Mike Matusow has called out high stakes online cash game organizer (and former head of Twtich Poker) Scott Ball in his most recent podcast.

The segment is from 9:50 to 38:00 (see Tweet below). Specific details start at about 17:50.



According to Mike Matusow, Scott Ball was entrusted by Phil Hellmuth to run Phil's private online cash game starting in March 2020.

From May/June 2020, The Mouth says Scott Ball scammed/cheated/ghosted Phil Hellmuth's private game for $800,000 by colluding with Scott's accountant buddy (who players were paying $1k/week on the side) and another friend. Mike says during the segment that Scott Ball has "admitted" to this.

Mike also says that Scott Ball colluded with his horses versus Phil Nagy one night (when Phil Nagy was drunk) for a profit of $270,000. The Mouth says he was skeptical about Scott Ball from the start, and that there was always friction between the two, but that they were still on speaking terms up to December 2020 when Scott was found out.

Mike says Scott Ball also lost $400,000 playing vs. Jason Koon and Nick Petrangelo. Mike estimates that Scott Ball cost Phil Hellmuth's private game $1.5M to $1.8M total. There are other details included as well.

Mike says he's revealing this publicly because the amount far exceeds "$50,000" or "$100,000" -- which would be more acceptable in Mike's world. But in this case, the amount is seven figures says Mike.
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Here's an April 2020 interview with Scott Ball on the Jeff Gross podcast.


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Jeesh some people snap at a moments notice when they have the chance to steal / degen other people out of life changing money, guy seemed to be pretty popular among twitch poker section and worked a lot with Jcarver in past I believe (or at least was involved in some of the runitup events?)

Sucks he scummed people in the community he somewhat helped build up via twitch poker



Also somehow very unsurprising to hear the CEO of acr spends his off time getting drunk and losing 6figs+ in online private games


edit:

LMAO matusow starting off the scam segment saying scott ball kept wanting to kick him out cause he was too good and winning all the money. Easy there mike x)

Here are more details/cliffs now that I've watched the segment multiple times.

Matusow lays out the numbers starting at about 28:20.

- Matusow says Scott Ball accepted $900k and $200k investments from Hellmuth & Co. to run End Game Talent -- which Mike says Scott Ball "grenaded" -- to the point where Scott couldn't pay employees because Scott was gambling the money away.
- Matusow says Scott Ball "admitted" to cheating Hellmuth's private online poker game for about $800k
- So about $1.8 million total, not counting the $270k Phil Nagy "drunk" match -- but $800k specifically "cheated" from the private game according to Matusow
- Matusow says Scott Ball threatened legal action if Mike went public with the info (31:25)
- Matusow says Brandon Cantu cut off his friendship with Phil Hellmuth because of Scott Ball (42:20)

Funny cause I always assumed Cantu was involved once I heard hellmuth and scam

okay, okay, cheating, stealing betraying in online poker, i get that, what else is new. far more important: how does one get into the PH private online game???

This wouldn't be easy, but the best long-term plan would be to...go to Vegas, play in Bobby's Room a bunch (alternatively switch Vegas for LA and Commerce big mix area), make friends with the regulars there, get to be known as a gambler and someone not afraid to play mixed games, splash around, sometimes play in a mix that's not your best games, etc.

Once this is done, an invite should be pretty easy to get, as you will be known personally as someone who gives action to get action, etc.

Or maybe, maybe just mimic what Alan Keating is doing on the current "Poker After Dark".

ya that dudes got an invite for life lol

Tweet by Upswing Poker co-founder Doug Polk.


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Here's a 2015 perspective on Scott Ball from Joey Ingram's Poker Life Podcast.



Both Joey and Scott acknowledge in the first few minutes that Scott Ball was "the" person most responsible for the Twitch Poker boom that was occurring during this time (led by on-air talent Jason Somerville).

According to Scott Ball, Twitch hasn't had a "poker" person since Scott left his position with that company a couple of years ago (this is from the Jeff Gross podcast embedded in the original post).
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I had one conversation with Scott Ball c. 2016. Scott was pleasant in the convo, with the only disagreement being over the medium-term content control & licensing aspirations of operators. I referenced that convo in October 2020 NVG posts here and here.

-David
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Imagine having a sick network like that and still scumming to the absolute max. Doesn’t just show what a piece of trash he is but actually just insanely low IQ. Hard to describe in words how stupid this guy must be.

If all of this is true, then it sounds like he has a serious gambling problem. That trumps rationality even in smart people.

This makes scamlero look like a midget with his scam

In before literally nothing happens to this guy and he just goes away.

Cool another in a long list of scammer stories. And? Nothing will happen to this guy because nothing happens to anybody. Eli is a known scammer and still plays in big games with top "respected" pros and loan him money. Doyle and his buddies cheated lots of people back in the day. But everybody loves Doyle. This whole community is 1 big scam **** show. There are dozens and dozens of these stories every single day. And there is no accountability, nobody gets in trouble, nobody gets any repercussions. Did Matusow pay Ted Forrest his $1,000,000 yet? Of course not. But glad to know Mike Matusow is informing us all about other scammers. How's Zima doing? He couldn't stand those damn ****ing scammers. Until it became known that he was one too. How about John Racener? How's he doing? These threads useless at this point. Nothing will happen.

I haven't listened to the interview, but I was one of the first twitch partners in the poker category and was therefore in contact with Scott.

He always felt "overly chummy" and unprofessional to me and from the start I tried to minimize contact with him when possible (despite me benefiting from the early partnership).

Cannot say I am surprised.

Ironic that Matusow and Hellmuth two guys whom have scammed from the poker community got scammed by a scammer and are mad about it lol.

Perhaps Lindgren or Chino or Eli Elezra can scam Scott Ball now for the lols?

Bingo. Matusow the million dollar scammer(I'm sure there is a lot more than that) and this dude wants to out others? Haha give me a break.

Yep, he'll be on a Poker Go cash game (again) within a few months, next to Eli and dumb book he brings everywhere

who did Hellmuth scam?

I'm truly shocked that cheating/angle shooting involved in a game where big money is in play



At this stage shouldn't you be assuming that its not "IF" I'm getting cheated but how much!
I just found it bizarre that Bill Perkins was shocked that JM cheated him.
The fact serious safeguards were in play in that game should raise some trust issues to everyone involved.

Of course. Nothing like degen scammers Eli and Matusow to play a big cash game together and all the top pro enablers don't care in the slightest and still give them money. But yes it's very noble of Mr. Matusow to express his outrage about someone else's transgressions. I hope soon Chino and Mizrachi will appear together and detail how Chino used Mizrachi's name to dupe lots of players out of money. Oh and how Mizrachi didn't give 2 shits. And kept supporting Mr. Rheem and giving him lots of credibility which allowed Chino to cheat player after player. Yes its very important that these scammers get outed lololol yawn.

Thx Mike M for doing your patriotic duty!

Almost makes me want to listen to Matusow's pod. Sounds like this should look really bad for Hellmuth though? Doubt he wanted this public.

At least these rich guys weren't playing in public games. They might have been cheated.

this was rumcakes?

Yes. Matusow said the following from 18:00 to 18:20 of Episode #60:

"He used to run Twitch Poker. He is now the president (I guess) of End Game Talent."


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Here are a few more details from Episode #60 of The Mouth Podcast with Mike Matusow:

- Mike Matusow uses three different amounts over the course of the segment to describe how much Scott Ball "cheated" from the private game... $700k, $800k, and $850k. So it's not exactly clear how much Mike is claiming was cheated.

- Mike Matusow says Scott Ball was outed by his own accountant buddy -- Mike says both were sharing hole card information while competing vs. Phil's "rich friends" in the private game.

- Mike Matusow also says Scott Ball was discovered because Scott was taking an extra $5,000/week out of the private game without anyone knowing about it. Matusow says it was another player in the private online game -- Marcus Gonzales (sp.) -- who found out about the extra $5k/week being cheated from the game.