Quote:
Originally Posted by rdedrde1
Oh yeah.
For the sake of discussion, Matt berkey, luckychewy and Nick howard have been discussing this situation on a recent s4y pod:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A8U-1a...9kY2FzdA%3D%3D
For the benefit of Paint's mental health I really hope in the meantime (ie since this thread) he has moved on from the whole situation.
Alternatively if he has or hasn't, a life update from him maybe would be interesting to the community ��
Hey, yeah I've moved on, was a bit surprised to find this thread still active. There have been some developments in my life as well as a big one in this story that hasn't really circulated much.
One of Brandon's friends confessed to ghosting him during the match during arbitration for a sidebet between him and a member of Zenith. This arbitration was a separate arbitration than the main one between Brandon and me.
I listened in on the podcast and I think most of the people passing judgement on the situation don't fully understand what happened. I mean, there's a lot to sift through and it's a complex situation so I don't blame them, but I wish they had reached out to me for more of my side/ read this thread's opening post.
The # of HU hands cited in the podcast is incorrect (cited as 10k-20k of HU when in reality it was between 5-7k). Yes, there were a lot of 6max hands. I genuinely don't understand how they could've been utilized to produce an edge in HU. A lot of people speculate that they could have been exceptionally useful. Well, you're a better player than me because I would have no idea how to use them.
The arbitration panel did not publicly rule that I should repay the sidebet, but given the immense public pressure I was under (including from some members of the panel) I asked them privately whether they felt I should repay the sidebet. They agreed it was the best course of action. This was before I suspected any ties to Brandon, and I was in a pretty terrible mental state. That said, I still believe some of the arbitrators had good intentions, though I disagree with the decisions they made. Arbitration made it very clear that dishonesty heavily influenced their decision, which I suppose is fair enough.
It also turned out after rereading everything that one of the arbitrators stated in the private group chat that "I know the entire arb panel has no interest or intent to disclose any messages/videos/content to anyone outside of the arb panel at any time, both during and after our deliberation." Same Arbitrator then leaks the unlisted coaching video to the public immediately after the decision. Still annoyed about that bit.
The big question this particular case raises is how useful the hole-cards up folded hands are over datamined hands. I specifically asked Brandon about datamined hands before the match, to which he responded "Don't care about these things". He then deleted that message out of the group chat before levying any accusations, clearly implying he understood how that statement would muddy the waters around what he was accusing me of. Luckily I had a screenshot of the message.
Breaking TOS isn't the correct line to draw unless you'd like to argue BOTH Brown and I cheated. Which is a case you're free to make.
Brandon
1. Played under an alt account (pretty insignificant but against TOS)
2. Datamined likely 30k+ HU hands from PSPA (Against TOS of ACR and PSPA)
3. Was allegedly ghosted (Against TOS and definitely cheating)
I'm not aware of any rule that prohibits what I did, but one could argue it falls under a similar umbrella as datamining. The general sentiment I've seen centers around Thomas being scummy for sharing a student's database. I think the jury is still out on whether I had a duty to refuse the database when presented with it, and in hindsight I certainly wish I had.
Reasons I haven't been updating as things have been happening is I've generally been busy and trying to move on from this episode, and mentally I generally have, though this is still talked about in circles I'm in.
Updates to the case aside, I spent a good deal of time in Vegas in June/July and played the main (Busto day 2 oof) and in July I twitch streamed a $100 to $10,000 Bankroll Speedrun that I gave myself a week to complete. I made it to 10k but accidentally put too much of my bankroll on the table so broke one of the rules. Still happy with my performance tho. You can find the recap here:
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1.../#post58217036
As for where I am right now, I'm a full time student now going to Penn State. And I even have another HU match (NOT a challenge) in the works, though this one will be very different from the previous one, and won't happen for another few months. Also, no animosity towards my opponent this time haha