Four Shocking Scandals At Poker Worlds
It is no surprise that controversy is the part of life. People love scandals and are even eager to hear about them. Poker world is no different. While we play poker online and in live tournament both and love hearing all the good news about the game, we also love the controversies linked to it.
Perhaps online poker has less scandal under its sleeves but there are many poker tournaments which have seen innumerable scandals. Look upon the list to know about them:
Borgata casino and the tale of fake chips:
The first in this list is the tale of fake chip on the tables of Borgata casino during a tournament. During the Borgata Winter Open, the play was paused due to inconsistency seen in the chips. When the game was paused there were 27 players left in the $2 million GTD event. An investigation lead yo the tournament being called off as fake poker chips were going round the tournament tables.
In the end, the investigation led to Christian Lusardi. He was one of the 27 players. During the commotion about the fake chips, he raced up to his hotel room. Then he flushed a few fake chips down his toilet. The chips blocked the pipes and revealed him to be the culprit. He was sentenced to 5 years of cheating activities. His punishment was a little relief to the players who had to abandon the game.
The tale of fake reporter and Ali Tekintamgac:
This case is about Ali Tekintamgac, a poker player, working with a fake reporter at the Partouche Poker Tour. Ali Tekintamgac’s fake reporter friend would stand behind his opponent whenever there was a pot in progress and used hand signals to tell Ali what his opponent held.
Thankfully, soon the suspicious behaviour was identified and Ali got disqualified from the event before the final table at underway.
Hialeah Park Casino caught cheating:
Usually, poker players expect a tournament’s supervisors and floor staff to the ones protecting them against cheating and not undertaking the cheating. Suspicions were first raised by a pro poker player at the Hialeah Park in Florida. He noticed friendly exchanges of words between some players and floor supervisors, which were followed by those players picking out the tables they wished to sit. Even the managers appeared to be handling cash without any issue of receipts.
Troubled by the situation when the pro online poker player spoke to a supervisor, he was told that if he didn’t like it, he could go and play his tournaments somewhere else. Then an official complaint was lodged and investigation was done, confirming the player’s suspicions. The staffs involved in running the event were making up their own rules, while pocketing cash from prize pool in online poker.
Partouche Poker Tour 2009 and the tale of collusion:
It took three years before anybody notice the incident and spot out collusion which took place between French players Jean-Paul Pasqualini and Cedric Rossi at the final table in 2009. Careful investigation of a video of the event revealed that the online poker players were touching parts of their faces and heads to signal their cards to each other throughout the final table. They were playing as one team and were using the signs.
They had finished the event at 1st and 2nd places. Even though, they were ultimately caught, both these online poker players kept the prize money which amounted to 1,000,000 Euros and 606,700 for their respective place. The GPI suspended both players from their rankings though, and they are now recognised as cheats in the poker world.
Happy playing!