While catching up on the 2015 WSOP stories for the week, I ran across this story on PokerNews.com, “Cheating Allegations in WSOP $10,000 Heads-Up Championship Spark Investigation“. It reports on allegations of cheating during the 2015 10K Heads Up event that completed a couple of days ago. Several players who faced the accused player in the heads-up play acknowledged that the accused exhibited “unusual” behavior throughout their match. The accused’s opponents talked with each other and shared experiences that were eerily, and oddly similar.
According to the article,
“…suspected an opponent of cheating his way to a fifth-place finish in the event and both a Prague reporter and former casino manager said the player in question has a history of marking cards that has seen him banned from casinos across the Czech Republic.”
The player suspected of cheating has been banned from casinos for cheating prior to this. Are this year’s HU players doubly vigilant because of his past or was his behavior just that “off”, that made his opponents believe that for sure “somethin” was up?
WSOP officials have stated that an investigation is underway.
Naturally, the 2015 WSOP HU fifth-place finisher who is accused denies it all. His story, also on PokerNews.com, is here.
Isn’t the Golf model Viable for the Poker World?
My dream for the poker world is that it moves closer to the “golf” model; clean play, highly-respected players, and an organization that contributes large amounts of money to charity. Not without its own knuckleheads – but so much more respected than the poker profession.
Cheating in poker gives fodder to those who want to ban online poker and/or not have a casino built in their area. They have one more degenerate to point to in order to bolster their “those people” stereotypes and entrench their boots more firmly in their holier-than-thou stance. Let’s choose to not give them that opportunity.