1079435/
NVG thread II: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...-scam-1079792/
NVG thread III: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...andal-1080851/

- MossBoss posts the details of a Skype scam perpetrated by Girah
- Girah urged multiple members of a Skype strategy group to play either "Sauron1989" or "Dollarman", both of whom he described as "aggro fish", and when possible asked to watch the match via TeamViewer
- Members of the group/victims grew suspicious of either the requests or the results of the match and started investigating; estimated losses from the scam are ~$45K
- With mounting evidence, victims told DIH, JM, and NoahSD about their suspicions
- Originally, Girah admitted only that the accounts belong to a "rich friend", and he said he just wanted to give his friend some action
- Girah eventually admitted to superusing via TeamViewer while matches were in progress (and eventually, admitted that the "aggro fish" accounts were his)
- Girah begged the Skype group not to go public
- In helping uncover everything, DIH also requests over Skype that his name, JM's name, and sauce123's name not be included in the story
- As Girah is investigated by the community, his association to DIH and JM is examined closely, and ultimately they are investigated as well, leading to the discovery of the evidence of lying, account sharing, and chip dumping/collusion on the part of DIH and JM (who at least had knowledge of the chip dump)
- DIH denies posting for Girah and is outted; denies acting as Girah's agent and is outted; admits to chip dumping during the Lock challenge, and eventually blogs that he is quitting the poker community
- JM, on the advice of his publicist, originally says very little. He does a Bluff interview that says very little. He eventually agrees to an interview with Noah and Vanessa
- In the first interview, JM denies any direct wrong doing, describing his relationship to Girah as not particularly active, and claims that he never verified Girah's stats and does not know any of Girah's unknown SNs. He states that he basically accepted DIH's word for everything and trusted DIH implicitly
- After the first interview is completed but before it is released, JM's publicist contacts Noah and says that her client lied during the interview and would like an opportunity to clarify himself
- Noah and Vanessa conduct a second interview; in it, JM admits to ghosting and multi-accounting on the "Girahh" account

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:

- Girah has agreed to repay scam victims, and at least partial repayment has already occurred
- Another Girah victim described Girah agreeing to complete wire transfers in exchange for funds on a poker site; ~$17K has not yet been recovered
- Girah, or somone posing as Girah, attempted to convince people to download a trojan horse onto their computers, describing it as "TeamViewer Pro".
- Lock Poker has dropped Girah but not released more than a brief statement, which does not address their coverup of the contest chip dump
- Girah tweeted about the HU match with "SamChauhaun", presenting it as a legitimate match
- Someone claiming to be "The Girl from London" stated in NVG that she, not DIH, helped Girah write his apology
- Girah has excellent English skills
- DIH has been released from CardRunners
- There remains a great deal of speculation about the legitimacy of Girah's results. JM denies ever looking into them, and no other HS player describes doing so. While many very good players who talked to him believed he had a very sharp poker mind, others players described him as confused in very basic spots or vague, and his known results do not appear to be compatible with him winning as much as he claimed to in a short period of time. The investigation into this, as well as many other aspects of this story, remains ongoing.

Updated Happenings: 8/17

- While DIH claimed he was leaving 2p2 and the poker world, he returned through another poster to rebut certain things in the HS thread
- A day or so later, he established another 2p2 account and created a thread in the HS forum, which he states is the complete and final truth: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/19...shead-1083543/
- He discusses doing an interview, but when his interviewer of choice is unavailable (Vanessa Selbst), it does not occur
- He claims in this thread that he did not examine Girah's results, which means that, as of this time, no HS reg of the many that claimed to have spoken to him and/or vouched for his legitimacy has admitted to verifying his results
- DIH continues to categorically deny that he had any knowledge of the Lock Challenge until after the chip dump (by himself) and account sharing (by JM) occurred
- He stated that his motivation for lying was in order to protect JM

- JM and Tyler Smith, one of the individual's he had a winning session against while playing on the Girah account, have made contact
- After an original text conversation that was uploaded (full disclosure - OP assisted Tyler in uploading the screen shots and spoke with him personally), Tyler called Daniel and they agreed to resolve the issue between them. No specifics of the resolution have been disclosed by either party.

- On 8/18, Lock announced that they were "pursuing legal action" against Girah. The specifics remain undisclosed, nor has Lock released a statement about their role in the Lock Challenge incident

Remaining Issues:

1. Verification of Girah results, if possible.
2. Explanation/apology from Lock poker reference their roll in the Lock Challenge scandal. If you would like to help put pressure on Lock to issue a statement, please post in the following forum: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/19...t-nvg-1082267/

Without further statements from any of the principles involved, or other facts which present themselves, further investigation seems unlikely to occur.


Links:

JM Interview with Noah and Vanessa: http://www.subjectpoker.com/2011/08/...n-about-girah/
JM Bluff Interview: http://news.bluffmagazine.com/daniel...scandal-24246/
DIH Interview: http://news.bluffmagazine.com/haseeb...network-24259/
DIH Blog: http://www.cardrunners.com/blog/internetpokers
**scroll down and read the older one about the Girah scandal before you read "The End"**
Girah post on the Lock Scandal (includes official Lock statement): http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...postcount=1050

Possible additions to cliffs:

-- Jose tweeted about the HU match with SamChauhan, thus presenting it as a legit match, not a chip dump
-- Jose has excellent English skills (so there won't be anymore derailment on this issue)
-- Someone claiming to be "the girl from London" takes credit for writing Jose's apology

DC: ...'Part of the reason I chose the SamChuahan account was because it was perceived to be bad.'

Looking pretty much like he was directed to play this account for the exact reasons he said. Such a clusterf***.

P.S. How does he have the choice to play this account?

SGT RJ for mod

Tin foil hat theory coming up:

I'm intrigued by the session in which Girah, being ghosted by JM, lost a lot playing 50/100 HU to a random fishy player "proplayer66", who, according to JM in the 3rd interview (around the 13 minute mark) was "3-betting something like 40%", "not c-betting all that much" and, once JM takes over from Girah, "he suddenly became super nitty and quit after 50 hands".

Say Girah wanted to scam DiH and JM out of some of the money they staked him by losing to another account that was also him or an accomplice, how would he go about doing that?

Well, for starters, he'd make sure that JM and/or DiH were watching/ghosting to show he's not chip-dumping.
Assuming Girah can both see his own and villain's holecards, with the intention of losing to that villain, what playing style would that villain have? He'd 3bet a ton, because, playing heads up, you often open whatever hand you have on the button, but don't very often want to call a 3-bet and he'd not c-bet a bunch, because he'd always know when Girah/JM had connected to the flop.
Then at one time Teamviewer becomes too slow and JM takes over, presumably on his own computer. Obviously, villain no longer has access to the other hole-cards and naturally nits up and leaves soon after.

+1 we need more green ladies here

Title should be changed imo, scandal involves more ppl than just Girah

Listening to the interviews now, Noah and Vanessa=the nuts

that is all

Don't deny this thing is part of a larger pattern, but really, aren't there more important things going on at the moment in poker - never mind the rest of the world?

Agreed.

+1 on RJ for mod.

Cates does not come off well in the interview (at least part 1). still listening...

NVG'S TO-DO LIST
Girah
DogIsHead
Jungleman
LockPoker
Sleep

not sure if srs, but, no

+1 They should be given News International IMO

Thank you for the cliffs.

I appreciate the work SGT RJ of condensing and creating new cliffs. I do want to know what is going on, but also just find it so damn depressing, the state of things in poker, that the work required to follow along regularly is not worth the effort.

So again, thanks.

please delete the link to the HS thread

someone should PM this dude and tell him he's on a POKER forum. might help.

oh yeah: and nice cliffs(again)

Nice Summary, ty

Good work to everyone involved.

Sorry; even if I still had the ability to edit, I wouldn't do this. There are tons of NVGers who are following the HS thread and doing nothing wrong. Infract/ban the ones that aren't, but not everything is getting cross-posted, and we have every right to READ a thread, even on the oh-so-holy ground that is the High Stakes Forum.

We're fortunate that poker is covered in the mainstream media the way major sports are.

If it was, it might totally destroy the game the way the Black Sox scandal threatened to destroy baseball.

Regarding Interview Part II, First Half and Second Half:
JM says he played 4 sessions on what I am assuming was Jose's Girahh(LockPoker) account. During the Bluff Challenge, using this Girahh account, "Jose and associates" won $43k from "TylerSmith," $30k from "INeverFoldi," and $25k from "arnie92662." Little has been said about these accounts or matches, here is what I have uncovered so far:

The "TylerSmith" account may or may not be the same Tyler Smith who is a well-known online player as well as a Pro on FeltStars? No one seems to have confirmed this? I assume this was Daniel playing at the $50/$100 NLHE, as he beat him for $43k in 700 hands.

If this is the real Tyler Smith I would think he would be interested to know he did not lose this money to Jose but was actually playing Daniel. If it wasn't the real Tyler Smith, who in the world was it? Haseeb? Jose? Was this money dumped as well?

The "NeverFoldi" account is rumored to be an account from Portugal. Some Merge regs claim he was regularly playing $5/$10 and $10/$20 HU during the Bluff Challenge. Apparently this match took place at $25/$50+ NLHE HU and "Jose and associates" beat him for $30k in 600 hands. Was this also Daniel playing?

The "arnie92622" account seems to be a semi-regular high stakes NLHE hu players on LockPoker. "Jose and associates" beat "arnie92622" out of $25k in 375 hands of what I assume was $25/$50+ NLHE HU. I am assuming this was also Daniel's work? Jose has posted about "Arnie92262" in the Merge Regs thread:

This post was made July 9th, 2011. Was this just an attempt to make himself look more legit or was he searching for additional action for Daniel? Had Jose compromised this player's computer security and wanted to steal additional money from him? If so, was this exploit used during the Bluff Challenge 2-3 months earlier?

So now we can see "Jose and associates" won $43k from "TylerSmith," $30k from "INeverFoldi," and $25k from "arnie92662." Even if we believe that these questionable methods were NOT used in an attempt to win the Bluff Challenge for Jose, what, then exactly, are we supposed to believe? Should we believe that "Jose and associates" only intended to scam high stakes regulars into playing Daniel in disguise for the purpose of taking their monies and improving Jose's reputation as a high-stakes player?

In addition to all of this, "Jose and associates" decided they would dump an additional $100k from the "SamChauhan" account to Jose's account during the challenge too. I guess someone really wanted to win afterall.

I think someone else said this, but more and more it looks like Jungle is the mark in all of this.

This whole thing is BS. It has been going on for 5 days. What are we gonna do even if we find that Girah/DiH are in the wrong for more than we already know. They are not in the poker world anymore. Only jungleman is still a part of poker community and he is the only one who we can hold responsible. But still,what are we gonna do?