Nick Vertucci put out a podcast this morning. He was interviewed by Veronica Brill.
They were talking about Bryan, the guy that stole the 15k.
Nick said, “At one point I have had over 100 employees, and I have NEVER done a background check”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x2Fg7T5Nkw
I personally don’t see anything wrong with the situations that you brought up. In my opinion “speculation” is what makes a forum and its threads interesting. I speculate all the time in the threads within the scam section of this forum. I think something that is important for the casual readers of these threads to realize is that often times when a poster speculates on something that it doesn’t mean they think it actually happened or that it is even likely to have happened. As posters we just throw “what if’s” out there as a possibility. Many times, In this section of the forum I post scenarios frequently that I know have a 1% chance or less of actually being what has occurred. If we throw out 100 theories all with a 1% chance of being true, then the truth is likely somewhere within the 100 theories - it’s just a matter of finding which one it is and that is part of what makes posting and interacting on forums interesting in my opinion.Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffDime
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Druff
With Nick's past as a known scammer who cheated so many people out of their life savings, can you Todd or others please explain why this man seemingly gets no pushback from Polk, Ingram or Berkey? I mean, obv I'm not saying he is in on this cheating scandal yet but should it be surprising to anyone that this is happening on a stream that he owns? It just fits the pattern with this guy. He also plays on his own streams all the time and for someone with not a lot of poker experience over the years, he's a really big winner.
I'm sorry it just doesn't add up for me with Vertucci at all. This guy should be a part of the focus imo on this cheating scandal. He's shady as fuck.
The more I hear about Robbi and her relationship with her husband Charles Lew, I have come to the conclusion that he is the “Rich” one. I would be absolutely shocked if he did not have a prenuptial agreement with Robbi protecting his assets. They have been married for 10 years. The way she talks about him in the LA Times article is as if everything belongs to him. She says, “He owns several restaurants”, instead of “We own”. There is a good chance he is very private about his money even with her, and he spoils her to a certain extent. I believe he knows she is not faithful and just deals with it. The night before the J4 incident she was out getting hammered for 7 hours with 2 other dudes.
Reformdorm, I was saying in the rep under your post that Nick’s other business selling real estate courses is generally looked at as a scammy business. If someone pays him 30k for his course and they are unable to make money, that person automatically thinks it’s Nicks fault that they didn’t make what they had hoped and now he is a “scammer”. To my knowledge, there is no real proof of a scam, just several unhappy customers. Anytime there is that much money exchanged, occasionally someone will think they were cheated and weren’t given the value that they have paid for. I heard he is bringing in 8 figures per year with these courses, with that kind of volume there will be some people that just are not cut out for real estate.
I think it's a red herring.Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffDime
Patrick listens to PFA Radio, so I messaged him when I learned a few days ago that he was no longer with HCL, as of August.
He did not have any info on any cheating, and said he hadn't seen any evidence of any while he was there.
I said something similar on radio, though I was less direct about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by PositiveVariance
I think it's very possible that her husband keeps his money out of her grasp, and while he buys her nice things, he doesn't just give her access to big cash to spend. Recall that this is a fairly recent marriage, and presumably he made the vast majority of his money before they were together.
I think that's the reason she was staked. It's also the reason why the excuse of "she doesn't need the money, why would she cheat?" doesn't really fly.
You have a point. The Real Estate Seminar stuff is gross. They max out people’s credit cards (a lot elderly) and leave these people in a much worse/desperate situation as before they did it. Reading BBB complaints it looks like he used the pandemic to kind of take the money & close up shopQuote:
Originally Posted by ReformDorm
I can already figure what Nick would say. He was teaching them valuable advice and he will say it with 100% conviction. The FTC has seemingly allowed this stuff to go on forever. Three things at play…
1) The business was not part of the gambling world.
2) May be unethical but looks to be legal. Blatantly cheating people out of money on something you own would be far worse.
3) Hate to say it but “It is what it is”. Nick has done the seminar bullshit. Poker players aren’t going to boycott his product because of that.
At this point it something Nick has to live with. Both when he looks in the mirror & any possible further legal action. Looks like his company is closed up and it’s tough for those seeking justice. I think that business is what really made Nick his wealth. I don’t give him a pass. It’s not like this happened a long time ago. Complaints were coming in this year. It can be talked about until we’re blue on the face. I just don’t see anything being done.
* Just a quick addition. Nick mentioned never doing background checks on employees. Well, if you are selling a product with basically unlimited supply, such as “knowledge”, then an overwhelming percentage of your employees will be your sales force. You have openers who get the first money procured, then your up-sell force which really goes for the kill. You are not going to give a shit about these people’s past. They are usually totally on commission. If they can sell & are not currently incarcerated, that’s typically good enough.
Despite all that, I would bet it all that Nick wasn’t involved. He’s no dummy.
Yes, I think it's reasonable to find out what was going on with Lauren the dealer.
Regarding Bryan's rambling statement, it's a bunch of bullshit. Interesting to read, but not worth thinking much about. I don't believe anything he has to say. Remember that haughty message on September 30 on Twitter, telling us how secure the stream is? This was before he was caught stealing.
I think the kid doth protest too much.
Kessler pointed this one out.
I "wouldn't not" believe that this was written by two different people.
:fraudalert
You can’t put it past anyone to cheat, personally without knowing anything about these 2 dealers including Lauren. I would be very surprised if they cheated. The amount of tips she makes is OUTRAGEOUS. Do you ever notice when players tip, many times the camera goes to something else?
In the high limit game with Mikki, I saw many hands Lauren got $100 or $200 per hand.
25 hands per hour times 5 hours = 125 hands x $15 per hand = $1,875 in tips per stream. This is just during the stream. The gravy train usually continues off stream. I think there is a slim chance any of these on stream dealers mess this up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PositiveVariance
i dont know this person, but when big tips are floating around people dealing have all the incentive in the world to cheat for whoever is tipping the most. this happens constantly in texas where none of the dealers need to have a criminal background check and a license.
I've got to think that Robbi used her down time this weekend to meet with lawyers and her publicist. And practicing for her upcoming lie detector test.
Will be interesting to see if the polygraph test goes forward.
https://www.wikihow.com/Cheat-a-Poly...(Lie-Detector)
As for the text message she supposedly got from Bryan telling her how honest he thinks she is (even though she claims they don't know each other) and how toxic and bad HLC is and whinny Garrett is, who knows what the heck is going on. Just add it to the long list of things that Robbi does not appear to have been fully truthful about.
This story was mentioned on public service tv-news in Sweden this morning. Very surprising.
I wouldn’t not be surprised if Nick Vertucci has or will threaten druff to take down posts in this thread.
I have what I think is an original theory about how this could have been done.
Hustler has surveillance cameras in the ceilings throughout the casino. Are there cameras in the ceiling of the production/control room? If so then the Hustler casino surveillance people would have been able to see the real time monitors showing the cards. The surveillance people still had their phones and could have transmitted real time card values to someone.
I was watching the game live and watched Joey Ingram after the HCL show. I decided then that Robbi didn't cheat. I have watched most of the stuff since then.
I still do not think Robbi cheated.
I doubt there will ever be proof of cheating.
On yesterday’s podcast Nick referred to the company that he brought in costing a “Hundred Ball” aka $100k.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PositiveVariance
Regardless of the extent of what occurred here, it seems Hustler Casino Live was a victim of it’s own success. Ryan Feldman was crushing with the lineups and taking care of all that horse trading behind the scenes. He was also directing the show. Nick was selling sponsorships, putting out fires and I’m sure numerous other things. Nick was also playing in the game a few times a week.
This blind spot with security/game integrity opened up. How far and when it started, we don’t know yet. It’s the least sexy part of the whole operation and it’s not cheap. Nick is paying for it now. But if handled correctly, I think they will eventually get back on course. The worst it was the longer that will take.
It also seems there was probably some morale issues with certain employees. That kind of stuff is not always indicative of poor management. Especially in today’s society, you see a lot of morale issues with work especially on the lower end of the pay spectrum.
Berkey is firing…
https://twitter.com/berkey11/status/...-Hfl5iykdL6axw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrWXH0jaD8w
It’s clear that the last thing they want to do is go dark. I understand not waiting for the full investigation. I think they should of at least shut down one week to sort out the game integrity stuff. I know they desperately don’t want to do that, but I think that would of been a better play in the long run.
The California Department of Justice is who oversees the “Bureau of Gambling Control”. They are the ones who deal with the licensing, regulations, and disciplinary actions.
Any employee who is working in a Cardroom in California must have a “Work Permit”. Even waiters, drink runners, and maintenance need a Work Permit.
I have a STRONG feeling, after this The DOJ will change the rules. When they implemented the rules, they likely never thought of this situation. There is no question Bryan would have not received a “Work Permit” with his criminal history.
Applying the same rules to HCL’s employees that are applied to all other card rooms/casino employees in the state will greatly reduce the possibility of cheating, theft, collusion, ect.
Huge mistake by the DOJ, fortunate loophole for HCL.