Since Ryan was nice enough to answer one of my questions, and it looks to have led to a bunch more questions, some that aren't necessarily fair IMO, maybe I can help clarify some of this since I've been following it relatively closely.

From what Ryan has said, Nick is the one working with the company investigating, while Ryan is handling the production side and the game running. Which obviously would be a full time job.

Ryan likely isn't answering these direct questions, because he doesn't know the answers, and doesn't have time to chase them down right now.

From the sound of Ryan's interview, this sounds like a question they haven't even addressed internally yet. They're probably waiting until the investigation is over to decide whether it's relevant/important/necessary to release their proprietary footage to the public.

Wouldn't make sense to answer this publicly before addressing it internally.

Wait what? So you somehow think that running a home game is something that should be considered a "strike" against another poker player? And you think that he should admit to it on a public forum? That's your "gotcha" moment? I guess technically you are correct but that's as close to having J high for a bluff catcher as it gets.

Him running home games have absolutely nothing to do with the integrity, security, or transparency of HCL There are zero reasons for him to purposely attract the attention of LEO and possibly face legal consequences just to prove the point that no one in his\her right mind would demand him to prove. BTW i am pretty sure that 99% of poker players would agree with my POV. On the other hand, 99% of forum trolls and shills would agree with your ridiculous "gotcha" point.

FTR, Ryan said the security cam footage belongs to the casino. It's up to them to decide whether they want to release it or not, and I think Ryan said they haven't spoken with the casino about that yet.

Wouldn't be surprised if the investigators specifically asked them not to release ANY footage until the investigation is over too. Would only potentially hinder the investigation.

I'm the producer of HCL. I'm not the casino security. I don't have access to casino cameras unless they call me in to show me something. I could never personally have recordings of camera footage. So no, I'm not authorized to release camera footage from casino security. They are responsible for that part of the investigation.

Yes

Yes (the roaming camera movement is operated by a human but I'm deciding when to use that camera angle)

We have an audio person who controls that but I have the ability to direct them if I need to tell them to turn someone down or up

Delay varies by day but that day was almost 3 hours. It's typically 1 hour in most games but Ivey/other players wanted to start early. Everything was produced in real-time.

How do you explain this pic if you're not up to some shady ****?

You asked me questions that I either don't have an answer to, have already answered, or can't answer. Not sure what else you want me to say. I answer plenty of questions here. Ask me something simple that actually warrants an answer. I come on here for a few minutes maybe a few times per week at most.

Well since im Inot ryan, im just going to pretend im ryan

Wait who would do that unless you are actually ryan? Ryan?

I'm not Ryan. I only clarified a few questions because they went unanswered, and I think he answered them already in his interview the other day.

Admitting he ran a home game does nothing for him. Because the accusations are that he ran home games with RFID decks. The implication being obvious, that they were using the RFID marked decks in home games, to help cheat players out of money. Tons of people run home games or private games. LA is filled with them and during COVID lockdowns there was high demand for private games.

But the allegations are far beyond Feldman and Vertucci running illegal home games for profit. The accusations, now from multiple individuals online, are that they were using RFID cards during these games. That Feldman was representing himself as being part of LATB when running these home games despite having already been terminated by the Bicycle Casino. That Mark Ventre of the Bicycle Casino had investigated Feldman for collusion or cheating and Feldman was jettisoned from LATB shortly thereafter. Yet Feldman instead of informing players of these home games that he was no longer at the Bicycle was telling people he was still involved with LATB but was just running these home games due to COVID lockdowns and not because he was terminated for potential cheating violations.

Did Hustler Casino know that Feldman and Vertucci were running home games at one point before hiring them? Did Feldman or Vertucci ever run home games during their HCL tenure? If HCL shuts down will they go back to running home games again?

WTF? Lol. Where did you come up with all of this? You're either misconstruing what you read, or you made up your own version of things. Regardless, literally none of this is actually true. RFID cards in home games? Where the hell are you getting this from? Lol. I've never personally owned RFID decks or ever brought any home. I've never told anyone I was still running LATB after I left. It was in fact the opposite. All of our core players knew fairly quickly that I had left, and that's why many of them started playing in our off-camera games in the Bike high stakes room instead of the show. There was never any investigation by Mark or anyone at the casino (at least to my knowledge or anyone else's knowledge that I know). I was never terminated. I quit. And it had nothing to do with any cheating allegations. Watch my interview with Joey and I explain everything. Don't make **** up or try to attack me with some "gotcha" **** and expect me to keep responding in this thread.

Ryan, Robbi said prior to the stream that she played in home games in Los Angeles for 8+ hours every day for an entire month. Do you believe this to be true? Do you know
these home games she alleged she played in? Do you know the stakes of these games? Do you know some of the other players in this game?

Also, regarding the camera situation.

You say certain cameras are operated by the casino itself and they have control over that portion of the investigation. However, it also seems as though
you've had very little communication with the investigators from the casino. How would those investigators even know who to be looking at within HCL? Are they only looking at Robbi? Are they looking at Rip? Are they liking at Beanz? Are they looking in GREAT DETAIL at various other players/HCL staff members/interactions? There's a significant number of people who could be involved in this situation but some random person from the Hustler casino staff would seemingly have no idea to even go down path.

Lastly, can you go ahead and release all of the other camera footage from the J4 stream (the overhead shot and other angles)?

This is just the difference between ethics in the poker world and elsewhere, I think.

Like if you were in charge of security for a bank or some military position, I think they'd be upset if you were involved with any illegal gambling enterprise beyond an office pool. In poker, it's really NBD unless the game turns out to be crooked.

Same thing with playing in your own game. A judge can't also be a partner in a firm. The commissioner of a sports league can't bet on games. Congressmen can't trade stock in companies affected by their legislation. Oh wait, they can. But almost everyone who is not a congressman, be they R or D leaning, sees this as highly unethical.

Even by poker standards, someone in production owing DGAF like 20% of his salary, as someone pointed out, is very questionable. But people loan money, swap action and stake each other much more freely than in other areas of life.

OK, presumably as a producer of a poker game that has been accused of cheating players, presumably you have an interest in clearing its name, so it is odd you have no interest in the investigation. For the sake of conciseness, and to stop appearing slippery and evasive, can you answer the questions below you can answer, and say who can provide answers to the questions you are apparently unable to answer about the investigation into the casino where casino people are free to look at screens showing hole cards and wander about without restriction.

[1]Who have you got to investigate Garretts allegations?
[2]What credentials do the investigators have to investigate poker cheating in a casino?
[3]What if any connection do you or any other employees or owners have with the investigators?
[4]How long after the Garret allegations during the stream did the investigation start?
[5]When will the findings be published?

No, you are jumping to conclusions. I never anything about "strikes".

I said I care. And others clearly care, because others have asked the question.

I'm not saying what he "should" do. I'm repeating what he said he "would" do.

No, you are making that up. I have no idea what you even imagine this "gotcha" would be getting, besides leading to additional uncomfortable questions.

That's a matter of opinion.

I haven't argued anything about HCL's "integrity" or "security".

I WILL argue it relates to transparency. That's because Ryan puts his name on promotional material, puts his face on the wall of Hustler casino, and tells people that his personal relationships with poker players is integral to building the business. So the transparency of those relationships is absolutely related to the transparency of HCL.

if Ryan decides to keep the nature of those relationships opaque, that's his prerogative, but it most definitely means that part of HCL is also opaque.

1. There's at least 1 reason to answer posters' questions: he said he would.

2. Again, I never said "gotcha". it's a dishonest strawman for you to claim that.

3. If Ryan is afraid that answer questions will have him "face legal consequences," then I would understand why he would choose to hide those answers. It doesn't change the fact that he is indeed hiding them.

But if you believe that Ryan has to keep silent about running poker games because he would "possibly face legal consequences," then you can't also claim that it has "absolutely nothing" to do with his business of running poker games.

You and him don't get to have it both ways at the same time: it's either "something" or it's "nothing" but not both.

Those are fair responses. use them with specific questions. "I don't know." "I've already answered elsewhere." "I can't answer because __".

You've chosen to put yourself out there as the public face of your business venture. This is the crap end of that job. Whether you give good answers or bad answers, it's always better than pretending you didn't hear or don't care.

I really hope you can rise to the challenge. Good luck.

1. There are multiple companies/agencies investigating various things. I don’t know all the names off the top my head. Not even sure if I’m supposed to list them.
2. I’m not in charge of the investigation. I don’t know but they’re all legit.
3. Like I said, there are multiple investigators. I didn’t know any of them personally before this.
4. I don’t know. Technically 1.5 days later when we met to plan it all out I guess. But the casino started investigating right away the next day.
5. No clue. Whenever it’s all complete.

I hope that helps. These questions are all so multi-faceted. I just don’t have all the answers. Your questions are making my head spin trying to give you what you want lol.

Guys, let me clarify. I’m not gonna answer every question. I said I would answer any questions about the original topic because I wanted to clear that up since it was mostly blatant lies. Otherwise, I will answer as many questions as I can. But I don’t have an answer for every question. And I’m not gonna answer people who I feel are being negative or accusatory or destructive. I’ll answer people who are polite and don’t have an agenda. Also, just because you care about something or want to know the answer, doesn’t mean I have any obligation to answer. The only people I truly HAVE TO answer to our the players who play our games and casino management and my business partner. I appreciate that you guys watch the show and care about the show, but there’s only so much that I can say or want to say about certain things. For those who are supportive, thank you very much for the support.

They're legit questions that I think you should do better than issuing a bunch of I-don't-know's and not-my-responsibility's

As a fan of HCL, and I still am of the way you guys have commercialized and personalized what tends to be a pretty boring product ie poker streaming into something built around personalities of the show, I am not criticizing you from the angle of hoping HCL goes down. I want it to succeed. Even after all the BS the past few weeks. But man, you guys need to do a lot better than dragging out the investigation and issuing wild attacks(aka Nitucci) to keep us fans around..

If you truly believe there is no cheating in that hand by Robbi, just say it straight and end the investigation. You got nothing on her anyway. I know Garrett is your friend but whichever way investigation goes, he's damaged goods and won't be appearing on your show anytime soon and you know it.

Or if you got something on Robbi, lets see it. It's been nearly a month. People solve murders in that amount of time and you got all the video footage you need plus countless interviews and statements from all parties.

As for security of HCL and integrity of production team, what's the problem, can't release basic details of everyone? Nick Vertucci, Ryan Feldman, disgraced Bryan Salbigsal, Patrick Curran who left, the commentators DGAF Marc Bart and Tuchman. Name the other members of the team. Give us a breakdown of who has criminal record and who hasn't. As for stuff like Nick's real estate scams, he hasn't been charged with a crime so we'll let the record that's out there speak for itself and people can form their own opinions.

But we need to know your production team doesn't have other ex-cons and known scammers and dodgy people. You're essentially an video entertainment production, and hollywood movies and TV shows list their credits with full names. Why can't you? Esp when your credibility is under threat, rightfully so?

These are basic things man. Do all these and carry on streaming for all I care.

Oh, and please, for the sake of your continued success, keep Nitucci and other commentators out of the streamed game for a while. It's a terrible look for your brand. Not even saying they need to be banned from playing, but at least have them off for a couple of months. After all, nobody tunes in to watch Nitucci play anyway so ratings would only get better if you have a Luda or Lingling sitting in Nitucci's seat.

She just made a lucky call mannnnnnnn...she thought she was ahead mannnnnnn

Ryan..

If you had it over again would you stop the stream?

Is it possible cheating took place without you knowing about it?

How many people have real time access to cards?

Do you have a list of said people?

I am afraid this is why you look so shady, they are very simple questions to answer, and if you find them complicated that casts doubt on your intelligence.

There is a massively publicised cheating allegation on one of your productions, and you claim to know no details of the investigation. You look so hopelessly irresponsible if you are correct in saying you dont know what is happening in the investigation on your production.

Robbi's lie detector test was a farce. When the polygraph test starts, the questioner asks three or four simple questions to establish the norms for the person's signals. Then the real questions being tested by the polygraph are asked. Except Robbi was just asked three questions on poker, with no questions to establish her normal signals, therefore her test is totally worthless.

Similar to your investigation, where you are investigating yourself. I anticipated you would use the "I dont know" answer, so I had asked you who would know the answers if you did not know, and predictably you avoided answering that to try to leave the questions unanswered.

That again makes you look slippery and evasive, unable to give a clear answer to a clear question, and this makes people wonder all the more what you are hiding.

Quite interesting take from Limon:



Original post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/poker/comme...90b/?context=3

^ given what limon said above, I wonder if Vertucci and Feldman would now consider Garrett "collateral damage"? Clearly their show goes on without him, can go on without him into the future, more personalities can be discovered/created, and quite frankly whether or not there was cheating in that hand, Garrett is damaged goods and he's also the biggest winner that anybody else interested in winning on the show could frankly do without.