Highstakes pro Chris Brewer has publicly admitted to being banned by GGPoker, but insists he only used pre-flop charts rather than post-flop RTA (Real Time Assistance) software.
“I am banned, but I did not use RTA”
I am banned, but I did not use RTA. https://t.co/MSCoPdDc1h pic.twitter.com/C55EqHIblO
— Chris Brewer (@Chris_D_Brewer) May 2, 2022
Brewer is the second pro to admit to being banned by the online poker giants for breaching their rules, but like Sergei Reixach last week, Brewer insists that his only crime was to use pre-flop charts and a randomizer.
“It would have been impossible for me to RTA all these games,” claims Brewer, who says he played “PLO, short deck, NL cash and NL MTTs” for a few months during quarantine in 2020.
“I did use static pre-flop charts and a randomizer,” he admits, but says he never thought there was anything wrong in using these them.
“I believed it was commonplace across online poker,” says Brewer, who leapt to prominence late in 2020 with a string of live 6-figure scores in the Wynn High Rollers and the PokerGO tour.
With more than $4.7million in live cashes, relative newcomer Brewer is now accepted as one of the highstakes community’s best players, but accepts he violated GGPoker’s T&Cs and as such his ban was fair.
Brewer confessed: “I truly didn’t even realise it was against the rules, but that’s on me and my responsibility to know as someone playing highstakes.”
Brewer says he would welcome any investigation that would clear his name of using post-flop RTA, known to be a huge benefit and often involving a “dream machine” of pre-solved spots using GTO software, such as that used by Fedor Kruse.
Brewer’s admission and openness is in stark contrast to two players he was named alongside when the recent cheating accusations exploded with Alex Foxen’s outing of Ali Imsirovic.
Along with Jake Schindler, Imsirovic was not only accused of online cheating using RTA, but also live poker cheating by “rubbernecking” Paul Phua in the recent Super High Roller Bowl in Cyprus.
Ali opens the CO with Ah9c. Then quite visibly looks down at Paul Phua’s hole cards, Ad5. The actual footage makes it even more clear than this screen shot. Paul folds and Addamo defends the BB. Ali cbets and gets raised on 642ddd, sticks in a 3bet and wins the hand. pic.twitter.com/aIhQw4Hqv4
— Alex Foxen (@WAFoxen) April 18, 2022
The US-resident, Bosnian-born pro has yet to respond publicly to Foxen’s allegations, some of which were supported by Justin Bonomo, who says he lost more than $1million in the highstakes games on GGPoker.
Bryn Kenney was another big name accused of various forms of cheating recently, his former horse Martin Zamani claiming that Kenney knowingly ran a stable rife with RTA use, collusion and ghosting.
Zamani claimed that Kenney – who allegedly threatened Doug Polk with legal action – even partook in the cheating himself, although the all-time tournament money-winner refuted those allegations in an interview last week.
Amidst the allegations and accusations, Sergi “srxakgirona” Reixach was named by Zamani as a coach for Kenney. Zamani claimed Reixach not only regularly ghosted horses when they were deep in online MTTS, but also used RTA.
Reixach denied some of those claims last week, like Brewer issuing a statement via Twitter, although like Brewer, he also admitted to using pre-flop charts and being banned by GGPoker for doing so.
The Spanish highstakes pro alleged that Zamani had issued death threats against him.
My statement pic.twitter.com/yTk7qR1dRJ
— Sergi Reixach (@srxakgirona) April 23, 2022
Who will be next in line to stand accused, confess their poker sins, or to plead innocence? Whoever it is, we’ll be sure to bring you the news right here on Poker Boulevard.
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