The year 2020 may have been the strangest on record for most of us, but not even the threat of COVID-19 could stop the poker world from erupting in scandal every month or so. We had live cheating, online cheating, bizarre scams and some huge names involved in most of them, so here’s our countdown of the biggest poker scandals of 2020 in reverse order!
#5: Wann2play Disqualified from $1.35 Million WCOOP after 18 month investigation
We kick off with the result of a one-and-a-half-year investigation into the WCOOP Main Event, some suspicious play by the winner ‘wann2play’ eventually leading to a DQ this year.
Although PokerStars wouldn’t publicly comment on incident, the $1.35million in winnings were redistributed among the other prizewinners.
2018 WCOOP Main event winner “wann2play” account was frozen shortly after the tournament. Looks like his $1,352,267.97 was finally redistributed to the rest of the prize pool.
Looks like we have a new champion @EzequielWaigel 💪💪💪
— Max Silver (@max_silver) February 28, 2020
That meant Argentinian pro Ezequiel ‘Eze88888’ Waigel bumped up to the gold medal spot, with an extra $272,000 heading his way.
Waigel had lost the heads-up match with ‘wann2play’ after striking a deal, but later contacted the site with suspicions about his anonymous opponent, having discussed the tournament with other ‘well-known players’.
The final table included Linus ‘LLinusLLove’ Loeliger, Robby ‘PlayaPlz’ Lipkin, Michael ‘mczhang’ Zhang, and Noah ‘Exclusive’ Boeken.
The investigation finally concluded that the winner’s Dutch-registered account had reportedly ‘violated PokerStars’ terms of service’, believed to be related to multi-accounting.
#4: Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates named in Bill Perkins ghosting storm
Even bigger names were involved in our fourth biggest scandal of 2020, after Dan Bilzerian outed ‘Jungleman’ Dan Cates as the culprit who ghosted an amateur’s account in games with highstakes player Bill Perkins.
Perkins had taken to Twitter in a rage after finding out he had been hoodwinked, believing he was playing a ‘fish’ in ‘an invite only game for 500/1k 1k ante’ on an online poker app.
Settlement w/ 1 participant gave my word I would not Publicly reveal UNLESS they lied during questions
Game: Private
App: download for friends
Cheating: pros playing for fish account (so far)
Participants #: unknown now
Investigation: Ongoing
Evidence: confession/physical https://t.co/HoUiPDs7BR— Bill Perkins (Guy) (@bp22) May 24, 2020
While Perkins was beating about the bush, Dan Bilzerian stepped up to the plate and outed the dastardly duo behind the ghosting, later deleting the tweet but not before half the poker world had read it…
‘This cocksucker Sina Taleb cheated me, @bp22 and others outta money on Fun Ocean poker app by having @junglemandan play on his account…
Having been publicly named and shamed, Jungleman eventually fessed up and apologised to Perkins, though still claiming he thought it was acceptable to ghost in that game.
“I played very few hands against Bill Perkins, who sat in a game I understood was rampant with professionals who were ghosting,” said Cates.
He added: “I thought since many on the site were using pros to play for them (which was clear by the uniquely high level of play) at the time it felt acceptable for me to be playing.”
You forgive those who attacked your integrity by claiming you did the thing you’re admitting to doing?
— TonyDunstTV (@tonydunsttv) May 27, 2020
#3: Midway Poker Tour in silver coin payout scandal
We’ve encountered many a scam where winning players have found themselves short-changed, or worse, but this year saw a poker tour’s launch embroiled in a silver coins for cash scandal.
The Midway Poker Tour seemed like a respectable and welcome new addition to the Chicago tournament scene, with players eagerly joining in the $1100 buy-in, $100k GTD inaugural event, a charity due to benefit from it and PokerNews reporter Chad Holloway on hand to report.
Those reports soon turned from glowing into, well, gleaming, as news filtered through that the organisers would be unable to pay out in cold, hard cash due to Illinois charity laws.
Instead, Daniel Bekavac had a plan, and that involved buying more than $200k of precious metals in coin, the numbers scribbled on a sheet of paper…
…with the payout desk looking something like this…
I probably wasn’t supposed to take this photo in the secured area, but this is what it looks like to be paid in precious metals. pic.twitter.com/7RjT7adn3z
— Chad Holloway (@ChadAHolloway) October 4, 2020
Not ideal, but perhaps not a problem if the players could sell the silver back at the correct value, but it transpired that Bekavac, pictured below with another scam hanging over his head, had paid way over the odds for the coins.
The biggest loser was event winner Renato Spahiu, his expected $55,060 win turning into $1600 in cash and $37k for his coins – some $16k still outstanding at last count.
Others are apparently still waiting for Bekavac to make good on his promise to square them up for the ‘absolute shitshow’, and goes to show that all that glitters is definitely not gold.
#2: Fedor Kruse admits to RTA cheating on live stream
The issue of Real-Time Assistance has plagued the game of online poker for a while now, and one of this year’s biggest scandals saw Fedor ‘GlitchSystem’ Kruse confess to cheating.
The scandalous news started as anonymous claims on a poker forum, staying that Kruse had ‘thousands and thousands of sims of all possible cash game spots presolved in a well organize set of folders, to be able to just open the sim and follow the solver advice in every single spot.’
His flatmates spilled the beans and photos were shared of Kruse’s reputed ‘dream machine’ setup – ‘two PCs, two sets of keyboard and mouse’ to bypass online poker sites safety protocols.
Henri Buehler was dragged into the story, having backed Kruse and made at least $42k from his friend’s rapid rise through the stakes. Buehler was sacked by DTO Poker Trainer on the back of the claims.
Despite initially refuting the allegations, Kruse later answered questions during a stream of Call of Duty, a game that also saw him embroiled in a cheating scandal while a teenager.
He admitted during the stream: “My RTA was far worse than the one my opponents were using,” adding: “Online poker is dead. I know many RTA users but they won’t get reported cause they don’t got ****ed roommates.”
#1: Mike Postle cheating scandal case dismissed in unbelievable court decision!
It was the biggest scandal of 2019 and it retains top place this year as the fate of Mike Postle resulted in an incredible ‘get out of jail free card’ for the alleged cheat…
Not that Postle was actually facing prison time, but he was looking at a $30million lawsuit after close to 100 poker players took him to court over alleged cheating in livestreamed cash games at Stones Gambling Hall in 2019.
When the case wound its way through the courts, however, it was left to chief whistleblower in the Postlegate affair, Veronica ‘Angry_Polak’ Brill to share the devastating news…
The case got dismissed
— Veronica BLM (@Angry_Polak) June 3, 2020
Case dismissed was the least expected outcome, and Postle soon went on the attack himself – launching his own $330million defamation lawsuit against many of the big names who had spoken out against him.
This will be drowned out by the Trump news, but Mike Postle is suing me, @Angry_Polak, @ESPN, @Pokernews, @PhilGalfond, @haralabob, @BartHanson, @RealKidPoker, @JonathanLittle, @Joeingram1, and @DougPolkVids for defamation.
Suit is obviously frivolous and I will fight it. pic.twitter.com/JiZANp3mWH
— Todd Witteles (@ToddWitteles) October 2, 2020
Although many of those Postle was targeting in revenge have deep pockets, Bill Perkins stepped up to the financial plate for those who might not have the means to put up a defence.
And that’s the state of play as 2020 comes to an end, but what will 2021 have in store for the poker world?
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