The two Brazilian highstakes pros accused of collusion by Fedor Holz have been cleared of wrongdoing after an 888Poker investigation found “no evidence of foul play”…
"After an in-depth analysis, we found that, apart from the hand we received complaints about, there is no evidence of foul play on your part. Your accounts are being reopened and we hope to see you back at our tables soon",This was @888poker's stance on @CrownUpGuy 's accusations pic.twitter.com/upete06oyU
— MundoPoker (@MundoPokerBr) January 3, 2022
As we reported last week, German superstar Holz sparked an almighty row when he pointed the finger at Brazilian pros Rodrigo “seijistar1” Seiji and Rodrigo “selouan1991” Selouan.
Holz claimed that Seiji chip-dumped after his UTG raise was met by Selouan’s short-stack shove. Seiji folded in a spot where Holz apparently believed it should be an instacall.
In case It isn’t clear, AJ folds. They probably weren’t aware it’s live-streamed with cards up.
— Fedor Holz 🐧 (@CrownUpGuy) December 25, 2021
The poker community was split on whether or not this single hand was an obvious collusion spot. Justin Bonomo and Jens Arends are among those with the chip-dumping take.
The player in the hijack seat in the hand in question, Panxetillo, tweeted: “That hand was very suspicious, I didn’t know they worked together in 9tales, so it makes sense now.
He added: “Thanks for expose this case, we have to kick out people who cheat and collusion for the sake of poker. I hope @888poker investigate this and take action. Cheers!”
With such a high-profile accuser as Holz leading the Twitter pitchfork mob, 888poker promised to look into the matter…
Any type of collusion is in clear violation of our user agreement.
We are reviewing this hand and others played between these two players. We are contacting the players to better understand their POV. We will be in touch with the players and act upon our investigation results.— 888poker (@888poker) December 25, 2021
…and it appears that the Brazilian duo, who denied any wrongdoing in the strongest of terms, had their accounts closed while the investigation took place.
In a vigorous defence, Selouan released chat messages from the 9Tales’ stable and pleaded his innocence on a partpoker.br Twitch podcast.
His friend and co-accused, Seiji, explained of the hand in question: “It is hard to make these decisions in game and I misjudged the situation… It is far from an “obvious call” as anyone with access to an ICM assessment program will identify.”
“No evidence of foul play…accounts reopened”
Ten days on from the initial drama, and the internal investigation has cleared both players of cheating, Brazilian poker site MundoPoker releasing the email received by Selouan.
The Google translation reads: “Dear Rodrigo, We are the 888poker Operations Team and we are contacting you regarding your account, whose username is “selouan1991”.
“After an in-depth analysis, we found that, apart from the hand we received complaints about, there is no evidence of foul play on your part. Your accounts are being reopened and we hope to see you back at our tables soon.
“We regret any inconvenience that the imposition of these restrictions may have caused, and we wish you the best of luck at the tables. Sincerely, Operations Team, 888poker”.
MundoPoker reported that Rodrigo Seiji received the same email, confirming his innocence and reopening his account.
Holz tried to backtrack on his collusion accusations. He said “I don’t think this automatically means they are cheating”, has yet to comment on the results of the investigation.
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