Blair Rodman, Chris Levick, Kathy Liebert and Bruce Buffer apparently involved in scam training site

I received the following private message here:

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Hi Druff,

I have a scam I would like to bring to your attention that not many people know about. For the past few years a training website had been taking the poker communities money for a website pre launch that never launched. Now the website has closed shop and comes up not found.

The site was called Poker Players Academy.

It was not run well and involved Blair Rodman, Chris Levick, Kathy Liebert and Bruce Buffer. I know 3 or 4 people from twitter that say they donated to this website.

Months back I contacted Chris levick and Blair Rodman about the site never launching and email/dms were never returned. This site was a casualty of black Friday but they kept taking players money even after black friday to recoup loses from the project. A girl that i know on twitter who donated to this site is @candipartypoker and she still shows their logo on her profile.

If you search Poker Player Academy image a few come up and I believe they were taking $25 from each player to sign up early for training. Thanks. I listen to the show every week and enjoy it.

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Here is a May, 2011 article that is critical of this training site as a pyramid scheme:

http://pokerati.com/2011/05/new-coac...ponzi-pyramid/

So it was some Multi Level Marketing bullshit, and the "product" was poker training!

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Poker Player Academy provides the opportunity to earn money via helping people to learn from a pro and by referring people into the business. We provide you with the most advanced viral marketing system ever built that virtually does all the work. ~ Chris Levick

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:fraudalert

No one was ever trained by this website.

Anyone who "invested" (that is, bought into their multi-level marketing bullshit) lost their money.

Note that, despite the acronym of PPA (intentional?), it had no affiliation with the Poker Players Alliance.

Not sure what role Liebert, Buffer, Levick, and Rodman had in the company, but they were definitely used to promote it:

http://www.pokergob.com/tag/poker-player-academy/

The above is an old link of someone who presumably either "invested" in the site or was involved from the start (I'm guessing the latter).

Maybe someone can tweet about this to Kathy Liebert? She dislikes me now, so she has me blocked.

I doubt that Liebert set out to scam anyone, but it wouldn't surprise me if she was either duped into promoting this, and now wants to pretend none of this scamming ever happened.

Apparently from the video on Pokergobs site Scotty Nguyen and Antonio Esfandiari were also involved in promoting this failed training site. The site continued to take players money after black friday in order to recoup startup money. Players were never repaid or even received any emails about the site closing. This site is no longer online and disappeared into the wind. I have a feeling we will never see Blair Rodman or Chris levick again in the poker world. They have ignored numerous emails from me about this website.

That pokerati link compares it to PTN which was a pretty obvious pyramid scheme. I never heard of this one but I'm amazed that both fo them could get so many people to pay for a training site that didn't exist.

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Maybe someone can tweet about this to Kathy Liebert? She dislikes me now, so she has me blocked.

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Did she try to smash?

Either way, scams like these in the poker world really go to show it is so much easier to fool people than to convince they are being fooled.

Blair Rodman was hanging out with the biggest crook of them all Russ Hamilton last weekend at Lake Elsinore playing 2-3 NL. They were with a group of 20+ playing a golf tournament all weekend.

Hi and thank you for allowing me to clarify what has been posted on here about Poker Player Academy.

Poker Player Academy was set up by a Canadian by the name of Mike Helm who was the principal shareholder and Founder. I was approached via a mutual friend to help get the business started and to ensure that the right people were involved so that the training material would be entirely relevant. The business model did involve an affiliate/referral plan however there are a multitude of business that use this type of marketing method. It would be totally unfair to describe the business as a scam based on the method of marketing and I was present when advice was taken from lawyers and other industry experts to ensure that the business operated within the relevant laws.

As the project started to come together, it became apparent that Helm had underestimated the level of capital required and as a result the business was undercapitalised. Blair Rodman, Kathy Leibert, Bruce Buffer, Antonio Esfandari and Scotty Nguyen were recruited to provide the training content and participated in a promotional video. In the case of the players that had a management agency, the agents were fully briefed on the project. Clearly they would not allow their players to enter into an agreement to promote a business that had less than honourable intentions. All were paid for their services with the exception of Blair and Kathy, Helm had run out of funds by the time they were due to be paid.

The business conducted a 'pre-launch' which I was assured is a standard practice within the affiliate/referral industry where members could reserve their place in the business by paying $15. A total of 235 people globally paid the $15 fee before the project was abandoned. I returned to Australia when the company could no longer afford to pay me and saw an email set to go out asking anyone who had paid to contact the company regarding a refund. I understand that some people may not have received this email, its even possible that it was not sent but I did view a draft of what Helm was intending to send out. Any email addresses that I was monitoring whilst working for the company had the passwords changed immediately by the company when I left. Had anyone attempted to email me from that time on, I assume someone else at the company would have received the mail.

Despite the fact that the 235 x $15 did not go to me personally, I am more than willing to refund anyone that had paid from my own pocket. Several weeks ago upon learning that some people may not have received the refund email, I posted this on Facebook and in fact refunded some money to Australians who were effected. Anyone wanting a refund only need send proof of payment to chris@chrislevick.com and give me either banking details or a PayPal account. An alternative is that people can simply go to their bank and do a charge back.

In regards to the players involved, these people are of the highest integrity. Despite my now dislike for Helm, I can say in no way did he set this business up illegally or with the intention of creating a fraudulent scheme.

Anyone requiring further information can feel free to contact me via email.

Chris Levick

I'm going to call bs on this entire response. Your only coming out now to try an repay players to save your tarnished rep. Players never received any emails about refunds and were never repaid by the site. If you repaid Facebook friends that's irrelevant to the rest of the poker community. All pro players involved have been quite all year. Its cool that your manning up now but without this site we would of never heard from you

Mike you are entitled to call it whatever you like, it is exactly the situation. I'm certainly not personally obliged to repay the $15 to anyone, the reality is if anyone felt they had been unfairly treated they only had to do a charge back and they had their money back anyway. If the players did not receive an email that is a matter for them and the company, I was not part of the company when that email was supposedly sent.

The bottom line is that nobody was out to scam anyone, suggesting otherwise is simply not true.

Chris, I realize that this was not all your fault. The whole idea of the site was ridiculous. But accepting players money after black friday when it was obvious that the site was a total fail is a scam in my book. Most people would not care about the $15 and not even bother to try and recoup their money. But that is besides the point. I'm not sure when you left the company but your name is still tied to it. The players that represented this site are the reason people signed up. And they were let down....

Mike this is the last post i'll be making on the matter.

The business had not even commenced on black Friday, it was some months after when the pre launch began. Black Friday played no part whatsoever in the business failing or otherwise. Even the promotional videos were not shot until well and truly after black Friday. The site could not possibly be a fail because it didn't even exist then.

This is the problem with this type of thing, people invent dates and situations and then attempt to slur the names of people involved without any clue whatsoever what they are talking about. You say the site idea was ridiculous, others said it was one of the best ideas they had seen. Perhaps they had more information than you I don't know but what I do know was this business did not get off the ground because it lacked the capital to provide the core product. The only responsible thing to do was to close it down and that is what I recommended before I left.

I acknowledge that people were looking forward to this being a success and were let down. None more so than me.

From the start people thought this was a scam Chris and people were warned about it. I do believe the site was launched in January or February of 2012. Directly being affected by black friday. I know more than you think Levdogs. They were never told what they would get for their money or what kind of training they would receive. So the training aspect of the site was complete bullshit. A Pokerati post called the site a "Multi-level marketing scheme" in May of 2012 . Link to post here: http://pokerati.com/2011/05/new-coac...ponzi-pyramid/

This was nothing but a big scam. Levick and his wife, a washed up poker dealer(and obviously not the brains behind the operation), are nothing but scam artists. They conned a lot of trusting people. My guess is her "wanna be gangster" ex husband was involved too. Funny how they all disappeared after the site shut down. The poker players involved in promoting this should be embarrassed.

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Originally Posted by LevDogs

Hi and thank you for allowing me to clarify what has been posted on here about Poker Player Academy.

Poker Player Academy was set up by a Canadian by the name of Mike Helm who was the principal shareholder and Founder. I was approached via a mutual friend to help get the business started and to ensure that the right people were involved so that the training material would be entirely relevant. The business model did involve an affiliate/referral plan however there are a multitude of business that use this type of marketing method. It would be totally unfair to describe the business as a scam based on the method of marketing and I was present when advice was taken from lawyers and other industry experts to ensure that the business operated within the relevant laws.

As the project started to come together, it became apparent that Helm had underestimated the level of capital required and as a result the business was undercapitalised. Blair Rodman, Kathy Leibert, Bruce Buffer, Antonio Esfandari and Scotty Nguyen were recruited to provide the training content and participated in a promotional video. In the case of the players that had a management agency, the agents were fully briefed on the project. Clearly they would not allow their players to enter into an agreement to promote a business that had less than honourable intentions. All were paid for their services with the exception of Blair and Kathy, Helm had run out of funds by the time they were due to be paid.

The business conducted a 'pre-launch' which I was assured is a standard practice within the affiliate/referral industry where members could reserve their place in the business by paying $15. A total of 235 people globally paid the $15 fee before the project was abandoned. I returned to Australia when the company could no longer afford to pay me and saw an email set to go out asking anyone who had paid to contact the company regarding a refund. I understand that some people may not have received this email, its even possible that it was not sent but I did view a draft of what Helm was intending to send out. Any email addresses that I was monitoring whilst working for the company had the passwords changed immediately by the company when I left. Had anyone attempted to email me from that time on, I assume someone else at the company would have received the mail.

Despite the fact that the 235 x $15 did not go to me personally, I am more than willing to refund anyone that had paid from my own pocket. Several weeks ago upon learning that some people may not have received the refund email, I posted this on Facebook and in fact refunded some money to Australians who were effected. Anyone wanting a refund only need send proof of payment to chris@chrislevick.com and give me either banking details or a PayPal account. An alternative is that people can simply go to their bank and do a charge back.

In regards to the players involved, these people are of the highest integrity. Despite my now dislike for Helm, I can say in no way did he set this business up illegally or with the intention of creating a fraudulent scheme.

Anyone requiring further information can feel free to contact me via email.

Chris Levick

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LOL @ anybody giving you their banking information. Yes let me give you my account number and routing number.

Can anyone confirm a refund from this guy?

I agree with Bootsy, you'd be foolish to give any banking info out. Paypal would be the safest way.

I have to give Chris Levick some credit for coming on here to defend himself. It takes a lot of guts to do that. After hearing his response it sounds like others are more to blame than him. So, cheers to you Chris for manning up and offering repayments. Still I hate that all of them have been quite about the situation. If you make bad business decisions that affect other people the first step is admitting you screwed up. We would probably never see Bruce Buffer, Kathy Leibert or Blair Rodman come on here to explain their side of the story.

Seriously???
Levick didn't "man up" to anything.
He is a crook, and will NEVER give anyone a refund.
Take a minute to look up his history....he is a scam artist through and through.
His new "business" is failing, and he couldn't possibly afford to pay back the people involved in the PPA scam.
His other newest "venture" is also a pyramid operation - so beware!!!
The "launch" was postponed again and again...sound familiar???
Let's hope he stays out of the USA!!!

Interesting thread here.

First, I do want to give Chris Levick credit for showing up here and answering to the accusations. He could have simply avoided it, as most people accused of scamming do.

Also, if he is really going to give people refunds, that's a good start. Obviously that doesn't excuse the fact that very few "investors" (if any) were contacted to give them refunds in the first place. Still, it's better than nothing -- provided that he really does refund people.

Chris, a few questions for you:

1) You talk about Mike Helm "underestimating the capital required" to run such a training site. How much capital could have possibly been required? Web hosting is cheap. What other expenses were there? Since it was a multi-level marketing format, there wasn't much (or any) advertising required. I assume the people making the training videos were going to get some small up-front fee (if any), and then a piece of whatever is sold. I am not understanding why there was a lot of money required to get this going.

2) A pyramid scheme is defined as a business model where people are selling others the opportunity to make commission off others, but where no product of real value is involved. Or, if there is a real product, the majority of money is generated by selling the opportunity to sell it, rather than from selling the product itself. I agree with your critics that this Poker Players Academy business looked very pyrmaid-like. If it was really about selling training, why not just use a traditional affiliate model, rather than charging people up front for the opportunity to sell it?

3) You say that 235 people signed up and paid $15 each. That's a total of $3,525. Are you saying that between you and Mike Helm, you couldn't come up with the paltry sum of $3,525 to refund the affected parties? That's really not a lot of money, and I don't think anyone can legitimately plead poverty and not pay that back, especially over a long period of time. Furthermore, why was there only a Facebook message about the business closing, rather than contacting people directly (via e-mail) and offering a refund? Surely you had everyone's e-mail addresses.

4) You say that Helm did not intend to rip people off when he set this up. I believe that you and Helm both had big dreams of this thing being a monster business idea, given your rhetoric about a $1,000,000 monthly freeroll, and other outrageous plans. However, many well-intentioned business models turn to scams when the original plan fails, and the owners are left with the choice of either losing money or screwing those whom they owe money. If Helm is not a scammer, why did he not refund $3,525 to investors. Why didn't you?

Here is the old website on chrislevick.com.

Scroll past the first page.

 

View on scribd here: https://www.scribd.com/doc/55681840/  

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Interesting thread here.

First, I do want to give Chris Levick credit for showing up here and answering to the accusations. He could have simply avoided it, as most people accused of scamming do.

Also, if he is really going to give people refunds, that's a good start. Obviously that doesn't excuse the fact that very few "investors" (if any) were contacted to give them refunds in the first place. Still, it's better than nothing -- provided that he really does refund people.

Chris, a few questions for you:

1) You talk about Mike Helm "underestimating the capital required" to run such a training site. How much capital could have possibly been required? Web hosting is cheap. What other expenses were there? Since it was a multi-level marketing format, there wasn't much (or any) advertising required. I assume the people making the training videos were going to get some small up-front fee (if any), and then a piece of whatever is sold. I am not understanding why there was a lot of money required to get this going.

To shoot a the required large number of training videos, including compiling the material, editing, talent and other associated costs would have cost $250,000. I can assure you the players doing the videos were not doing it for nothing. There was detailed business modelling done on this.

2) A pyramid scheme is defined as a business model where people are selling others the opportunity to make commission off others, but where no product of real value is involved. Or, if there is a real product, the majority of money is generated by selling the opportunity to sell it, rather than from selling the product itself. I agree with your critics that this Poker Players Academy business looked very pyrmaid-like. If it was really about selling training, why not just use a traditional affiliate model, rather than charging people up front for the opportunity to sell it?

What you have said here is 100% correct. The commissions were to have been paid on the sale of each training module. There was never going to be a commission paid on the $15, that would have been illegal and we had specific advice on that. It is common practice within that industry to launch with a 'pre-launch' so that the people that reserve their spots can get their people into the program whilst the business was getting ready. Helm had specific propriety software that he had developed in a previous venture that was to be introduced and was the catalyst for the business becoming a referral style business. It was his business, his concept and his software, he had previous experience in this type of selling and that was always going to be the sales method.

3) You say that 235 people signed up and paid $15 each. That's a total of $3,525. Are you saying that between you and Mike Helm, you couldn't come up with the paltry sum of $3,525 to refund the affected parties? That's really not a lot of money, and I don't think anyone can legitimately plead poverty and not pay that back, especially over a long period of time. Furthermore, why was there only a Facebook message about the business closing, rather than contacting people directly (via e-mail) and offering a refund? Surely you had everyone's e-mail addresses.

I'm certainly not pleading poverty - I'm not sure why you said that. I did not receive the funds personally and had left the USA at a time when Helm was attempting to raise more funds. I did not have anyone's email address, they were the property of the company and after I left, I had no access to the data base or even to my company email address. I personally had no access to anyone's credit card details to push money back. As stated before, all anyone had to do was phone their bank and do a charge back for their $15 and it would be put straight back onto their card. When someone leaves the employ of a company, they are not normally given access to such things.

4) You say that Helm did not intend to rip people off when he set this up. I believe that you and Helm both had big dreams of this thing being a monster business idea, given your rhetoric about a $1,000,000 monthly freeroll, and other outrageous plans. However, many well-intentioned business models turn to scams when the original plan fails, and the owners are left with the choice of either losing money or screwing those whom they owe money. If Helm is not a scammer, why did he not refund $3,525 to investors. Why didn't you?

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Again, as I have communicated privately, that is a question for Helm. As the money did not go to me, I had absolutely no reason to refund anyone. When I left the USA Helm was still attempting to raise additional funds. As I have said on Facebook and subsequently on here, if someone wants to provide me proof of payment I'll happily refund them myself. As a former employee and investor in the business, what more can I do?

The one comment that I will make is that I totally agree that the closure of the site could have been way better communicated. That couldn't have possibly come from me, the business was still effectively running when I left. Even I have not had any correspondence from Helm himself since I left, I found out the same way everyone else did. To anyone I let down by not properly communicating the situation when I left, I sincerely apologise.

Helm did not set this business up to be a scam nor did it become a scam. For anyone to suggest otherwise is just defamatory. One of the major causes of businesses failing is undercapitalisation, this is a clear cut example of that. The real losers here are the people that backed him, between them we lost a significant amount of money. He may be guilty of being overly optimistic but he had only the best intentions.

Businesses fail in this world every day of the week. This happens for many reasons, just because this business was in the poker industry and it didn't get off the ground, does not make it a scam. Just because the business employed a multi level marketing distribution method, it is not illegal 'pyramid selling'. Extensive advice was taken from industry lawyers so that that side of the business complied with the relevant laws. I was present at these meetings.

You are right, I could have ignored what was written on this site but it was just plain wrong. Some of the comments here are totally inaccurate, some are laced with defamatory garbage and some even suggest the involvement of supposed criminal figures. The entire thread smears the names of some exceptional people in Kathy, Bruce, Antinio, Blair and Scotty. They certainly don't deserve that.

Shooting the videos would cost $250,000? Maybe in 1984. Shooting training videos is incredibly easy, given the cheap software that exists today. How do you think Cardrunners, Deuces Cracked, and many others made such a profit? They put the burden of production on the trainers, who basically used the software they were given (or instructed to obtain) and slapped the videos up on the site. Sure, you can spend unnecessary money on frills such as special-effects and graphics, but why? People watch poker training videos for content, not production value. They want to see how great players think while playing their hands.

To say "You can just do a chargeback" isn't a fair answer. A chargeback is a last resort for when the merchant turned out to be a crook. It also can reflect badly upon the purchaser if too many chargebacks occur in a short period of time, so it is wise to save them for when really necessary.

You also said that you don't have access to the database of e-mails. Are you saying that Helm would refuse to give this to you, if you told him that you were going to refund all of the aggrieved parties out of your own pocket? I find that hard to believe. If so, then you should really make a public stink about this and prove that Helm is the actual bad guy here.

I am afraid that there are still too many unanswered questions here, and there seems to be a lot of double-talk involving something simple -- getting a list of e-mails of affected parties, and refunding them $15 each.

Again, Helm may not have started off intending to scam people, but running off into the sunset with people's "pre-launch" money after the site fails definitely qualifies as a scam.

Too often people take the attitude of, "Businesses fail every day" as an excuse as to why they don't pay their creditors. That's garbage. You should only spend the money you have when hiring people for services that your business needs. You should not be spending expected future profits, and screw whoever you hired if your business fails to make what you hoped. Otherwise, you're basically freerolling other people. If your business works out, you pay the help you hired. If not, you screw everyone. Very unethical. Helm (and you, by extension) should have made sure you had the capital to pay for all start-up costs immediately, and if you didn't, the people you hired should have known they were only getting paid if the business succeeded.

I can tell you that, if I were in your shoes, clearing my name would be well worth the $3500, even if the loss was someone else's fault.

You have told me both here and in private e-mail that this thread is "defamatory". I disagree. I believe it is a fair discussion of the circumstances of a failed business and the people who were victimized by it.

I assume you left the company on bad terms otherwise you would have contacted Helm to hash this out in the last 18 months. I wouldn't be coming on a message board telling stories, I'd be contacting the guy who I feel is the cause for my name being dragged through the mud & work it out even if I had to refund it myself, something you have stated you're willing to do.

Get off the message boards crying about defamation & contact Helms & get it worked out if you are truly serious about refunding out of your own pocket. Did Helms fall off the face of the earth or have you even tried to contact him? If he did & you can no longer contact him then I would say it was a scam &, unfortunately for you, you're caught up in it.

Deal with it.

I had a bunch of stuff written out but it's pretty meaningless. This doesn't seem like a scam on Chris's end, he doesn't seem responsible to pay anyone anything but he is, and people are pissed at him about it?

What's the good word, Mr Rodman?

http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/att...7&d=1355967007

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Originally Posted by Tenfiftyam

I had a bunch of stuff written out but it's pretty meaningless. This doesn't seem like a scam on Chris's end, he doesn't seem responsible to pay anyone anything but he is, and people are pissed at him about it?

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Did you read his old website (a copy was posted in this thread) where he made ridiculous promises, such as a $1,000,000 freeroll?

It seems Chris was the primary promoter of this project, so he definitely bears a lot of the responsibility. He can't just blame it on a faceless Canadian (who probably did have a lot of culpability, as well) and shrug his shoulders.

Furthermore, offering a refund to people is meaningless if most of the 235 people who paid are not reading this forum and can't see the offer. Why doesn't he get the e-mails of all 235 people from Mike Helm and offer them the money directly?

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.

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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.

---

:wtf

Popcorn ready.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by padre33

Blair Rodman was hanging out with the biggest crook of them all Russ Hamilton last weekend at Lake Elsinore playing 2-3 NL. They were with a group of 20+ playing a golf tournament all weekend.

---

So Blair is this true or not?

Is this the post that got you all fired up?

Even though I think it has very little relevance to the topic at hand, when you are buddies with known thieves I am sure you could see how someone might make the connection if your name ever comes up in a questionable circumstance in the poker world.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NaturalBornHustler

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by padre33

Blair Rodman was hanging out with the biggest crook of them all Russ Hamilton last weekend at Lake Elsinore playing 2-3 NL. They were with a group of 20+ playing a golf tournament all weekend.

---

So Blair is this true or not?

Is this the post that got you all fired up?

Even though I think it has very little relevance to the topic at hand, when you are buddies with known thieves I am sure you could see how someone might make the connection if your name ever comes up in a questionable circumstance in the poker world.

---

Remember the Russ Hamilton Roast?



From left to right: Woody Moore, Dennis Novinskey, Mark Tenner, Russ Hamilton, Tom Jacobs, Blair Rodman, Bonnie Leinhos-Damiano, and Mansour Matloubi

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SixToedPete

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NaturalBornHustler

So Blair is this true or not?

Is this the post that got you all fired up?

Even though I think it has very little relevance to the topic at hand, when you are buddies with known thieves I am sure you could see how someone might make the connection if your name ever comes up in a questionable circumstance in the poker world.

---

Remember the Russ Hamilton Roast?



From left to right: Woody Moore, Dennis Novinskey, Mark Tenner, Russ Hamilton, Tom Jacobs, Blair Rodman, Bonnie Leinhos-Damiano, and Mansour Matloubi

---

Interesting picture.

Off topic, but Bonnie Leinhos and Mansour Matloubi have been long rumored to have had a hand in the UB scandal. There is no direct proof, but a lot of circumstantial evidence against those two.

Mr. Rodman, thank you for coming out and responding. As I said to Chris Levick, while I disagree with some of your statements, coming out here with a response is better than giving no response at all, so I can at least respect your appearance to share your side.

First, I will get to your direct comment to me:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blair Rodman

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.

---

This is an open forum.

People are allowed to levy accusations upon others that they feel are guilty of wrongdoing. At the same time, the accused are always welcome here to give their side.

I think it becomes pretty clear after a short time who is telling the truth and who is full of shit.

I would understand a request to take down a thread like this if the general premise was false. For example, if someone accused the Poker Players Academy of stealing $15 from 235 people, when in reality there had been no theft at all, I would consider removing the entire thread.

However, that's not the case here.

Amid all the fighting, accusations, and arguing here, there is one thing that is universally agreed upon by all parties in this thread:

The Poker Players Academy took $15 from 235 different individuals, and did not deliver anything in return that was promised!

Indeed, this "training" site never produced a single video. Even if these 235 people only paid for the opportunity to sell the training rather than the training itself, why does that matter? Obviously they were never able to sell it because it never came to exist.

Furthermore, you claim that people shouldn't be making a big deal about this because each of the victims was "only" out $15.

I have to reject that line of reasoning.

Do you remember this movie:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...III_poster.jpg

What about this one?

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/image.../Office3_L.jpg

While both were fictional comedies, they were good examples of how one can benefit greatly by stealing just a little bit from a lot of people.

Say that I stole just a penny per year from each American. While it's safe to say that no one would suffer from the loss of a penny, I would net over $3 million per year from such a scheme, and would indeed be a thief.

Same goes for this situation.

If certain people wish to let the $15 go because it's not worth the trouble collecting, I can respect that. However, you need to DIRECTLY contact all 235 victims and give them the option of a refund. You can't just keep it all because it's "just $15".

This is all getting needlessly complicated.

Chris Levick blames Mike Helm.

You blame Chris Levick and Mike Helm.

I don't care which individuals are directly to blame.

Here is the bottom line:

235 innocent people paid $15 to be part of this multi-level marketing company, which never came to exist in a functional manner.

All 235 people are entitled to refunds.

It is my belief that most of these 235 people were never contacted with any sort of legitimate refund offer or procedure.

All 235 people need to be e-mailed and informed that they can get an immediate refund. If you and/or Chris do not have these e-mail addresses, you should contact Mike Helm and tell him that you want these addresses in order to make refunds. If Helm refuses, then he is indeed a scammer, and you should expose him for it on this forum, 2+2, and elsewhere.

Until the above is done, there has been no good faith effort to repay those people.

Period.

Is this scandal small in comparison to the monster ones at UB and Full Tilt? Yes.

However, 235 people were cheated, and it is worthy of discussion, especially given the big and semi-big names originally involved with the project.

Keep in mind that I don't have any personal friends involved with this, nor did I lose any money myself. I also don't expect this site to much additional traffic from "exposing" this relatively small-time scandal. I am a neutral party and am simply stating what I believe to be right.

Quote:

---

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.

---

To Blair Rodman:

Facts were all checked. Where have you been hiding? Chris must of begged you to come on here. The PPA site was a pyramid scheme that failed miserably. Once it was obvious that the site was a fail everyone disappeared. And everyone trusted Mike Helm to repay players. Here's a news flash BLAIR he didn't pay them back. I know you have to deny it but its true. I tried to contact you multiple times on your personal site and even sent you questions that you never returned. Remember those? Just like Chris did. He blew my questions off also. I know people that never received there money back from this site. What do you have to say about that? You decided to associate yourself with these shady characters not me. Players should be aware of these types of sites and not to give their money away. Man up now, find these players and pay them back.

July 2011 is months after Black Friday. I haven't seen anything anywhere that suggests they did business or took any money before Black Friday, yet the claim keeps being made. Why? Any proof?

Russ Hamilton, Blair Rodman and friends..

Who's next Bruce Buffer?

I came on here because my publisher was questioned about me being involved in a scam because this has leaked out on the internet. The title of the thread leads with my name, while I had nothing to do with the inner workings and was simply hired to participate in the promotion of the company, as were Kathy, Bruce, Antonio and Scotty. This is a cheap way to smear someone's name.

The mission statement of your site is pretty scary. You're saying anyone can come on here and level charges against anyone, and the accused is welcome on here and defend themselves. You think the person who saw my name somewhere on the net is going to find this site and read my response?

What if I posted somewhere that "Todd Wittles was seen holding out cards at the Rio", and it was seen by thousands of people? It would be true in the sense that I'm sure you held out cards in the process of mucking or showing a hand. You could find where it was posted and go there and deny it, but the damage would be done. It's easy to smear someone these days.

The pre-launch was a friends-and-family deal. If people had an issue with the $15, the person to contact first was the one who signed them up, whom they probably knew pretty well. I explained what happened with the twenty or so who signed up through me. I'm pretty sure the scenario was the same with most of the others. I didn't have an issue with any of my signups, and I doubt very seriously that anybody who signed people up refused to offer to make them whole.

Ok Mike, first thing. I haven't been hiding anywhere. I gone through every possible place you could have contacted me and I find nothing. Where and when did you try to contact me?

You say all the facts were checked. Ok, tell me how you checked these things you present as facts:

-The site was taking money from poker players for years: Show me just one instance where the site took money from any player outside of July and August, 2011.

-The site was a casualty of Black Friday: Prove to me that the site was operational before April, 15. 2011.

-We already decided you were wrong about it being $25 and that it wasn't for training.

-You say you believe the site was launched in Jan or Feb of 2012, being directly affected by BF: That's not even close.

-You say people were never told what they would get for their $15: They were told exactly what the money was for, and that they didn't have to pay it to sign up.

-You say everybody trusted Mike Helm to repay people: I took care of my people myself, and I'm quite sure others did also.

-You say you know people who were wronged by the site. Have them come on here and tell their story.

You could have proof of all these things and there might have been stuff going on I wasn't aware of. Present it here if you have it and I'll apologize, hat in hand. If not, some retractions are in order.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crowe Diddly

July 2011 is months after Black Friday. I haven't seen anything anywhere that suggests they did business or took any money before Black Friday, yet the claim keeps being made. Why? Any proof?

---

Crowe - if you look through the scribd document earlier itt (which I guess is a wayback archive or similar) there a bunch of references to the scheme being set up in February 2011.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blair Rodman

-The business wasn't a casualty of Black Friday, it was a response to it, as were many poker-business startups post BF

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crowe Diddly

July 2011 is months after Black Friday. I haven't seen anything anywhere that suggests they did business or took any money before Black Friday, yet the claim keeps being made. Why? Any proof?

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Belly Buster

Crowe - if you look through the scribd document earlier itt (which I guess is a wayback archive or similar) there a bunch of references to the scheme being set up in February 2011.

---

FYI, the scribd archives were made by Marie-Lizette Acoba of Pokerati. But what I'm trying to say is not the same thing as Blair, I just didn't say it very well. I recognize they started working on this shit in February at the latest, but the pre-launch and all that shit was after black friday. They didn't even start their twitter acct until near the end of April '11. https://twitter.com/PPAcademy/status/62654232951668736 The pre-launch and all that appears to be in very early July. That's when people would have been paying their never-to-be-seen-again $15 bucks.
 

View on scribd here: https://www.scribd.com/doc/55678566/  

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hockey Guy

I assume you left the company on bad terms otherwise you would have contacted Helm to hash this out in the last 18 months. I wouldn't be coming on a message board telling stories, I'd be contacting the guy who I feel is the cause for my name being dragged through the mud & work it out even if I had to refund it myself, something you have stated you're willing to do.

Get off the message boards crying about defamation & contact Helms & get it worked out if you are truly serious about refunding out of your own pocket. Did Helms fall off the face of the earth or have you even tried to contact him? If he did & you can no longer contact him then I would say it was a scam &, unfortunately for you, you're caught up in it.

Deal with it.

---

100% this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mike Owens

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blair Rodman

I came on here because my publisher was questioned about me being involved in a scam because this has leaked out on the internet. The title of the thread leads with my name, while I had nothing to do with the inner workings and was simply hired to participate in the promotion of the company, as were Kathy, Bruce, Antonio and Scotty. This is a cheap way to smear someone's name.

The mission statement of your site is pretty scary. You're saying anyone can come on here and level charges against anyone, and the accused is welcome on here and defend themselves. You think the person who saw my name somewhere on the net is going to find this site and read my response?

What if I posted somewhere that "Todd Wittles was seen holding out cards at the Rio", and it was seen by thousands of people? It would be true in the sense that I'm sure you held out cards in the process of mucking or showing a hand. You could find where it was posted and go there and deny it, but the damage would be done. It's easy to smear someone these days.

The pre-launch was a friends-and-family deal. If people had an issue with the $15, the person to contact first was the one who signed them up, whom they probably knew pretty well. I explained what happened with the twenty or so who signed up through me. I'm pretty sure the scenario was the same with most of the others. I didn't have an issue with any of my signups, and I doubt very seriously that anybody who signed people up refused to offer to make them whole.

Ok Mike, first thing. I haven't been hiding anywhere. I gone through every possible place you could have contacted me and I find nothing. Where and when did you try to contact me?

You say all the facts were checked. Ok, tell me how you checked these things you present as facts:

-The site was taking money from poker players for years: Show me just one instance where the site took money from any player outside of July and August, 2011.

-The site was a casualty of Black Friday: Prove to me that the site was operational before April, 15. 2011.

-We already decided you were wrong about it being $25 and that it wasn't for training.

-You say you believe the site was launched in Jan or Feb of 2012, being directly affected by BF: That's not even close.

-You say people were never told what they would get for their $15: They were told exactly what the money was for, and that they didn't have to pay it to sign up.

-You say everybody trusted Mike Helm to repay people: I took care of my people myself, and I'm quite sure others did also.

-You say you know people who were wronged by the site. Have them come on here and tell their story.

You could have proof of all these things and there might have been stuff going on I wasn't aware of. Present it here if you have it and I'll apologize, hat in hand. If not, some retractions are in order.

---

---

Blair- Where and when did I contact you. Really?? You must have amnesia. Check below. Here are the interview questions I sent you about the PPA on July 13, 2011 after you agreed to an interview with me. Question 8. You never respond after the site failed and ran an hid. After Chris and Mike fucked this up you didnt want nothing to do with it. You want to question my credibility. If your saying you were never in contact with me your a liar. You never got this email and never heard of me?? People thought they were signing up for training asshole. The site was a complete lie and never said what it was going to be. And there never EVER was training for them. The reason you say tell them to come on here is because most people don't care about the money now and wrote it off.

How did your poker career first get started?

Can you tell us about your popular book “Kill Phil” with Lee Nelson?

What is your poker career like now? What are your preferred stakes to play?

Did you play in the series this year? If so, how did it go?

What poker author has had the most impact on your writing style and focus?

What do you remember most about winning your bracelet?

What would you say is your best game?

Can you tell us about the upcoming launch of the Poker Players Academy?

If you never got started playing poker for a living, what would you think you’d be doing?

Better poker film in your opinion, Maverick or Casino Royale? Why?

If you could have one poker mentor, who would it be and why?

What hobbies or interests do you have outside of poker?

Which casino has the best steak, which has the best buffet, and which has the best poker room?

Do you have any upcoming projects you're working on that you'd like to tell us about?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crowe Diddly

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Belly Buster

Crowe - if you look through the scribd document earlier itt (which I guess is a wayback archive or similar) there a bunch of references to the scheme being set up in February 2011.

---

FYI, the scribd archives were made by Marie-Lizette Acoba of Pokerati. But what I'm trying to say is not the same thing as Blair, I just didn't say it very well. I recognize they started working on this shit in February at the latest, but the pre-launch and all that shit was after black friday. They didn't even start their twitter acct until near the end of April '11. https://twitter.com/PPAcademy/status/62654232951668736 The pre-launch and all that appears to be in very early July. That's when people would have been paying their never-to-be-seen-again $15 bucks.
 

View on scribd here: https://www.scribd.com/doc/55678566/  

---

Agree