It\u2019s worth mentioning that this list of the biggest\npoker scandals isn\u2019t numbered by magnitude, as depending on how they affectected\nsomeone, every player will have an opinion on which is the most significant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Black Friday<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nAlthough it\u2019s been covered extensively in\ncountless blogs, articles, and op-eds, you can\u2019t write about major poker\nscandals without mentioning Black Friday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my opinion, this is easily the biggest\nscandal the poker community has ever witnessed, and it affected countless\nplayers all over the globe. Its aftermath also had huge implications on the\noverall development of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of you have probably at least heard the\nstory if not experienced it first hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On April 11, 2011, the US Department of Justice unsealed indictments against three of the largest poker sites at the time: PokerStars, Absolute Poker \/ Ultimate Bet, and Full Tilt<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAccusing them of violating the UIGEA, the DoJ seized the sites\u2019 domains, leaving the entire poker world in a state of shock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Black](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/blackfriday.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nPlayers were cut off from their funds, and the\nweeks and months to follow were a very difficult period for many professional\nplayers who had their bankrolls stuck on one of these sites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robbed of their money and without access to the\ngames, the future looked bleak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PokerStars was the first and, as it turned out,\nthe only room to actually recover from this blow. The rest of the world players\nwere soon able to access the site and their funds, and it was business as\nusual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, US players had to wait quite some time\nto get their money back, but PokerStars made everyone whole in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Full Tilt, once the major brand was backed\nby some of the biggest names in the industry, this was the end of the road as\nit turned out the room didn\u2019t actually have money readily available to\nreimburse players. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DoJ investigation discovered that the site\nwas operating a kind of Ponzi scheme that came to a sudden halt with Black\nFriday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Key people behind the operation, Russ Hamilton, Chris Ferguson, and Howard Lederer, once respected members of the community, became symbols for everything that\u2019s wrong with online poker<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAlthough all players were eventually repaid\nwhen PokerStars purchased the Full Tilt brand, the poker community never\nforgave the Full Tilt honchos for everything they put them through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Absolute Poker was a total fiasco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They never recovered from Black Friday, and\nplayers kept waiting for their funds to no avail. Finally, in 2017, the\nrepayment process began using money left over from the Full Tilt repayment\nfund. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some lucky players managed to get some of their\nmoney but this has been an extremely slow process, and it seems that many of\nthe AP victims will never see the day when their money is paid back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To this day, Black Friday remains the biggest\nand most impactful poker scandal of all time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to all the financial issues, it\neffectively cut the US from the rest of the world player pool, pushing out\nthree of the biggest rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This has forever changed the online poker\nlandscape, and not much has improved since. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although some US states have legalized online\npoker, players from the States are unable to play with anyone outside of the\nUSA borders, or at least they can\u2019t do so legally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are some smaller rooms that still cater\nto the US market, but they can\u2019t compare in size or importance to PokerStars\nand what used to be Full Tilt Poker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Lock Poker Demise<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"Lock](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/lock_ppoker.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAlthough it may not have been nearly as huge as\nBlack Friday, the Lock Poker scandal is pretty much a direct consequence of\nhappenings in 2011. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once major rooms were forced to leave the US\nmarket, many smaller outlets saw their opportunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For smaller rooms like Lock Poker, this was\nworth the risk as it was an excellent way to increase their liquidity by\ncatering to poker-deprived US customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To kick things off, they launched a series of great promotions, offering heaps of additional value for the players who decided to take their action there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With alternatives being scarce and promises sounding too good to refuse, many US players and the rest of the world alike flocked to Lock Poker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The room managed to keep things together for a\nfew years, but it wasn\u2019t long before problems started to arise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, the room started going back on their\npromotional promises, retroactively adding terms and conditions that\neffectively prevented players from actually cashing out their extra funds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many players tried to get their funds out while\nthey still could, although very few managed to cash out in full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, in April of 2015, the whole thing came to\na crushing end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Players hadn\u2019t been able to get their money out\nsince April of 2014 by this point, and it was only a matter of time before Lock\nPoker would throw in the towel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the site finally shut down, traffic was at\nits all-time low, with Poker Scout reporting a 7-day average of 10 ring game\nplayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s unclear just how much money disappeared\ntogether with Lock Poker, but the estimate seems to be around $15 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike the Black Friday scandal, though, where\na majority of players got paid in full or at least partially in the end, this\n$15 million disappeared into thin air. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those who had funds on the site have had no\nluck in getting any of it back, and with so much time passed by already, this\nis unlikely to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Absolute Poker And Ultimate Bet Super-User Scandals<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nAnother poker scandal that shook the very core\nof the community took place a few years before Black Friday and, not\nsurprisingly, it involved two rooms that were first to hit the muck after April\n11, 2011. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, the rooms in question are Absolute\nPoker (AP) and Ultimate Bet (UB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In September of 2007, accusations from players started to emerge that someone playing on Absolute Poker had access to a super-user account and could see other players\u2019 hole cards<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not long\nafter, in January of 2008, similar accusations were made concerning Ultimate\nBet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the AP incident, players performed a\ndetailed analysis of the hands of the player going under the now-infamous\n\u201cPOTRIPPER\u201d alias. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After reviewing hand histories, it became very\nclear that \u201cPOTRIPPER\u201d could somehow see \u201cthrough\u201d the cards as his decisions\nin many spots just didn\u2019t seem normal or natural. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He always knew when to bluff<\/a>, when to throw away a hand, and when to bet big when their opponents had strong but second-best holdings. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the end, Absolute Poker admitted the\nexistence of super-user accounts and ended up repaying players $1.6 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a big amount to be sure but nothing\ncompared to what surfaced a little while later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the start of 2008, players raised similar\nred flags for a player playing as \u201cNioNio\u201d – this time over at Ultimate Bet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The amount of evidence was sufficient to trigger an investigation by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission<\/a>, and their discovery was quite shocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Commission concluded that there was indeed\ncheating going on, and it was going on for quite some time \u2013 since January of\n2005. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was also determined that the man behind the\nwhole super-user scheme at UB was Russ Hamilton, and the damage done through\nthese activities was estimated to be over $20 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Russ](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Russ-Hamilton.jpeg\")
Russ Hamilton. [Image: Cardschat]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nLater on, a recording of a phone conversation\nemerged, in which Hamilton admitted that he was the one behind the whole\nscheme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This pretty much marked the end of his career\nin the poker world and he never made any attempt to repay any of the money that\nwas stolen from the players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The AP and UB scandals created a big uproar in\nthe community and seriously shook player faith in online poker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If it was that easy for someone to steal so\nmuch money from the tables and almost get away with it, how could you ever be\nsure you\u2019re playing in a fair online game? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What happened on AP and UB was definitely a big\nsetback for online poker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Epic Poker League Fiasco<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nThe Epic Poker League was envisioned as the ultimate competition for the best of the best and was created by Annie Duke<\/a>, Howard Lederer\u2019s sister, and Jeffrey Pollack. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe league was set to be a mix of paid events\nculminating in a $1 million freeroll. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time the Epic League was born early in\n2011, this seemed like a feasible idea, but then Black Friday struck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the end, only three of the four scheduled\nevents took place, and the promised $1 million freeroll never happened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The organization filed for bankruptcy in\nFebruary of 2012, and it was pretty much the end of the road for the Epic\nLeague. At the time of the filing, the EPL had an outstanding debt of over $5\nmillion, so things clearly didn\u2019t go as planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many in the community blamed Pollack and Duke\nfor this turn of events, although it must be admitted they were victims of\ncircumstances at least to some degree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to Black Friday, televised poker was\ngoing strong, with many companies interested in sponsoring TV shows with poker\nthemes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once the US market was pretty much cut off, the\ninterest suddenly disappeared, so finding sponsors must have been a real\nchallenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the end, it was a nice idea, but it came at\nthe wrong time, and instead of being epic, it turned into one of the bigger and\nbetter-known poker scandals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although players didn\u2019t lose any of their own\nmoney in the process, many felt scammed because they never got a chance to play\nfor the share of the promised $1 million prize pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Jamie Gold Backing Scandal<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nThere is hardly a poker fan out there who doesn\u2019t know who Jamie Gold<\/a> is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Jamie](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jamie-Gold-Then.jpg\")
Image: jamiegold.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLoud, confident, and sometimes annoying, Gold\nmanaged to find his way to the WSOP Main Event gold bracelet in 2006, winning\n$12 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a huge amount of money, but as it turned\nout, not all of it was Jamie\u2019s to keep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the tournament was over, it came to light\nthat he had an agreement with Crispin Leyser, who actually put him in the\nevent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In exchange for this, Gold promised half of his\nwinnings to Leyser, probably not even dreaming that the half would turn out to\nbe $6 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he refused to pay, Leyser took things to\ncourt and was able to block Gold from receiving $6 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the key pieces of evidence was a\nvoicemail sent to Leyser on the final day of the Main Event, in which he\npromised him his half of the winnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Failing to lift the restraining order on the\nsecond half of his winnings, the 2006 WSOP champion decided the best way to\nresolve the matter was to settle with Leyser privately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The settlement happened in 2007, but there were\nno details pertaining to just how much Gold had to give up in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once the whole thing was resolved, Jamie Gold came\nout stating it was all a big misunderstanding and that he had never intended to\ngo back on his word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Poker \u201cProdigy\u201d Busted As A Cheater<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nThe poker world has seen its fair share of\nprodigies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Players like Tom Dwan<\/a>, Isildur1<\/a>, or Annette Obrestad<\/a> seem to pop out of nowhere and wreak havoc on the tables, leaving their opponents scratching their heads. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSo, when another such prodigy emerged in 2010, the\npoker world was intrigued but hardly shocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, for the young Portuguese player Jose \u201cGirah\u201d Macedo<\/a>, the poker fame was of short breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"jose](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/jose-girah-macedo-1024x673.png\")
Image: Twitter\/maisev<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nMacedo\u2019s initial fame was largely due to the fact Dan \u201cJungleman\u201d Cates<\/a>, a well-known high-stakes pro, had endorsed him and took him under his wing as one of his students. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCates was convinced that \u201cGirah\u201d was an actual\npoker prodigy, and the two had seemingly built a very close personal\nrelationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Macedo\u2019s rise to poker fame started in 2010,\nand he quickly progressed through the limits. He started playing while he was\nstill underage, so his identity was kept secret for a while. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eventually, though, when he finally turned 18,\nthe young Portuguese came out with his story, and it was an impressive one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, it wasn\u2019t long before the first murky\ndetails surrounding Macedo started to surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The young prodigy was a member of several\nstrategy groups and had built relationships with members of the high stakes\ncommunity over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was quite normal and common until Macedo\nstarted to convince other players in these groups to sit down and play someone\ngoing under the alias \u201csauron1989\u201d, and \u201cGirah\u201d insisted on sweating players\nvia Skype, which allowed him to see their whole cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, no one was suspicious as high stakes\nplayers sweat each other all the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, as time progressed, more and more eyebrows\nstarted to rise. The \u201cfish\u201d seemed to play perfect poker all the time and ended\nup winning against everyone Macedo sent their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Players started their investigation into the\nmatter, and they quickly recognized certain unusual patterns with regards to\n\u201cGirah\u201d and \u201csauron1989\u201d who would always log on and off their Skype accounts\nat the same time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the evidence against him building up,\nMacedo decided to pull the plug and came out clean in a blog post published in\n2011 in which he confessed he was colluding with \u201csauron1989,\u201d giving him the\ninformation about hole cards of the players he was sweating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With this kind of information, even a fish\ncould easily beat the best in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many were perplexed as to why Macedo would do\nsuch a thing as his career was going the right way, and the amount in question\nwasn\u2019t all that big at the end (around $30,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His only explanation was that he introduced\nthis friend to poker, and he was really terrible at it and kept losing money,\nso he felt guilty and wanted to make up for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Was this the whole truth? Who knows! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shortly after, Macedo disappeared from the\npoker world, and the announced \u201cprodigy\u201d was gone. Why did he decide to throw\naway a promising career in poker just like that? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a veil of mystery surrounding\neverything around Jose \u201cGirah\u201d Macedo, but it doesn\u2019t seem likely that the\ncommunity will get any further answers or clarifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7. Chris Ferguson Returns To WSOP<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nBlack Friday and its aftermath left many\nplayers in an unenviable situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without access to their funds and not knowing\nwhat tomorrow might bring, those who put their trust and money with Full Tilt\nPoker felt betrayed, disappointed, and angry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the while, those responsible, including once-loved Chris \u201cJesus\u201d Ferguson<\/a>, were nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAlthough Ferguson may not have been privy to\neverything that was going on, he had to know at least some of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The community expected at least an apology or\nan expression of regrets of some sort, but it never came. Chris disappeared from\nthe public eye, and no one heard from him in the years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, out of the blue, Ferguson made an\nappearance for the 2016 World Series of Poker as if nothing had happened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He simply came to play just like other\nthousands of players in Las Vegas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reaction from the poker community was\nanything but positive. While there were clearly some players who didn\u2019t care,\nmany of those who were affected by the events of Black Friday, including some\nwell-known names, were outraged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were calling for the WSOP officials to do\nsomething and stop Ferguson from playing as they felt he had no place at the\nWSOP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, people running the Series felt that whatever\n\u201cJesus\u201d did or didn\u2019t do had nothing to do with the WSOP, at least from the\nlegal perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The outrage that ensued on Twitter didn\u2019t seem\nto bother Ferguson, as he entered many events that year and had quite a few\nsolid results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He avoided the media and their questions,\nrefusing to speak about the situation from 2011 and focused on the grind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ferguson returned for the 2017 WSOP as well and\nactually proceeded to seize the Player of the Year title, which further\ninfuriated a part of the community, but there wasn\u2019t much anyone could do about\nit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whatever anyone might think of \u201cJesus\u201d as a\nperson, he\u2019s always been a pretty good player and it seemed he was back at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2018, Ferguson did upload a short apology\nvideo directed at the community, which was received with mixed reactions. Many\nsaw it as too little, too late. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chris-ferguson-apology.jpeg\")
Image: Twitter\/pokerlolz <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nBut in that video, \u201cJesus\u201d did say that the\nfull story of Full Tilt will be told one day, and he was looking forward to it.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So who knows?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8. Pitbull Poker Controversy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nThose new to online poker have probably never\nheard of Pitbull Poker. This was an online room that was operational from 2004\nto 2009 and offered an instant-play site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While very unusual for the time, it helped the\nroom get some traction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pitbull was never a big brand name in the\nindustry, but they had some nice bonuses and the instant-play platform in an\nenvironment where the whole online poker thing was pretty new in general. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, many players didn\u2019t know what to look for\nor expect and were more willing to experiment than they are today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was probably because of this that the room\ncould get away with what they were doing for so long. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Namely, when the scheme was finally discovered,\nit turned out there was \u201cpot shaving\u201d happening at cash tables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What this means is that the room collected the usual rake<\/a> from the pots and then an arbitrary amount on top of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLate in 2009, when the scandal got out and\nplayers became massively aware of the sham, Pitbull poker simply disappeared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It happened pretty much overnight. Even the\nemployees at their office in Costa Rica had no idea what was going on. They\nwere sent home one day under false pretenses and came back the next day to an\nempty space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No one knows for sure how much money the room\nstole from the players over the years, but whoever was behind the operation\nclearly got away with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Something like this could hardly happen today,\nbut it was a different time back then as players didn\u2019t have access to so much\ninformation, and the regulation was nothing like today\u2019s levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
9. WCOOP Winner Stripped Of Their Title<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nIn online poker, the WCOOP Main Event is pretty\nmuch the equivalent of the WSOP Main Event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Winning is a pretty big deal, and the winners\ndon\u2019t get to fly under the radar, which is probably what got Mark Teltscher in\ntrouble back in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Namely, in that 2007 WCOOP Main Event, a player\ngoing under an alias \u201cTheVOid\u201d went on to defeat the field of almost 3,000\nplayers, claiming the prestigious title and just shy of $1.4 million in prize\nmoney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then it turned out that the player behind this\nalias was Natalie Teltscher, Mark\u2019s sister, which raised a huge red flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PokerStars launched an investigation and their\nconclusions were pretty damning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It turned out Teltscher had several accounts\nregistered under different names. Multi-accounting is a big no-no in online\npoker, and when PokerStars gathered enough evidence to be sure of their\nconclusion, they decided to disqualify him completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was great news for the rest of the final\ntable as everybody got to move up a spot, significantly increasing their\npayday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
10. The Postlegate<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/mike-postle.jpeg\")
Image: Cardplayer via Casino.org News<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe last on this list of poker scandals\nactually took place relatively recently, in 2019, and it was easily the biggest\npoker story of the year (albeit for all the wrong reasons). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whole thing took place in a relatively\nunknown Stones Gambling Hall, which had got with the times and started\nstreaming their games live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the group of many different players who\nparticipated in the games at the Stones, one name stood out \u2013 Mike Postle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
No matter the setup, Postle was seemingly\nalways the best player at the table, making incredible reads, crazy (but\nsuccessful) plays, and winning pretty much all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Had all of this not been streamed live and\ncovered with commentary, perhaps the whole story would have never surfaced.\nBut, it was there for all to see, and one day things started to unravel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was Veronica Brill, a frequent guest on the\nStones\u2019 podcast, that came out first with her suspicions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After her, several other community members got\ninvolved, and they started going through dozens of hours of live footage,\ndissecting Postle\u2019s hands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The more they did it, the more apparent it\nbecame that something wasn\u2019t adding up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Postle was playing like a super-human who\nalmost always knew exactly where he was in hand regardless of the way the\naction went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Players accused Postle of cheating, and the\nworking theory was that someone on the inside sent the information about hole\ncards to his phone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the cards are revealed on stream with\ndelay, someone higher up could have potentially sent the information to Postle\nin real-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the Stones and Postle negated all the accusations, the entire matter ended up in court<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Postlegate affair, as it came to be known, went on for a couple of years before Postle beat a $30 million civil lawsuit<\/a> after nearly 90 fellow players accused him of cheating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Accusing them of violating the UIGEA, the DoJ seized the sites\u2019 domains, leaving the entire poker world in a state of shock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Players were cut off from their funds, and the\nweeks and months to follow were a very difficult period for many professional\nplayers who had their bankrolls stuck on one of these sites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Robbed of their money and without access to the\ngames, the future looked bleak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PokerStars was the first and, as it turned out,\nthe only room to actually recover from this blow. The rest of the world players\nwere soon able to access the site and their funds, and it was business as\nusual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, US players had to wait quite some time\nto get their money back, but PokerStars made everyone whole in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Full Tilt, once the major brand was backed\nby some of the biggest names in the industry, this was the end of the road as\nit turned out the room didn\u2019t actually have money readily available to\nreimburse players. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The DoJ investigation discovered that the site\nwas operating a kind of Ponzi scheme that came to a sudden halt with Black\nFriday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Key people behind the operation, Russ Hamilton, Chris Ferguson, and Howard Lederer, once respected members of the community, became symbols for everything that\u2019s wrong with online poker<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although all players were eventually repaid\nwhen PokerStars purchased the Full Tilt brand, the poker community never\nforgave the Full Tilt honchos for everything they put them through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Absolute Poker was a total fiasco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They never recovered from Black Friday, and\nplayers kept waiting for their funds to no avail. Finally, in 2017, the\nrepayment process began using money left over from the Full Tilt repayment\nfund. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some lucky players managed to get some of their\nmoney but this has been an extremely slow process, and it seems that many of\nthe AP victims will never see the day when their money is paid back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To this day, Black Friday remains the biggest\nand most impactful poker scandal of all time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to all the financial issues, it\neffectively cut the US from the rest of the world player pool, pushing out\nthree of the biggest rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This has forever changed the online poker\nlandscape, and not much has improved since. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although some US states have legalized online\npoker, players from the States are unable to play with anyone outside of the\nUSA borders, or at least they can\u2019t do so legally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are some smaller rooms that still cater\nto the US market, but they can\u2019t compare in size or importance to PokerStars\nand what used to be Full Tilt Poker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although it may not have been nearly as huge as\nBlack Friday, the Lock Poker scandal is pretty much a direct consequence of\nhappenings in 2011. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once major rooms were forced to leave the US\nmarket, many smaller outlets saw their opportunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For smaller rooms like Lock Poker, this was\nworth the risk as it was an excellent way to increase their liquidity by\ncatering to poker-deprived US customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To kick things off, they launched a series of great promotions, offering heaps of additional value for the players who decided to take their action there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With alternatives being scarce and promises sounding too good to refuse, many US players and the rest of the world alike flocked to Lock Poker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The room managed to keep things together for a\nfew years, but it wasn\u2019t long before problems started to arise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n First, the room started going back on their\npromotional promises, retroactively adding terms and conditions that\neffectively prevented players from actually cashing out their extra funds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many players tried to get their funds out while\nthey still could, although very few managed to cash out in full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, in April of 2015, the whole thing came to\na crushing end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Players hadn\u2019t been able to get their money out\nsince April of 2014 by this point, and it was only a matter of time before Lock\nPoker would throw in the towel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When the site finally shut down, traffic was at\nits all-time low, with Poker Scout reporting a 7-day average of 10 ring game\nplayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s unclear just how much money disappeared\ntogether with Lock Poker, but the estimate seems to be around $15 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike the Black Friday scandal, though, where\na majority of players got paid in full or at least partially in the end, this\n$15 million disappeared into thin air. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Those who had funds on the site have had no\nluck in getting any of it back, and with so much time passed by already, this\nis unlikely to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another poker scandal that shook the very core\nof the community took place a few years before Black Friday and, not\nsurprisingly, it involved two rooms that were first to hit the muck after April\n11, 2011. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, the rooms in question are Absolute\nPoker (AP) and Ultimate Bet (UB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In September of 2007, accusations from players started to emerge that someone playing on Absolute Poker had access to a super-user account and could see other players\u2019 hole cards<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not long\nafter, in January of 2008, similar accusations were made concerning Ultimate\nBet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the AP incident, players performed a\ndetailed analysis of the hands of the player going under the now-infamous\n\u201cPOTRIPPER\u201d alias. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After reviewing hand histories, it became very\nclear that \u201cPOTRIPPER\u201d could somehow see \u201cthrough\u201d the cards as his decisions\nin many spots just didn\u2019t seem normal or natural. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He always knew when to bluff<\/a>, when to throw away a hand, and when to bet big when their opponents had strong but second-best holdings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, Absolute Poker admitted the\nexistence of super-user accounts and ended up repaying players $1.6 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a big amount to be sure but nothing\ncompared to what surfaced a little while later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the start of 2008, players raised similar\nred flags for a player playing as \u201cNioNio\u201d – this time over at Ultimate Bet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The amount of evidence was sufficient to trigger an investigation by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission<\/a>, and their discovery was quite shocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Commission concluded that there was indeed\ncheating going on, and it was going on for quite some time \u2013 since January of\n2005. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was also determined that the man behind the\nwhole super-user scheme at UB was Russ Hamilton, and the damage done through\nthese activities was estimated to be over $20 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later on, a recording of a phone conversation\nemerged, in which Hamilton admitted that he was the one behind the whole\nscheme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This pretty much marked the end of his career\nin the poker world and he never made any attempt to repay any of the money that\nwas stolen from the players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The AP and UB scandals created a big uproar in\nthe community and seriously shook player faith in online poker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If it was that easy for someone to steal so\nmuch money from the tables and almost get away with it, how could you ever be\nsure you\u2019re playing in a fair online game? <\/p>\n\n\n\n What happened on AP and UB was definitely a big\nsetback for online poker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Epic Poker League was envisioned as the ultimate competition for the best of the best and was created by Annie Duke<\/a>, Howard Lederer\u2019s sister, and Jeffrey Pollack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The league was set to be a mix of paid events\nculminating in a $1 million freeroll. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time the Epic League was born early in\n2011, this seemed like a feasible idea, but then Black Friday struck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, only three of the four scheduled\nevents took place, and the promised $1 million freeroll never happened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The organization filed for bankruptcy in\nFebruary of 2012, and it was pretty much the end of the road for the Epic\nLeague. At the time of the filing, the EPL had an outstanding debt of over $5\nmillion, so things clearly didn\u2019t go as planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many in the community blamed Pollack and Duke\nfor this turn of events, although it must be admitted they were victims of\ncircumstances at least to some degree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Prior to Black Friday, televised poker was\ngoing strong, with many companies interested in sponsoring TV shows with poker\nthemes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the US market was pretty much cut off, the\ninterest suddenly disappeared, so finding sponsors must have been a real\nchallenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, it was a nice idea, but it came at\nthe wrong time, and instead of being epic, it turned into one of the bigger and\nbetter-known poker scandals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although players didn\u2019t lose any of their own\nmoney in the process, many felt scammed because they never got a chance to play\nfor the share of the promised $1 million prize pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is hardly a poker fan out there who doesn\u2019t know who Jamie Gold<\/a> is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Loud, confident, and sometimes annoying, Gold\nmanaged to find his way to the WSOP Main Event gold bracelet in 2006, winning\n$12 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a huge amount of money, but as it turned\nout, not all of it was Jamie\u2019s to keep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the tournament was over, it came to light\nthat he had an agreement with Crispin Leyser, who actually put him in the\nevent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In exchange for this, Gold promised half of his\nwinnings to Leyser, probably not even dreaming that the half would turn out to\nbe $6 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When he refused to pay, Leyser took things to\ncourt and was able to block Gold from receiving $6 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the key pieces of evidence was a\nvoicemail sent to Leyser on the final day of the Main Event, in which he\npromised him his half of the winnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Failing to lift the restraining order on the\nsecond half of his winnings, the 2006 WSOP champion decided the best way to\nresolve the matter was to settle with Leyser privately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The settlement happened in 2007, but there were\nno details pertaining to just how much Gold had to give up in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the whole thing was resolved, Jamie Gold came\nout stating it was all a big misunderstanding and that he had never intended to\ngo back on his word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The poker world has seen its fair share of\nprodigies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Players like Tom Dwan<\/a>, Isildur1<\/a>, or Annette Obrestad<\/a> seem to pop out of nowhere and wreak havoc on the tables, leaving their opponents scratching their heads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, when another such prodigy emerged in 2010, the\npoker world was intrigued but hardly shocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, for the young Portuguese player Jose \u201cGirah\u201d Macedo<\/a>, the poker fame was of short breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Macedo\u2019s initial fame was largely due to the fact Dan \u201cJungleman\u201d Cates<\/a>, a well-known high-stakes pro, had endorsed him and took him under his wing as one of his students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cates was convinced that \u201cGirah\u201d was an actual\npoker prodigy, and the two had seemingly built a very close personal\nrelationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Macedo\u2019s rise to poker fame started in 2010,\nand he quickly progressed through the limits. He started playing while he was\nstill underage, so his identity was kept secret for a while. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, though, when he finally turned 18,\nthe young Portuguese came out with his story, and it was an impressive one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, it wasn\u2019t long before the first murky\ndetails surrounding Macedo started to surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The young prodigy was a member of several\nstrategy groups and had built relationships with members of the high stakes\ncommunity over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This was quite normal and common until Macedo\nstarted to convince other players in these groups to sit down and play someone\ngoing under the alias \u201csauron1989\u201d, and \u201cGirah\u201d insisted on sweating players\nvia Skype, which allowed him to see their whole cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first, no one was suspicious as high stakes\nplayers sweat each other all the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, as time progressed, more and more eyebrows\nstarted to rise. The \u201cfish\u201d seemed to play perfect poker all the time and ended\nup winning against everyone Macedo sent their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Players started their investigation into the\nmatter, and they quickly recognized certain unusual patterns with regards to\n\u201cGirah\u201d and \u201csauron1989\u201d who would always log on and off their Skype accounts\nat the same time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With the evidence against him building up,\nMacedo decided to pull the plug and came out clean in a blog post published in\n2011 in which he confessed he was colluding with \u201csauron1989,\u201d giving him the\ninformation about hole cards of the players he was sweating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With this kind of information, even a fish\ncould easily beat the best in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many were perplexed as to why Macedo would do\nsuch a thing as his career was going the right way, and the amount in question\nwasn\u2019t all that big at the end (around $30,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n His only explanation was that he introduced\nthis friend to poker, and he was really terrible at it and kept losing money,\nso he felt guilty and wanted to make up for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Was this the whole truth? Who knows! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shortly after, Macedo disappeared from the\npoker world, and the announced \u201cprodigy\u201d was gone. Why did he decide to throw\naway a promising career in poker just like that? <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a veil of mystery surrounding\neverything around Jose \u201cGirah\u201d Macedo, but it doesn\u2019t seem likely that the\ncommunity will get any further answers or clarifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Black Friday and its aftermath left many\nplayers in an unenviable situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Without access to their funds and not knowing\nwhat tomorrow might bring, those who put their trust and money with Full Tilt\nPoker felt betrayed, disappointed, and angry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n All the while, those responsible, including once-loved Chris \u201cJesus\u201d Ferguson<\/a>, were nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Ferguson may not have been privy to\neverything that was going on, he had to know at least some of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The community expected at least an apology or\nan expression of regrets of some sort, but it never came. Chris disappeared from\nthe public eye, and no one heard from him in the years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, out of the blue, Ferguson made an\nappearance for the 2016 World Series of Poker as if nothing had happened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He simply came to play just like other\nthousands of players in Las Vegas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The reaction from the poker community was\nanything but positive. While there were clearly some players who didn\u2019t care,\nmany of those who were affected by the events of Black Friday, including some\nwell-known names, were outraged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They were calling for the WSOP officials to do\nsomething and stop Ferguson from playing as they felt he had no place at the\nWSOP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, people running the Series felt that whatever\n\u201cJesus\u201d did or didn\u2019t do had nothing to do with the WSOP, at least from the\nlegal perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The outrage that ensued on Twitter didn\u2019t seem\nto bother Ferguson, as he entered many events that year and had quite a few\nsolid results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He avoided the media and their questions,\nrefusing to speak about the situation from 2011 and focused on the grind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ferguson returned for the 2017 WSOP as well and\nactually proceeded to seize the Player of the Year title, which further\ninfuriated a part of the community, but there wasn\u2019t much anyone could do about\nit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever anyone might think of \u201cJesus\u201d as a\nperson, he\u2019s always been a pretty good player and it seemed he was back at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2018, Ferguson did upload a short apology\nvideo directed at the community, which was received with mixed reactions. Many\nsaw it as too little, too late. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But in that video, \u201cJesus\u201d did say that the\nfull story of Full Tilt will be told one day, and he was looking forward to it.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n So who knows?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those new to online poker have probably never\nheard of Pitbull Poker. This was an online room that was operational from 2004\nto 2009 and offered an instant-play site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While very unusual for the time, it helped the\nroom get some traction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pitbull was never a big brand name in the\nindustry, but they had some nice bonuses and the instant-play platform in an\nenvironment where the whole online poker thing was pretty new in general. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, many players didn\u2019t know what to look for\nor expect and were more willing to experiment than they are today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was probably because of this that the room\ncould get away with what they were doing for so long. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Namely, when the scheme was finally discovered,\nit turned out there was \u201cpot shaving\u201d happening at cash tables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What this means is that the room collected the usual rake<\/a> from the pots and then an arbitrary amount on top of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Late in 2009, when the scandal got out and\nplayers became massively aware of the sham, Pitbull poker simply disappeared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It happened pretty much overnight. Even the\nemployees at their office in Costa Rica had no idea what was going on. They\nwere sent home one day under false pretenses and came back the next day to an\nempty space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No one knows for sure how much money the room\nstole from the players over the years, but whoever was behind the operation\nclearly got away with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Something like this could hardly happen today,\nbut it was a different time back then as players didn\u2019t have access to so much\ninformation, and the regulation was nothing like today\u2019s levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In online poker, the WCOOP Main Event is pretty\nmuch the equivalent of the WSOP Main Event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Winning is a pretty big deal, and the winners\ndon\u2019t get to fly under the radar, which is probably what got Mark Teltscher in\ntrouble back in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Namely, in that 2007 WCOOP Main Event, a player\ngoing under an alias \u201cTheVOid\u201d went on to defeat the field of almost 3,000\nplayers, claiming the prestigious title and just shy of $1.4 million in prize\nmoney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then it turned out that the player behind this\nalias was Natalie Teltscher, Mark\u2019s sister, which raised a huge red flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PokerStars launched an investigation and their\nconclusions were pretty damning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It turned out Teltscher had several accounts\nregistered under different names. Multi-accounting is a big no-no in online\npoker, and when PokerStars gathered enough evidence to be sure of their\nconclusion, they decided to disqualify him completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was great news for the rest of the final\ntable as everybody got to move up a spot, significantly increasing their\npayday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The last on this list of poker scandals\nactually took place relatively recently, in 2019, and it was easily the biggest\npoker story of the year (albeit for all the wrong reasons). <\/p>\n\n\n\n The whole thing took place in a relatively\nunknown Stones Gambling Hall, which had got with the times and started\nstreaming their games live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the group of many different players who\nparticipated in the games at the Stones, one name stood out \u2013 Mike Postle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n No matter the setup, Postle was seemingly\nalways the best player at the table, making incredible reads, crazy (but\nsuccessful) plays, and winning pretty much all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Had all of this not been streamed live and\ncovered with commentary, perhaps the whole story would have never surfaced.\nBut, it was there for all to see, and one day things started to unravel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was Veronica Brill, a frequent guest on the\nStones\u2019 podcast, that came out first with her suspicions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After her, several other community members got\ninvolved, and they started going through dozens of hours of live footage,\ndissecting Postle\u2019s hands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The more they did it, the more apparent it\nbecame that something wasn\u2019t adding up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Postle was playing like a super-human who\nalmost always knew exactly where he was in hand regardless of the way the\naction went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Players accused Postle of cheating, and the\nworking theory was that someone on the inside sent the information about hole\ncards to his phone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the cards are revealed on stream with\ndelay, someone higher up could have potentially sent the information to Postle\nin real-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the Stones and Postle negated all the accusations, the entire matter ended up in court<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Postlegate affair, as it came to be known, went on for a couple of years before Postle beat a $30 million civil lawsuit<\/a> after nearly 90 fellow players accused him of cheating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n2. Lock Poker Demise<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n3. Absolute Poker And Ultimate Bet Super-User Scandals<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. Epic Poker League Fiasco<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
5. Jamie Gold Backing Scandal<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
6. Poker \u201cProdigy\u201d Busted As A Cheater<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
7. Chris Ferguson Returns To WSOP<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
8. Pitbull Poker Controversy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
9. WCOOP Winner Stripped Of Their Title<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
10. The Postlegate<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n