Justin Bonomo says he lost $1,000,000 from RTA use and claims that Ali Imsirovic is only the second biggest offender after a player starting with “Ja”, who is rumoured to be Jake Schindler, since he is also banned on GGPoker.
“A was the #2 biggest offender, while someone whose first name starts with the letters ‘Ja’ was by far the biggest”
2) I was told A was the #2 biggest offender, while someone whose first name starts with the letters ‘Ja’ was by far the biggest
3) I lost over a million in the games where I believe this was going on. Feels bad man.
— Bonologic (@JustinBonomo) April 18, 2022
Bonomo was responding to Alex Foxen’s allegations that Ali Imsirovic is a cheater, Foxen claiming the young Bosnian-American pro is banned on GGPoker for using Real-Time Assistance (RTA) and multi-accounting.
Chip dumping and Rubbernecking
Foxen also claims that Imsirovic regularly chip-dumped to horses and “rubbernecked” Paul Phua in a recent SHR, the hand that led the New Yorker to out his highstakes rival.
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
Bonomo yesterday provided context to the online cheating claims, which allege that Imsirovic was among those banned by GGPoker in a big crackdown.
Real-Time Assistance (RTA) and Collusion
“I recently spoke with a trusted source about this, tweeted Bonomo. “Things they told me: 1) the infractions range from looking at preflop charts, to occasional Real-Time Assistance (RTA), to constant + automatic RTA, to full on collusion with horses (or MA’s) who were also using RTA software.”
Bonomo added: I’m told the evidence goes far beyond hand histories, and is completely irrefutable. I have not personally seen it, but I trust the source
Does “Ja” stand for Jake Schindler?
The “A” in Bonomo’s opening tweet clearly refers to Ali Imsirovic, while the “Ja” is allegedly another of the small highstakes poker community, Jake Schindler.
That allegation has been doing the rounds since late last year, when Chris Kruk and Bert “girafganger7” Stevens tweeted about the state of highstakes online poker.
We talking Schindler, Ali, Brewer etc? They all got the ban hammer around the same time on GG afaik
— JK (@InvestorJK) November 16, 2021
Kruk listed similar issues to those brought up by Bonomo this week, stating: “Off the top of my head: Guys using in game software on gg 25ks. Probably some collusion as well. Some accounts banned, at least one, possibly more return via multi accounting. This morning heard of a guy scamming a student for his whole BR via a teamviewer thing.”
Meanwhile, Bonomo had to clarify that his “JA” reference wasn’t aimed at Jason Koon, widely regarded as one of the most upstanding members of the highstakes community.
“Apparently some people saw the ‘JA’ thing and are wondering if this was Jason Koon,” said Bonomo. “ I didn’t think this would need clarifying, but no, Jason was not involved at all. If someone still plays on GG under their real name, then you know it wasn’t them.”
The Accusers Accused
Both Bonomo and Foxen themselves have been accused in the past of wrongdoing, with Bonomo guilty of multi-accounting and Foxen having to defend himself against claims of soft-playing with his wife (then girlfriend) Kristen Bicknell.
Sam Greenwood then entered the discussion, claiming Foxen and Bicknell were also both banned from ACR and PokerStars, Foxen refuting those claims as the highstakes world threatened to implode.
Here is a conversation with ACR support followed by email from stars. Seems pretty clear we were unfairly targeted despite no evidence on both accounts. We both can play EPTs still and were able to cash out, neither of which is allowed for anyone banned for collusion. pic.twitter.com/EZY5ZbSWfZ
— Alex Foxen (@WAFoxen) April 19, 2022
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It would appear that the fallout from Alex Foxen’s outing of Ali Imsirovic, and Bonomo and others’ providing supporting evidence of sorts, has opened a whole can or worms in the highstakes community.
Whether or not it will lead to an actual poker blacklist or not remains to be seen, but the big question now might be – who ISN’T going to be on that list?
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