Posts Tagged ‘High Stakes Poker’

China’s Poker Princess Guo Meimei busted

Thursday, August 7th, 2014

By now, many people have heard about the wild story of Molly Bloom (a.k.a. the Poker Princess), who organized high stakes poker games in Los Angeles and New York. Some of those who attended Bloom’s games include Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Alex Rodriguez and Tobey Maguire. You can read all about the story in her new book, Molly’s Game.

Interestingly enough, though, Bloom isn’t the world’s only Poker Princess. Guo Meimei has carved out a big name for herself in China by hosting an exclusive, private poker game for the Chinese elite. She’s also quite popular through social media, having amassed over 2 million followers on Sina Weibo – the Twitter of the Far East. So essentially, she’s Molly Bloom and Dan Bilzerian rolled into one.

But there’s one part to Meimei’s story that’s not so much like the other two. She also worked as a high-end escort, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars through this side activity. However, as the Sydney Morning Herald story below explains, she has standards and never slept with anybody for less than $17,000.

The 23-year-old earned far more from her illegal poker operation, though, once posting of picture of her 10-figure bank account online. She also flaunted her extravagant purchases such as luxury cars, designer clothes and lavish vacations. Meimei was so open about her wealth and success that many followers started to resent her.

Some of these people might be happy to now know that Meimei was recently arrested for her illegal online gambling operation. She confessed to her crimes and now faces several charges stemming from the matter.

As for the poker games, she claims to have started running them after meeting a famous high stakes player. Could it be Phil Ivey? Tom Dwan? Perhaps the details will come out slowly just like with Bloom’s story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVGLqP5VJIk

Debate over whether Full Tilt Players cheated Guy Laliberte

Friday, May 9th, 2014

Earlier this week, Cirque du Soleil owner and high stakes poker player Guy Laliberte told Le Journal De Montreal that he was essentially cheated at Full Tilt Poker.

Although the French-to-English translation is a little choppy, Laliberte alleges that famous pros were borrowing an endless supply of money from Full Tilt. Combining this unlimited bankroll with their skill edge, the unnamed online poker players (reportedly Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, David Benyamine and others) were able to beat Laliberte out of an estimated $26 million. Here’s a translated look at what Guy told the Journal:

“I should have remembered that I am a dinosaur compared to this [internet].”

“The story of Full Tilt is clear: I got scammed, squarely, by people I knew personally who used unfillted bank, paying no money.

“By dint of” All in “all the time, when it’s not your own money, and they printed money to play against me, and they put two, three …; I was stupid. “

A TwoPlusTwo thread quickly opened up on the matter and it already contains a sizable number of posts. First off, nobody knows exactly what to make of Laliberte’s statements because A) they are a little vague, and B) most 2p2 users speak English and are only getting the google-translated version. But the general debate here revolves around whether or not playing with an unlimited bankroll is considered cheating, at least when the whale in question doesn’t know about it.

Another point of contention is whether certain FTP players were equity chopping behind Laliberte’s back. Assuming he didn’t truly know about this, then one could definitely make a case that secret equity chops would be cheating. Here’s a good point from “iosys” on page 2 of the TwoPlusTwo thread:

If we are not talking heads up matches but fill ring tables where multiple people shove in a hand (all in) with him being in that pot and everyone sharing equity. He got ripped off and that is morally wrong to be doing that to someone. He is definitely not a sucker for having that happen to him and I can see why he would be mad, even if the money doesn’t matter to him.

Reverting back to the unlimited bankroll topic, many TwoPlusTwo posters have gone back and forth about this one. Some believe that Laliberte would’ve lost anyways since he was competing against the best. So if they were merely borrowing fake money from FTP, it doesn’t matter because they still won. Some have even likened it to the Andy Beal situation, where he took on “The Corporation,” a group of elite pros who pooled their bankroll to play at stakes as high as $50k/$100k.

But the difference here was that Beal knew full well what he was up against. Laliberte, on the other hand, likely had no knowledge that he was competing against players with a near-infinite bankroll. That said, he probably thought that his massive reserves of money was one of his advantages, just like Beal did several years earlier.

It’s hard to say for sure where the moral line lies in Laliberte’s games against some of poker’s best. Moreover, we should also consider that maybe not everything Laliberte assumes is the truth, and he could’ve simply been beaten by better players.

Waka Flocka dubs Dan Bilzerian the “New Hugh Hefner”

Thursday, May 8th, 2014

Dan Bilzerian continues to fascinate the world, and All In Magazine is capitalizing on this fascination with a series of interviews with “Blitz.” They’ve now released two parts to the series, with the second just recently coming available.

In this segment, Bilzerian starts out by discussing the now-famous staking deal with Jay Farber, where he fronted $2k of Farber’s $10k WSOP Main Event buy-in. As some know, Farber went on to finish second in the 2013 Main Event, which earned him $5.2 million and Bilzerian a $1 million cut of this.

The two have since become friends, hence the second part of the video, where they race sports cars against each other. Blitz ends up winning by just a few tenths of a second, narrowly beating Farber and some other people.

Perhaps the best part of All In’s video is when Bilzerian heads to a DJ Steve Aoki concert. Accompanying Aoki are hip hop legends like Flavor Flav and Coolio along with current star Waka Flocka Flame. The latter provides the most interesting quote of the video when he says, “That muthf**ka (Bilzerian)…is the new Hugh Hefner.”

This probably couldn’t be truer when you consider all of the crazy and exciting things that Bilzerian’s been doing lately. From hosting Playboy and Hustler shoots on his yacht to showing off his massive gun collection, Blitz never ceases to entertain people. Add in the fact that he claims to have won $50 million playing in high stakes poker games, and you can see why poker players follow his Instagram account. Now, here’s a look at the aforementioned All In Magazine interview:

Is PokerStars moving to Zoom-Only?

Monday, February 3rd, 2014

It’s been a few weeks since PokerStars made the controversial decision to switch all of their regular high stakes games (50/100 NLHE, PLO and up) to Zoom Poker format. And Stars recently struck again by changing their $25/$50 PLO games to Zoom on February 1st.

Given these huge changes, a poster on TwoPlusTwo raised a good question about if PokerStars is set on transitioning all of their cash game formats to Zoom. Here’s a look at the OP:

First it was 50/100 NLHE/PLO, now 25/50 PLO, eventually they will do this at 10/20 and maybe 5/10. I think lower limits won’t be changed, but who knows..

As Stars Head of Poker Communications Lee Jones said back in December, the idea behind switching games to Zoom format is to eliminate what’s become a predatory environment. Rather than top-ranked players consistently clashing in high stakes games, online poker has become a place where pros are far more worried about seeking out fish. As another TwoPlusTwo poster put it:

yea they do this to prevent the current predator system which leads to auto-sitting when a fish sits and auto-leaving when the fish leaves. it’s bumhunting to the extreme and it has to be dealt with

Going back to the OP, will Stars eventually become a place where the only cash action is Zoom? This is an experiment right now, so the answer to this question depends on if players are largely happy with the changes, and if Stars is happy with their profits. The world’s largest online poker site can more than live with a few disgruntled regs as long as they’re continually attracting fresh recreational players and making money.

Until PokerStars can move into the United States and other unfriendly, but lucrative markets, it seems that they’ve hit a ceiling. So look for them to keep testing Zoom in other stakes to try and get something going in the profits department. And even if they lose regs over this move, a good portion of these players will go to the Rational Group’s (PokerStars) other site, Full Tilt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiUw3iXIXWk

PokerStars causes Controversy by using Same EPT Barcelona Hotel

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014

Several members of the high stakes poker community were spooked at EPT Barcelona last year when criminals busted into their hotel rooms and installed malware on their computers. Jens Kyllonen was especially shook by the matter after his hotel room was broken into multiple times. The perpetrator(s) installed a virus on his laptop in an effort to track any sensitive information that he entered on the computer.

Given all of this, it’s a little surprising that PokerStars has chosen the same hotel to direct players to during the 2014 EPT Barcelona. One of the biggest problems regarding last year’s “sharking” attacks was that the Hotel Arts Barcelona security was horrid. The hallway security cameras weren’t working properly, and those at the front desk weren’t very helpful either.

Eric Hollreiser, Head of Corporate Communications, said that PokerStars has used Arts Hotel for several years. He added that, despite the sharking attacks in 2013, most players seemed more than happy with the services provided by the hotel.

Of course, players are by no means bound to stay at the Hotel Arts. And you can guarantee that Kyllonen is one player who’ll be looking for somewhere else to stay. While gone from his room, he came back and discovered that his computer had been stolen. Upon returning with security, he discovered the laptop back in its original spot.

After having an independent company look at his laptop, Kyllonen found out that somebody had installed malware so they could have remote access to his screen. Luckily, the Finnish online poker pro was smart enough not to use his computer after the bizarre and puzzling incident. We can only hope that nothing similar happens during the 2014 EPT Barcelona event.

Dan Bilzerian dishes on Ivey, Dwan and Degens of Poker

Saturday, January 11th, 2014

If ever there were a poker player who could rival the Dos Equis guy, it is Dan Bilzerian. For evidence of this, you need merely check Bilzerian’s twitter feed, which features numerous pictures of hot girls, guns, luxury cars and movie appearances.

Given all of the cool things that Bilzerian can and has done, it’s no surprise to hear that his net worth is $100 million. And this puts him in the opposite situation as some world-famous poker players whom he shockingly said were broke. During an interview with CardPlayer, Bilzerian said the following:

Well, it’s kind of a degenerate group. I mean, people who play poker professionally; it kind of takes a special type of person to do that. You have to be able to take a real kick in the nuts, and your life is stressful all the time. It is really hard to be a professional poker player and not go broke. The problem is that when they are winning, they feel like they are going to continue winning at the same rate and when they are losing they want to win their money back. Also, once you play big it’s really hard to drop down in stakes.

Bilzerian went on to say that Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey have gone broke. Of course, there’s no proof of this until these players actually confirm their financial standing. But it’s still interesting to hear Bilzerian declare that both of these guys are broke since he has an inside track on the high stakes poker community.

Aside from talking about degenerate poker pros, Bilzerian also covered a number of other very interesting subjects during his interview. One theme that he stressed is how he’s not among the world’s best poker pros. Instead, Bilzerian sticks to playing against celebrities and rich fish so that he can maintain an edge.

He also discussed a poker game in which an opponent only wanted to bet planes and luxury cars such as Ferrari’s ($300k) and Bugatti’s ($1 million). Dealing in tangible assets at the poker table, rather than chips, is something that really threw Bilzerian off.

One more intriguing subject is Bilzerian’s staking empire. As some people know, he staked Jay Farber during his 2013 WSOP Main Event runner-up finish. With 20% of Farber’s action, Blitz actually scored over $1 million off the second place finish. Aside from Farber, Bilzerian has a lot more pros that he stakes and earns money from.

If you’re interested in seeing what else Blitz had to say, make sure to check out the CardPlayer interview that he did.

Jens Kyllonen, Others targeted in “Sharking” Scandal

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

Three months ago, we covered an incident at EPT Barcelona where poker players’ laptops were compromised. If you don’t want to read the entire story, the jest of it is that certain players noticed their laptops were tampered with, then reported this to hotel security. Unfortunately, the security staff was less than helpful, leading the police to get involved.

Famed Finnish grinder Jens “Jeans89” Kyllonen was one of the players whose laptop was messed with. And seeing as how Kyllonen plays the highest stakes offered in online poker, he felt it necessary to hire a security company to sort through the matter.

According to F-Secure, Kyllonen’s computer was indeed tampered with. Seeing as how I’m not well-versed in techie babble, I’ll just let you have a look at what F-Secure wrote on the matter:

After a while, it was obvious that his hunch was correct, the laptop was indeed infected. There was a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) with timestamps coinciding with the time when the laptop had gone missing.

Apparently, the attacker installed the trojan from a USB memory stick and configured it to automatically start at every reboot. A RAT, by the way, is a common tool that allows an attacker to control and monitor a laptop remotely, viewing anything that happens on the machine.

The trojan is written in Java and uses obfuscation, but isn’t all that complicated. Since it’s in Java, the malware can run in any platform (Mac OS, Windows, Linux).

F-Secure added that they believe Kyllonen and other high stakes players are specifically being targeted by hackers. The company also managed to dub this criminal act “sharking.”

What saved Jeans89 from being sharked is the fact that he walked into his hotel room while the crime was taking place. Kyllonen was spooked when his laptop was missing, so he ran to get security. When he arrived with security, his computer had been put back, meaning the perpetrators may have been hiding in the room the first time he walked in.

In any case, it seems like he’s been lucky enough to avoid being ripped off. But that’s not to say that there couldn’t be another famous poker pro out there who’s the perps’ next intended victim.

EPT Barcelona Players fear their Rooms and Laptops were Compromised

Friday, September 6th, 2013

Just yesterday we discussed some news from EPT Barcelona regarding how Daniel Negreanu got upset over the “first card rule.” Now a new story might even top this since it involves breached hotel rooms, compromised laptops, and a possible inside job.

The reports started this morning when high stakes poker pro Jens Kyllonen discussed a scary ordeal on TwoPlusTwo. His keycard wouldn’t work on his hotel room at the Hotel Arts in Barcelona. So he spoke to reception, and they synced his card, thus allowing him to enter.

But Kyllonen discovered another problem when his laptop was missing from the desk. After asking the cleaning ladies if they moved it, the women said no and he was puzzled. So the Finnish pro went to talk to his friend, Henri, who also didn’t know anything about the laptop and couldn’t enter the hotel room with his card either.

When Kyllonen returned to the room, he found that his laptop had reappeared, which freaked him out because the person could’ve been hiding under the bed or somewhere else in the room. After running down and speaking to guest relations, Kyllonen was told that the cameras in his section weren’t working. His laptop then went missing again, and was later found in the lobby.

Long story short, Hotel Arts gave him the runaround and seemed to be more interested in hiding the whole incident rather than solving it. Additionally, the PokerStars staff was unable to convince the Hotel Arts staff to help out much. Kyllonen would later find that another player had his laptop stolen too.

It’s unclear exactly what the reason for stealing poker players’ laptops and putting them back in the room was. But popular speculation is that hackers were taking the computers to install Trojan viruses and uncover passwords and other sensitive information.

At this point, the Barcelona police have gotten involved and are trying to determine who the perpetrators were in this crime. Based on everything that was going on with the keycards, lack of security cameras and clueless cleaning ladies, an inside job can’t be ruled out in this instance.

Dan Bilzerian Craziness continues: He loses $2.5m in One Night

Wednesday, August 21st, 2013

Dan Bilzerian is known as one of the wildest and craziest poker players in the game today. The son of wealthy corporate takeover guru Paul Bilzerian, Dan first became well known after the lid was blown on Hollywood poker games involving Tobey Maguire, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. Bilzerian was interviewed about his participation in these high stakes poker games and even called Maguire a “cheap bitch.”

The poker playboy has also gained notoriety for having three heart attacks and bragging about his use of steroids. With all of this being said, the latest chapter in his wild life is pretty easy to believe.

While playing at the Aria poker room recently, Bilzerian tweeted a picture of $2.5 million worth of chips (see below). He added the following message that explained what happened to the money:

I dusted off all this last weekend in Vegas.. My dad said, stop gambling. I told him, no one likes a…

It’s likely that Bilzerian participated in the big $2k/$5k NLHE game that’s currently running at the Aria. Some of the notable players involved in this game include Andrew Robl, Tom Dwan and Richard Yong. There’s a good chance that at least one of these guys got a piece of the $2.5 million that Bilzerian spewed.

What’s sad is that, just last month, he tweeted about dropping $3.1 million in a single night while playing poker and dice. Assuming the numbers are correct, he’s lost a combined $5.6 million in two gambling sessions over the past couple months.

Bilzerian must have made a lot in other high stakes poker games if he can afford to drop this kind of money. After all, he’s tweeted pictures before of a $9 million-plus chip stack he had at the Aria. Plus it’s possible that he might have gotten an initial bankroll boost from his father in the beginning.

Whatever the case may be, Bilzerian continues to be one of the most entertaining poker pros in the game today. He’s somewhat of a throwback to the early and mid-2000’s, when poker was dominated by big personalities/personas like Mike Matusow, Sammy Farha and Scotty Nguyen.

Jamie Gold Busto? Selling WSOP Bracelet

Saturday, May 18th, 2013

People have been wondering for years if 2006 WSOP Main Event Jamie Gold is busto. And the poker world is only going to further buy into this rumor now that Gold is selling his 2006 Main Event bracelet through an auctioneer.

The bracelet is being sold through Heritage Auctions, which dubs themselves as “The World’s Largest Collectibles Auctioneer.” The bidding will be open on July 13th, 2013 and the auction happens from August 1st-2nd. Heritage provides a lengthy description of the product on the sale page, including the following excerpt:

The bracelet features 259 stones including over seven carats of diamonds and 120 grams of white and yellow gold. Rubies are inset to create the red of the heart and diamond suits, while a sapphire represents the spade and three black diamonds the clubs. The clasp is stamped “14K.” Fine condition. An absolutely amazing representation from one of the most talked about WSOP events in history.

It’s hard telling how much this bracelet will sell for. The only true comparison we have is when 2008 Main Event champ Peter Eastgate sold his bracelet on eBay. Scottish millionaire and philanthropist William Haughey bought the hardware for $147,500. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that proceeds from Eastgate’s bracelet sale went to charity, whereas Gold’s bracelet is likely being sold for his benefit.

Jamie Gold first gained international poker fame after winning the 2006 Main Event along with $12 million. The $12 million payout is the largest WSOP ME payday in history, and the second biggest tournament score of all-time. Unfortunately for Gold, he didn’t get the full amount after settling a lawsuit with Crispin Leyser (undisclosed amount) over a Bodog staking arrangement. He also donked off a great deal of money while playing against some of the world’s best players on High Stakes Poker.

One more point worth making is that Gold has failed to earn much additional revenue through poker since ’06. He only has $150k in tournament winnings since winning the Main Event.