Originally Posted by HocusPokus
Here is the summary of the discussion with Brad Booth on "Nameless Site Radio"...it's a really good read, so check it out. Not everything is 100% word-for-word... it's just a summery (although it's pretty close to being word-for-word).
Brad Booth said he had most likely worked his bankroll over $1.5mil at the peak of his online poker career (just prior to the UB scandal). He says he went through a bunch of laptops while being superused, smashing them out of pure rage, just because of how frustrated he was and how he couldn't figure out why he was being beat so bad and running so poorly. Brad thinks he should've realized he was being "****ed" at the time, but he didn't. Patrik Antonious recognized something wrong on UB after being down about a half mil, and he feels like he should've realized something as well. He played under the names, XXDuffXX, LifeIsGood, YukonBrad, and some others: "multi-accounting back then was part of the norm, I know nowadays it's frowned upon, it's different now". At a certain point, he began transferring money to friend's accounts because he thought his accounts were messed up...he then went on to name more accounts he played under, and explained that he used a lot of them, because he just couldn't figure out how he was running so bad and thought he was cursed or something. Him and Matusow used to talk all of the time, they never met at the time, but created a close online friendship through the scandal and being cheated...they were both really suspicious.
At one point, after Brad was taken for a few hundred grand, Russ Hamilton had called Brad, after he had lost a couple hundred thousand, and he called and said, "I see you just ran so bad online, do you need any money?"... He reluctantly asked Russ to send him $10k, and Russ asked him if he needed more, generously, and Brad declined. Brad had the $10k cheated out of him in a matter of 10 minutes. Freddy Deeb had come up to Brad @ the Bellagio and told him that he owed Russ $10k. Russ told Brad just to give it to Freddy. Brad is not saying Freddy had any involvement necessarily, or how he was involved if he was, or if he was just a runner. But at the time, Brad didn't have $10k because he was taken for $1-$2mil. Russ had gotten Brad from both sides, for every cent he could.
Brad lost about a million and a half really fast... He was so mind****ed that he lost more money he didn't have, and it's still tough for him, and he's just now getting back on his feet two years later. He says it's really hard for him to talk about this stuff. He thinks he was at the highlight of his career and he a lot of high stakes guys considered him one of the best in the game. "I'm at the bottom of my well, I owe money to everybody...it's the thing that bothers me the most, because it's my wish in life to pay everybody back". He goes on to talk about him not getting refunded what he should have (obviously), and UB closing his accounts, so he can't even request more refunds. "why are these guys trying to make this injustice not worthy of a refund?". He has no hand histories. "My life has been such a downward spiral, I just have to figure out how to afford simple life things like rent, and I just sorta let this stuff slide while focusing on my basic needs". "They gave me a refund of about $250,000 or something like that".
"I got beat up so bad on UB, I started playing on Full Tilt...and I was just tilting, playing catch up. I ended up making some bad decisions in sports bet, losing about $850k that I didn't have. I had no idea I was cheated at this time. So I'm $2 mil in debt, and THEN I found out I was cheated. I didn't know what to do. Since, I've worked my way out of the $850k a lot, and I have about $120,000 left of that debt to pay, after that's cleared, then I can start working on my poker debt. I don't really talk to very many people about this, It's been a real hard ride"
Brad mentioned talking with Sebok today. He says Joe said something along the lines of, "if anyone knows anything, just speak it and say it, and go to the media and dig this **** up". Sebok said to this day he hasn't caught Paul Leggett in a lie. He agreed that if it is the case that Paul did doctor stuff and cheat, that it'd be a whole different ballgame and he's have to really evaluate things and make some decisions.