Poker Ghosting Scandal
The presumed scandal happened on Saturday night, when Bill Perkins, a wealthy businessman and poker enthusiast tweeted angrily that he was cheated in a high stakes private cash game played on a mobile app, a story that would ““make the Mike Postle scandal look like a church service.”. Before then in December 2007, however, Mizzi was embroiled in a cheating scandal at Full Tilt poker in which he took over play of a friends account in the middle of an online tournament. This ghosting scandal took place in a “private club”, via an app with passwords. The players had to be vetted, and there were certain controls in place specifically to protect against ghosting such as having your computer camera on—the way they got around that is that Cates and his cohort used a remote PC access program. The action was paused in the Daniel Negreanu vs. Doug Polk ‘Grudge Match’ under bizarre circumstances over the past 24 hours as Bill Perkins, who has a bet in place on the match’s outcome.
It’s not the first time Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi has been accused of cheating at poker. Last August, the online poker forums have been buzzing about an IM chat between a supposed co-conspirator, Steve “thorladen” Weinstein, and Mizzi.
The alleged convo between the two discussed ways in which to violate the Terms and Conditions of online poker sites by using a common tool that allows access to a PC from another PC like the popular programs GoToMyPC.com or PCNow.com. These programs allow users to access computers from different locations via the IP address of the other computer.
Mizzi noted that use of these programs “revolutionizes teaching/ghosting in poker” and he also notes that they can be “used for multiaccounting.”
Fast forward about six months and a story has surfaced on 2+2 regarding a live game of Chinese Poker between Mizzi and John Racener at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. The story goes that Racener caught Mizzi dealing off the bottom of the deck. Mizzi replied to the thread in an attempt to clear his name, denying the allegations and stating that he is “by no means a magician.” He even said after the WSOP this year, he will “seriously consider finding another job.”
According to Racener, Mizzi did beg Racener not to leak the story since they were the only two in the room when the incident occurred. The 48-page thread, “Sorel allegedly bottom dealing vs John Racener” remains active on 2+2.
It remains to be seen come July whether or not Mizzi will actually retire after the WSOP or if his true character will inevitably surface again. Either way he will eventually be outed for one shenanigan or another. Perhaps he will someday be banned from poker all together.
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Dan Bilzerian has accused Dan Cates of cheating in a high-stakes private poker game played on a mobile app between wealthy businessmen.
On Saturday night, millionaire poker enthusiast Bill Perkins tweeted that he was cheated in a presumably high-stakes game that would “make the Mike Postle scandal look like a church service.” He said that the incident involved players that “you would call poker heroes.”
Poker Ghosting Scandal Videos
Perikins’ initial tweet sparked curiosity and popcorn gifs from many in the poker community as theories about the situation began to spread.
Cheating scandal in poker going on that would make the Mike Postle scandal look like a church service. Really hard to wrap my head around. I'm very disappointed in many people. Some you would call poker heroes. 1 person/pro showed integrity others failed miserably #POKER
— Bill Perkins (Guy) (@bp22) May 24, 2020
At first, Perkins wouldn’t give any more detail than that, only that he was cheated by a top tier poker pro. He spent several hours responding to players who wanted Perkins to reveal more if for no other reason than to save other poker players from being cheated by the same person.
What is this crap teaser? Can’t understand why you would leave it at that. Anyone else that gets cheated from here out can thank you for this useless warning.
— Tim Reilly (@TimReillyPoker) May 24, 2020
Tell us, Bill we need it. You must.
— ralph massey (@TheSilverStash) May 24, 2020
How you gonna do us like this? After everything weve been through? pic.twitter.com/IIlZu10lBY
— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) May 24, 2020
Eventually, he revealed that Jason Koon was the one player who showed integrity and alerted Perkins to the scandal, and that a separate player had confessed to cheating.
On Sunday, Perkins elaborated further, clarifying that the game was private and played on a mobile app. A top pro was playing under the screen name of a recreational player invited to the game in exchange for a piece of the profit. This form of cheating commonly referred to as “ghosting.”
The majority of mobile poker apps on the market right now do not facilitate real money gaming. Any payments made to players must be made outside of the app based on play money balances.
Perkins agreed to keep the name private in exchange for more information about who else was involved. In a subsequent tweet, Perkins said that it was a “top 7 player” that was cheating the game.
I have been permission to say that @JasonKoon was the pro who was tempted and acted in integrity. I've always like Jason and now I love him. So you can stop speculating about him. I'm still in investigative mode and not ready to discuss. As I said hard to wrap my head around. https://t.co/HoUiPDs7BR
— Bill Perkins (Guy) (@bp22) May 24, 2020
Settlement w/ 1 participant gave my word I would not Publicly reveal UNLESS they lied during questions
Game: Private
App: download for friends
Cheating: pros playing for fish account (so far)
Participants #: unknown now
Investigation: Ongoing
Evidence: confession/physical https://t.co/HoUiPDs7BR
— Bill Perkins (Guy) (@bp22) May 24, 2020
Top 7 pro in the world for sure and now completely obliterated my trust AFTER the confession. I'll never play a game or tournament with him until this is rectified.
— Bill Perkins (Guy) (@bp22) May 25, 2020
On Monday afternoon, Dan Bilzerian tied a couple of names to the story when he tweeted that Sina Taleb allowed Cates to play on Taleb’s account against Bilzerian, Perkins, and others. The tweet included a picture of Saleb and blurred out contact information. Taleb is an unknown to the poker world without a documented tournament cash.
This cocksucker Sina Taleb cheated me, bp22</a> and others outta money on Fun Ocean poker app by having <a href='https://twitter.com/junglemandan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>junglemandan play on his account pic.twitter.com/lvysYyd9x8
— Dan Bilzerian (@DanBilzerian) May 25, 2020
Cates, however, is touted as one of the best players on the planet and regularly plays in the biggest cash games in the world. He also has just shy of $7.4 million in tournament earnings.
He responded to Bilzerian’s accusation by saying it was “misleading” and that he has never played a hand of poker with Bilzerian, but couldn’t dive into the issue any further because of legal reasons.
I can't discuss this right now for legal reasons but this is misleading, I haven't played a hand of poker with @DanBilzerian ever lol. More to come when appropriate but there was rampant ghosted on the site that people have admitted to.
— Daniel Cates (@junglemandan) May 25, 2020
Perkins showed up in the responses to Bilzerian’s tweet and said that he had high-level attorneys advising him on his next step.
He also walked back the comparison to the Postle situation, noting that he only did so because the amount of money at stake in his game was much more than what Postle is accused of cheating players out of.
Update: Bilzerian’s tweet has since been deleted, but Cates’ response is still up.