Don't want to get too much into details because would rather not think about this much more, but thought it's important to warn people here.
There is a scammer impersonating Ben Sulsky (possibly other well-known guys).
The scam works like this:
He is in various large skype groups under skype name of well-known player, basically sitting there waiting for the opportunity to scam.
Vs me, I messaged him (skype name: BenSulsky) regarding coaching. He answered in a very helpful/informative manner, spoke like Ben,
everything he said made a lot of sense (in retrospect - this guy had done a lot of homework reading forum posts and watching videos).
We scheduled a 3hour group coaching session, for which he wanted money in advance.
The second I sent the money (via bitcoin), the guy dissappeared.

Feel pretty bad about the whole thing - the money is not a huge deal... just feels terrible being scammed like that.

Anyhow, thought you guys should know. People will probably say this is obvious (confirm identity before sending money) but... there are some pretty high level scammers out there.
This guy was extremely convincing, I play highstakes poker and I never suspected.

sorry bob

Kudos to you for posting, thanks.

+1

The sad and illogical thing is, based on the time it must've taken to acquire Sauce's "poker knowledge", he could prob just play and coach, without having to violate people and commit fraud and come out farther ahead than w this scam.

Similar to the people in school who spend 12 hours before a test figuring out how to cheat - when they could've just studied for 8 hours and still have gotten an honest A.

Hopefully the poker gods will smile on OP (though they have been known to be fickle as well)

what? Your heart is obv in a good place but this makes no sense..

How does Ben speak?

He was able to convince a group of high stakes players that he was Ben Sulsky based off his words alone. He earned the money imo.

What don't you get? He's saying the scammer could have studied and played poker to make money during the time he was spending studying another guy so he can accurately imitate him.

So you never were able to have a video call with him to verify his identity ?!

How much does fake ben charge for a 3 hour coaching block?

How much does real ben charge for a 3 hour coaching block?

About 350....

you didn't have him confirm on 2+2 or runitonce or any other security step? How did he get into your various skype groups? Did the owner let this guy in to scam or what?

Exactly. Instead of spending 5-6 hours preparing for this scam he could have used that time to study and become a successful high stakes pro.

Hi I'm Ben Sulsky. Need $500 to rescue the Nigerian princess.

"Hey where's my 3 hours coaching u little ****"

I think thats actually how DNegs sees the world

LOL

This is why no one should use Skype anymore.

OP why didn't you think to verify his identity somehow? It just seems rather lackluster on your part, although i guess if the skype group you were in is legit than you shouldn't have had any reason to doubt he was who he said he was.


Did anyone else in the chat take part in this scam? Did he approach you initially or did you approach him? Just wondering how the next guy can avoid something like this happening.

True, but you can’t really blame him for that. Amaya are the ones responsible for telling him what to believe.

loooooool

Fyp

There're a lot of mediocre players who could convincingly sound like they know what they're talking about in casual conversations, and yet be nowhere near the point where they could win even in midstakes games. 5-6 hours of study is basically nothing.

On the plus side - you not doing the due diligence to figure out if the guy you were sending large sums of money to was legit suggests that the money would have been wasted even if it was ben. You learnt an important lesson either way.