Originally Posted by
Blair Rodman
I was told about this thread and what I've found here is a bunch of misinformation, character assassination and just plain ignorance, beginning with the original PM that was sent to and quoted by Dan Druff (Todd Wittles), which I infer was sent by someone named Mike Owens, who apparently is striving to become a respected poker journalist.
Here are a few things from that PM from Mr. Owens (or whoever sent it) that are incorrect:
-The post, which starts right out calling the PPA a scam, says that the PPA was taking money from players for years, which is absurd. The pre-launch started around July,7, 2011. The pre-launch was over, Chris Levick was gone, and the company began to fall apart about a month later. The last email I can find concerning it was August 11, 2011. Unless I'm missing something, other than the original investors in the business, the business collected money from no one in the poker world outside of that 4-6 week time period.
-The amount was $15, not $25, and it wasn't for training, as he stated, it was to reserve a place in the multi-level hierarchy. And it wasn't required of anyone to pay the $15 in order to sign up for the company.
-The business wasn't a casualty of Black Friday, it was a response to it, as were many poker-business startups post BF. There was a huge population of people who wanted to play online, and companies looked to fill that void.
In the next post Mr. Owens goes on to say that the company continued to take money after Black Friday, which is silly because the company didn't even exist before BF, or perhaps was in the planning stages, but I don't think so. It certainly hadn't taken any money from poker players prior to BF. He later says that the site was launched in January or February of 2012. WRONG, WRONG WRONG! Then he posts a link to a pokerati article that he credits as being published in May, 2012. He only missed that one by a year.
Owens also says that he sent numerous emails and messages to me about the site, in an attempt to make it look like I'm hiding from him or have something to hide about my involvement with the PPA. Sorry Mike, but I received nothing from you and don't know how you would assume to have relevant contact info for me. And I have nothing to hide.
The company failed mainly because founder Mike Helm had a very different idea from the managers he hired, including and primarily Chris Levick, about what would succeed in the poker community. That led to Chris' leaving the company amid a lot of hard feelings, and the whole thing falling apart. Mike didn't handle the dissolution very well, simply moving on to other things without tying up loose ends.
I signed up some of my friends during the pre-launch. For many of them I just paid the $15 myself. After the company failed, I offered the ones who had paid a refund, and the response I got was either 'forget about it' or 'just buy me a drink when I see you'. You know why? Because it was fifteen-fucking dollars! And yet, in this thread it's an amount being treated like it's the basis for the crime of the century! And by people who had no involvement with the PPA, didn't lose a penny, and weren't damaged in any way. Not one person who signed up for the company has appeared in this thread.
For anybody to think that a company would spend hundreds of thousands to try to scam a few people out of fifteen fucking dollars is just plain stupid. They may disagree with the multi-level concept, or think the company had unrealistic plans, but that doesn't mean it was a scam.
What I see here is a despicable attempt by some people to give some kind of relevance to themselves and this website by attempting to smear the names of some good and innocent people. Even though I know you don't want it, I'm going to dispense some advice:
To Mike Owens:
-Check your facts before you publish. You've written so many things that are blatantly incorrect, and are slanted to try to make your case that the PPA was a scam that you should be ashamed. Or at least have your keyboard taken away.
-Don't deal in innueno. You try to make it seem like people are hiding from you, implying that they're hiding some great misdeed, when in fact they've never heard from you, don't know who the fuck you are, and don't care. You also state that "I know more than you think...". Seriously? If you know something that supports your case, state it or shut up!
-Find another way to get your jollies than attempting to smear the name of innocent people without basis or proof.
To Todd Wittles:
-Your website is hosting this garbage. Check facts before you publish and allow this kind of thing to go on. You should take this thread down until you verify facts, before too much damage is done. You should do that with any accusatory post made here by someone with an agenda that may not include staying true to the facts.
To 'ryan':
-There are a lot of great things about the internet. You represent the worst; armies of little trolls who hide in anonymity behind their keyboards and spew venom without any fear of repercussion. At least Mike Owens and Todd Wittles don't hide.
