Quote:
Originally Posted by Alekhine
As someone who has read the majority of this thread now I think it would be useful to recap the reasons that it seems we have gone from finding the 1-man operation theory pretty viable to now much more favoring the theory of involvement of multiple guilty parties.
Currently, the evidence indeed points to another individual or individuals helping to relay the information to his phone rather than use of a technology to read the RFIDs straight to his phone in a 1-man operation.
1. According to multiple sources (Veronica, twitter location stamps, JFK commentating), exactly during the time Justin Kuraitis (JFK) has a business hiatus in Las Vegas in the Summer of 2019, MP goes through a long string of absences from the stream during which he comes in only for a few smaller stakes sessions. Not only are his results during this time (adjusted by BBs) an order of magnitude worse than virtually all sessions he has played for over a year, but his style for these sessions is totally different. He plays much faster, doesn't look down at his phone while he plays, takes breaks, wears his hat differently, has a different posture, plays much fewer hands, folds to bluffs, less aggressive postflop, etc. This coincidence strongly implies that he is unable to cheat without JFK there, perhaps knowingly helping.
2. Purported technology experts in this thread have claimed that a device that can access RFID information from all the cards on the table from MP's seat in real time would need to be very sophisticated or impossible. Additionally such a device could be detected with an RFID sniffer that a casino investigating cheating could employ. A big question here is whether Mike owned a company that installed the RFID system at Stones and whether doing so would allow him to also send the RFID hole-card information to his phone using that system.
3. Mike is allegedly friends with the majority of the Stones staff including JFK who seem to be covering for him. There have been 2 or more instances when supposed incorrect graphics were used by Stones employees (Taylor Smith or other people creating the graphics for the show) to explain Mike's strange river decisions when suspicions were raised. Some familiar with the way the technology works say the explanations are far fetched if not technically impossible. JFK tweets for Stones that the allegations are "entirely fabricated" and conducts a video interview with Mike seemingly looking to downplay his GodMode and justify his play style. These people could certainly be expected to rush to his defense if they were involved.
4. The thread seems to have come to the conclusion that the method by which Mike was likely receiving the hole card information changed at some point during his run. In older streams, he tanks while glancing at his phone constantly during big hands. In later streams, (after a ban on phones at the table) he acts more quickly, isn't looking down anymore, but can be seen adjusting his hat many times during big decisions. To explain this change and a noticible bulge in his hat, many speculate that he is using a bluetooth bone conduction device which can be sewn into a cap. This device acts as an earpiece that can transmit sound as vibrations into the user's inner ear only heard by the user. While the phone technique could be automated in a 1-man operation, the bone conduction device seems likely to imply the involvement of a compatriot talking directly to him to feed him the hole card information.
5. Veronica is let go from her commentating job. Perhaps backlash for her suspicions by the person(s) involved trying to keep things quiet at the casino?
6. Presumably a 1-man operation could run a little less conspicuously than the way Mike seems to be cheating. Partner(s) may require playing for quicker gains to pay them their cut(s) or hasten the conclusion of the operation to reduce the chance of word getting out.
Are there other reasons I've missed that might justify taking an investigation into likely compatriots seriously?
I would add the following:
The amount of time over which this scam operated (over 1 year) makes it extremely difficult to happen without inside support. It's one thing to hack into a system for one or two sessions. It's quite another for this to go on for so long without detection, especially when there was already a formal investigation into cheating allegations (although I doubt that ever happened). Any decent network engineer would sniff this out in a day, forget about one year.
Also, it seems Mike used multiple methods, even switching up his MO after people began to get suspicious, as you noted above. That requires changes to back end systems, as well, which strongly implies inside support. It's not trivial to do something like this, to do it using at least two different methods in a casino without inside support is impossible, unless Stones has the most incompetent security team imaginable. The negligence here would be astounding without criminal conspiracy including insiders. And again, during a time when the casino is supposedly conducting a thorough investigation! Laughable.
Mike almost certainly had inside help. Unless he is an IT God as well as a poker GOD.
