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In a recent interview with Gaming Intelligence, Laurent Tapie said that he hopes to have a re-branded Full Tilt Poker launched by March 1. Ok then. There’s a better chance of Layne Flack repaying his debt...
In a shocking/totally not shocking bit of news–Prahlad Friedman has announced that he’s joined Team UB today.
Word of a pending Prahlad partnership began leaking last week right after Phil Hellmuth and Annie Dukeannounced their departures from UB. Those rumors were more or less confirmed as a Prahlad Friedman UB bio page and promotion were put up and quickly yanked from the UB website.
Prahlad made it official today though in the above video announcement.
We think it’s a great move by UB. While some security and transparency issues have popped up over the past year, the company has now effectively shed its old ownership and image over the past few months. Prahlad, who was the biggest victim of the UltimateBet super-user scandal, has always maintained he was treated fairly by the company in getting cheated money refunded. So if there is one personality that could effectively and officially move UB into a new era, he’d be a logical choice to do so.
We’re sure more news/interviews around this will come up throughout the day. We expect to have Prahlad on This Week in Poker next Tuesday as well.
Yesterday’s episode of This Week In Poker is now up on YouTube here and our TWI page here.
Our guest yesterday was poker pro, rapper, hooper Prahlad Friedman. One of the original nosebleed-stakes online players who got cleaned out by Russ Hamilton and others, Friedman discusses the Ultimatebet super-user scandal, the 2010 WSOP Main Event, his Poker Is Fun rap, breaking Steve Nash’s 60-second free throw record and more.
Also fresh off her 8th place finish in the Detox Poker event at the Hard Rock, the Tina Fey of Poker Jess Welman joins us for “Poker Headlines with Jess.”
The show does start with a few technical glitches, expect it to be all smoothed-out next week when WPT host Kimberly Lansing joins us in the studio. Also, sorry we weren’t able to get to the Joe Navarro segment this week. Expect to see it in an upcoming show. If there are any videos or pros you’d like to see Joe breakdown on our show, let us know via Twitter at @twi_poker or simply tweet it with hashtag #twipkr.
Show notes for episode #9 of This Week In Poker:
Start – Co-host Brian steps away from his usual spot in the corner to sit in for Chops who joined us from Vegas via Skype this week.
15:46 – 17:59 – Interview with Prahlad Friedman begins with him sharing how he decides which WPT and WSOP events to play.
18:00 – 20:29 – One of the original nosebleed online players, Prahlad talks about the stakes he used to play online then discusses the UltimateBet super-user scandal.
20:30 – 21:49 – Prahlad shares how he learned his aggressive style from Huck Seed.
21:50 – 23:35 - We ask Prahlad if he suspected he was being cheated when he got cleaned out by unknown players after dominating online cash games for so long. He then shares how the losing streak affected his play.
23:36 – 24:22 – Prahlad explains why he was happy when news of the UltimateBet super-user scandal broke.
24:23 – 28:28 – Prahlad talks about the refund process with Ultimatebet, how he was surprised he actually got his money back and whether that amount accurately reflects how much he was cheated.
28:29 – 29:40 – We ask Prahlad what he would say to Russ Hamilton if he saw him face-to-face and whether he’s met him in the past.
29:41 – 32:54 – He talks about still playing on UB despite being cheated and how he wished other sites refunded money when players were cheated.
32:55 – 37:44 – A viewer asks about a controversial hand Prahlad played during Day 2 of the 2010 WSOP Main Event in which a player called the clock on him.
37:52 – 39:12 - Prahlad is asked by Kevmath whether more people ask him about his freestyle rapping or his confrontation with Jeffrey Lisandro at the 2006 WSOP Main Event.
41:49 – 48:06 – Prahlad talks about breaking Steve Nash’s 60-second free throw record and what other hoops records he may shoot for next. He also explains why he didn’t play college ball because of “politics.” And we learn what a geoduck is.
48:07 – 49:05 – Prahlad on Lebron James going to Miami.
49:06 - 51:59 – On the Tournament of Champions and the voting process, not wanting to be signed by a poker site and promoting himself on Twitter.
52:00 – 53:59 – Prahlad talks about his appearance on the Big Game show on FOX.
54:00 – 56:59 – We set up the Joe Navarro piece in which the poker tells expert breaks down some of Durrrr’s poker tells. However, we’re unable to connect with Joe via Skype so we talk about ChatRoulette instead.
57:00 – 58:54 – We wrap up our interview with Prahlad.
The latest edition of ESPN’s Inside Deal has 2009 Card Player Player of the Year Eric Baldwin on as guest, sporting an awesome ’80′s baseball player mustache.
Editor’s Note: The following post is Part II of our UltimateBet super-user cheating scandal series. To reread Part I, go here. We will continue to update this post with new information/clarification as it is made available to us.
With the help of Greg Pierson’s team, and specifically a contractor who built the cheating tool that internally became known as going into “God Mode,” Russ Hamilton was now capable of stealing money from friends, business partners, and high-stakes pros on UltimateBet.
In Part I, we detailed the UltimateBet backstory and the “how” phase–as in, how did Russ Hamilton create a super-user tool that eventually caused the biggest scandal in online poker history.
In Part II, after talking to nearly a dozen sources, we will complete the “how” phase, as well as discuss the when and the where.
Unfortunately, until Russ Hamilton frankly and finally discusses the scandal, we may never know the “why?”
It started around the summer of 2003 and continued through December 2007.
From what we’ve learned, two basic patterns formed as to how Hamilton cheated.
First, Russ Hamilton, almost brazenly, would contact a poker pro or business associate to play him heads-up on UltimateBet. Before Full Tilt Poker became the place for nosebleed action, UltimateBet was where the biggest online cash games were played, so getting unsuspecting pros to his site wasn’t difficult.
If a pro was cash strapped, no problem. Hamilton would transfer a player money to battle heads-up, then win that money outright. Add it to the tab.
Part I of how Russ Hamilton masterminded the UltimateBet super-user scandal...
Editor’s Note: About a month ago, we received a list of names of people connected to the UltimateBet super-user cheating scandal. Much of that information can now be found on 2+2here.
Since then, we received substantial and substantive information that helped validate some of the data that appears in those documents, while disproving other data. We conducted a wide-range of interviews with well-informed sources connected to the investigation, high-level and connected industry figures, and high-stakes poker players that had varying degrees of knowledge (ranging from ”intimate” to “was directly cheated by Russ Hamilton”) about the scandal.
Eventually, a consistent story formed about who built the super-user cheating software, who else might have known about the cheating scam, and who exactly were the super-users.
Some of this information has, in some shape or form, been discussed through great investigative work by the likes of Nat Arem, Haley Hintze, and others. Some of it has not. What we are doing here is connecting the dots to tell the story of how Russ Hamilton pulled the strings to develop a super-user “tool” that cheated friends, associates, and UltimateBet customers out of millions of dollars.
Just getting Part II of our podcast up. No poker here. 100% discussing and debating The Walking Dead. We’re joined by an esteemed panel, including Jason Newitt, Dave “F-Train” Behr, Jeff Holsey, and Entities Chops and Colin. If you were a fan of the show, you’ll like the debate. We discuss problems with the show, [...]
We recorded a two-parter podcast yesterday. Part I is now live and discusses The Rise and Fall of Ray Bitar WCi feature with its author, Dave “F-Train” Behr. In it, F-Train details the interview process for the feature, as well some conclusions that could be drawn about the man who helped make Full Tilt Poker the [...]
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