Hello all this is my friends account I am posting on. My name is Mark Herm aka dipthrong I am a fairly well known backer in the mtt community. I had a situation come up where I felt as though someone tried to scam me and I will post about it here. The person this involves is Ben Warrington aka Kidcardiff6 on pokerstars aka benwa1 on Twitter. I bought 25 % of this player at 1.15 mu in the venetian 5k main event. I sent him the money on pokerstars for two bullets as he requested. I noticed he posted this on twitter monday


5:34 pm est "@benwa1: Venetian 5k #tripsaver"

Then shortly thereafter I receive some messages from him on fb updating me on his status in the event. (note timestamps)

6:49 pm est Ben Warrington: Ugly beat- firing second
7:09 pm est Mark Herm: KK gl
5:26 am est Ben Warrington: didnt make day 2...didnt run good today :/
11:39 am est Mark Herm: all good bro thanks for the sweat. can u send me a picture of the tourney receipts?

Something about the nature of the messages had me be a bit suspicious but regardless I did my due diligence as a backer and asked him for a picture of the tourney receipts as you see above. After several hours (note the timestamps) I received this back

6:23 pm est Ben Warrington: Just fired one in the end mark, was gonna re enter then spun it up from 1200 at 150/300 to 25k but busted after dinner, didn't re enter yday and reged for today 1c for 2nd bullet but decided to skip it, honestly am just ready to go home, I probably have the receipt in my trousers somehwere tbh i don't usually keep them but i will have a look


(posts picture of one receipt)

Found it- if thats the receipt u meant
$1437.50 back to the account received?


Upon receiving these messages I was very suspicious and believed as though I had been scammed as his story changed from 2 bullets to 1 when I asked him for a tournament receipt. The long amount of time in between messages didn't help his case either.


Ben Warrington: Sorry- was planning on firing second today but being honest I had a heavy night last night and am not in good shape to fire it

Mark Herm: Its super obvious you tried stealing from me

Ben Warrington: Thats not the case Mark. Have never stolen from an investor. Can we have skype call please.

Mark Herm: Thats comforting to know. Send me my ****ing money back.



Obviously I was super aggravated at this point and I proceeded to talk to him over the phone and he said that vegas had him all disoriented and he was quite out of it. Also he mentioned getting drunk that night and that had something to do with it. I told him I was going to post this here on 2p2 and he really did not want me to do that as it may hurt his chances of selling in the future.

Upon our talk on the phone Ben immediately sent half the money back so our issue is resolved but I felt the need to post this here as I feel I was trying to be taken advantage of. So there's all the information obviously it's clear what my stance on the situation is but that's all I will say about it. Any other questions feel free to ask.

pretty clear he got caught trying to steal here. pretty sad hes been around for a long time.

"Coach at http://TournamentPokerEdge.com"

"I probably have the receipt in my trousers somehwere tbh i don't usually keep them but i will have a look"

lol he either doesn't pay taxes or hates money

why half the money?

#4 he's Uk

sheets, who is a backer had 35% of this tourney and he also told sheets that he busted twice. after sheets saw this thread and asked ben about it, ben admitted that he tried stealing from him.

Lets let sheets speak for himself.

Was the receipt he showed you for the initial bullet where he reported busting out at 6:49pm EST?

So no receipt for a later 1b entry (which there wouldn't be, because he says he didn't play or register for it, even though he implies in the 5:26am message that he did re-enter and bust).

But no receipt for 1c either, which he says he regged but didn't play? Seems dumb to lie about registering for something that he doesn't have a receipt for at that point. Why not just say he never even registered with the second bullet.

Just trying to clarify.

Sigh !!!!! **** that scumbag

if sheets wants to say this didnt happen then fine i saw the text.

Oh you mean because he confirmed played one/two, sry obv.
and I meant #4 like post 4 regarding taxes (UK no tax)



Super disappointing to hear.. In this industry sometimes convenience means ones word can be very important for booking action, being honest about various things that can happen etc.. so when someone as reputable (as far as I know) like this can do something that is otherwise somewhat easily unnoticed it is really lame..

this....wtf Ben ?

Gees, I know you're best friends w Mark but why not let just the parties involved speak for themselves for now ? (sheets/mark/ben)

mark doesn't have an active account on 2p2. pretty sure much more will be coming out, ill wait for mark or one of the other guys to write it. where is ben im assuming he should respond?

wow what a shame, always makes you wonder if he's ever done something like this in the past just never called out on it.

HH on 1st bullet? Could have possibly dumped it away in order to set up 2nd bullet scam.

This is so brutal... Vegas really does ruin lives

So I'm a small investor in Ben's WSOP package (included this Venetian $5K) which he offered to me via Twitter, since we had done business a few times before on the 2p2 Marketplace (EPT Monte Carlo is the most recent). I haven't had any known prior issues with him--considered him a slower communicator/refunder and not great with updates but nothing that wasn't resolved or seemingly clarified within a somewhat reasonable time period. I even met Ben a couple times this summer in Vegas and he seemed like a decent/normal guy.

Anyway, I'm currently due a refund on that package and while I am expecting to be paid, I'm chiming in here because this thread (and discussions with other investors in his WSOP package) have made me aware that he possibly oversold this event, which is pretty disappointing and have me concerned about what else I'm not aware of.

Based on the spreadsheet Ben used for his WSOP package (and if what dipthrong and paulgees are saying is accurate ITT) then this is how the breakdown of investors for this Venetian event look:

35% Sheets (need confirmation?)
25% dipthrong
13% jasbral
10% Matas
10% Louise (?)
5% Me
2% Jean (?)

That's 100% sold on the event with 12% of it that I can't verify, but also only investors that are publicly known. At the very least it seems like Ben sold for a big freeroll on the event given that he charged 1.25 MU for it on the package.

Hopefully there is some reasonable explanation for all this, but I'm putting this all out there because as a regular investor in the MP (not just specficially Ben) my biggest pet peeve is the lack of transparency and poor communication that a lot of players seem to feel they are entitled to.

EDIT: His original package only sold for ONE bullet to this Venetian Main and I was never notified about any additional bullets.

OK I believe it's official, I've just been contacted by a couple more investors that weren't on that list above that he sold a total of 40% more to them for this event (and apparently has since admitted it/will repay etc). So it's not just that he sold for the phantom 2nd bullet, but even the 1st bullet was messed up.

Very lame. I'm officially OI with anyone who is even slightly questionable with communication/transparency. Sorry lazy, but honest poker players, not giving you my money.

meh, more info the better, esp since coming from a legit source


so much scum out there.

thanks for posting

I swapped 5% with Ben too (with buying second bullet at face).

- He told me he busted twice when I asked him how he went and that he was flying home.
- Another guy he swapped with was at my table today and showed me the messages he received saying he only busted once and he was oi so was going to fly home

I asked ben about it and he instantly admitted it the lie.

Another problem is there is 13% more he swapped out on top of that list previously posted by fakelogic. 5 to me, 5 to another friend of mine and 3 to the guy who I was playing with in the Venetian 5k.

I'm assuming theres a few more.

I told Ben he should post here and he said he will once he got back to his hotel.... Tis 2:20am here now, so doesn't seem likely

I find it really weird and ridiculously stupid that he told some people he busted twice whilst being honest with one/some others

Well now that it sounds like he possibly swapped/sold over 150% to at least the first bullet of the Venetian, I'm not sure I feel as great about getting my $1057.75 refund back...

And even his leaving Vegas is questionable to me. He told me earlier today (around 3PM-4PM Vegas time) that he was leaving "now" so couldn't handle the financials till later. But Jono makes it sound like he was around today?

Sigh.

Kidcardiff on here has been online since the thread was posted.

Just putting here for record-keeping: Ben contacted me just now and says he is going to give someone cash for me tomorrow at the Venetian for my refund. Will keep you guys updated.

The poker world is so messed up.

I am speaking to the individuals concerned firstly before posting more here.
I confirm Ive made a huge F*ck up and oversold on this tournament and will be refunding investors, I realise ive let down here everyone and myself, when ive spoken to everyone concerned i will write the full account.

Just going by the facts this looks really bad.

Sold at 1.25 in the main package then gets closer to the event and drops mu to 1.15 guess if he selling over 100% might as well get as much as possible at a lower mu. Busts early then has a phantom second bullet.

Sounds like the first bullet was punted and this was all premeditated.