Haley Hintze writing a great series tearing apart the awful Ben Mezrich AP/Scott Tom book

http://www.flushdraw.com/news/ben-me...-of-deception/

Right now parts 1-4 are up. It's a 10-part series (!!)

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

http://www.flushdraw.com/news/ben-me...-of-deception/

Right now parts 1-4 are up. It's a 10-part series (!!)

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Thank you for the kind words, Druff. The Part 5 of that is now up as well, and I think it's a doozy.

For those who are wondering, the Part 4 of this series contains the clearest explanation yet (in 1,000 words or so) of why and how Scott Tom was the primary AP cheater. It's complete with ieSnare screengrabs and other hard proof, all of which Mezrich would dismiss as "paper-thin". It's dynamite stuff. All else in my eventual (*sigh*) book surrounds the events I've summarized in that Part 4, so go read it and know the heart of the AP cheating.

Part 5 is one of the keys to this book's fraud, too, because it shows how Mezrich has intentionally reversed the timeline of events to perpetuate the myth of Scott Tom's innocence. Do not be fooled by Mezrich's claims: Three million dollars vanished in that jet crash, and it was the event that precipitated the worst of the cheating, because Scott Tom needed to get his hands on some replacement money very quick. The POTRIPPER tourney cheating took place immediately after Scott's return from his week-long vacation, and represented his first opportunity to sit down at his laptop and put in the several hours of superuser time needed to steal some serious money.

Jim McManus has rightfully ripped Mezrich a new asshole, and I've heard a well-placed rumor that even as it appears, the WSJ made Jim tone it down some in that review. I've also put up a review on the Amazon listing for Straight Flush, and it could use some love and comments (or hate and ridicule, if you prefer).

While we don't always see eye to eye, you are doing good work taking on Mezrich for this shameful book.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Steve-O

While we don't always see eye to eye, you are doing good work taking on Mezrich for this shameful book.

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Thank you, Steve, and maybe we should just bury past confrontations and move on. Also thank you for this nice writeup:

http://pokernewsboy.com/online-poker...ommunity/14030

Now, if you got my Twitter handle right.... :-)

Find Haley's review here. http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-...stRecentReview

One of the odd, funny (not really funny) things about the book is how many names are omitted. Besides the six primary brothers, a seventh (Tom Wenz, briefly mentioned once), Phil Tom, Hilt's father, finance guy Shay, and CJ and Christian from the Korean programming firm, the only other names in the book are either fakes or story props, like Hugh Hefner.

Not mentioned at all: Mark Seif.

Not mentioned at all: Room manager Gian Perroni, who was hired -before- Beckley.

Not mentioned at all: Knowledgable insiders such as Russ Torrison and Willy Griffiths.

Not mentioned at all: The eighth SAE frat brother, who is called "Glenn" and mislocated to California. He actually worked in Costa Rica before leaving the company.

Not mentioned at all: The names of any women, except for made-up whore-handles in the imagination of the frat boys.

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Originally Posted by haleylh

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Steve-O

While we don't always see eye to eye, you are doing good work taking on Mezrich for this shameful book.

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Thank you, Steve, and maybe we should just bury past confrontations and move on. Also thank you for this nice writeup:

http://pokernewsboy.com/online-poker...ommunity/14030

Now, if you got my Twitter handle right.... :-)

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already buried :)

LOL @ Ben Mezrich's explanation for this disaster of a book via Twitter:

A guy named Johnny Hartigan tweeted the following to him:

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Ben, please stop playing down the cheating scandal. It's a HUGE part of on-line poker history. Also, you can't blame the US govt for UB/AP players losing MILLIONS post-Black Friday. For example, PokerStars refunded ALL American players.

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Here's the crap Ben Mezrich responded with:

Quote:

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the AP scandal was important, certainly. The UB scandal was even more so. But there is a much bigger story, UIGEA

yes, black Friday was devastating to players and the industry. Pegging all the blame on the AP founders is scapegoating.

certainly AP and Full Tilt were poorly capitalized at the end and players suffered devastation.

but there are very few companies in the world that could survive a DOJ raid, frozen assets, and shutdown and still pay debts.

it's easy to spew hatred at a group of guys based on very thin evidence; I believe it's fair to hear the story from their pov.

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Also, LOL @ people on 2+2 saying "Mezrich always fictionalizes and sensationalizes stories, so don't be surprised or mad at him for doing what he needs to make his books sell."

You're totally missing the point.

Let's say I win the WSOP Main Event this year after getting down to 2000 in chips early on, then start dating a 35-year-old ex-stripper and start snorting cocaine on occasion recreationally. I also donate $250,000 of my winnings to charity.

Mezrich then writes a book about me, where his account includes me being down to a single $25 chip and winning the Main Event, dating a 21-year-old current stripper and starting to have issues with her job, and regularly attending wild Vegas coke parties. He also writes about me donating $3 million of my winnings to charity.

Is this fictionalizing? Yes. Does it substantially change the story as to what really occurred? Yes. But is this a big deal? No. Because it's only a story about one person (me), and none of it is a complete fabrication. It just sensationalizes and modifies some real situations. Simply put, such a book doesn't hurt anyone or unjustifiably glorify bad people.

This is different.

The AP frat boys -- Tom, Beckley, Hilt-Tatum -- are transformed from greedy, cold-hearted criminals into fun-loving, risk-taking entrepreneurs who ultimately find themselves victimized by overaggressive government policy. In this book, Scott Tom is a flawed hero, not a heartless thief of countless millions of dollars.

That's more than just stretching or fictionalizing the truth. That's completely turning it on its ear, and changing the true story into something completely opposite.

F Mezrich, and F this book.

As I stated in an earlier thread about Ben Mezrich, I couldn't get through the first chapter of Bringing Down the House back in 2004/05 because his writing style rminds me of a drunk chimpanzee on ADHD medication. Even if it was sold as a pure fiction, I wouldn't buy anything from this overrated/clown author.

Considering it's being sold as a true recollection of the events surrounding AP & it's founders I'll definitely give this a pass since I know better. Anybody with half a brain should know better.

There, if you now check my Twitter account (@Haley_Hintze), or search under the "all" function of Mezrich's acct (@benmezrich), you can now find direct links to two key images I've uploaded. Combined, they show $150,000 being moved AP from the confirmed cheating GRAYCAT account into Scott Tom's own "SPTOM" ePassporte account, via an override by Tom himself.

The "operations manager" (AJ Green) story? It's either total bullshit, or only true in the sense that AJ was actively working with Tom. If you look at the one image, AJ also temporarily BLOCKED a transfer, unlikely behavior for a cheat acting alone. It's conclusive proof that the AP execs worked together as a cheating group.

I'll for damn sure make sure those two images get into this series I'm working on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Also, LOL @ people on 2+2 saying "Mezrich always fictionalizes and sensationalizes stories, so don't be surprised or mad at him for doing what he needs to make his books sell."

You're totally missing the point.

Let's say I win the WSOP Main Event this year after getting down to 2000 in chips early on, then start dating a 35-year-old ex-stripper and start snorting cocaine on occasion recreationally. I also donate $250,000 of my winnings to charity.

Mezrich then writes a book about me, where his account includes me being down to a single $25 chip and winning the Main Event, dating a 21-year-old current stripper and starting to have issues with her job, and regularly attending wild Vegas coke parties. He also writes about me donating $3 million of my winnings to charity.

Is this fictionalizing? Yes. Does it substantially change the story as to what really occurred? Yes. But is this a big deal? No. Because it's only a story about one person (me), and none of it is a complete fabrication. It just sensationalizes and modifies some real situations. Simply put, such a book doesn't hurt anyone or unjustifiably glorify bad people.

This is different.

The AP frat boys -- Tom, Beckley, Hilt-Tatum -- are transformed from greedy, cold-hearted criminals into fun-loving, risk-taking entrepreneurs who ultimately find themselves victimized by overaggressive government policy. In this book, Scott Tom is a flawed hero, not a heartless thief of countless millions of dollars.

That's more than just stretching or fictionalizing the truth. That's completely turning it on its ear, and changing the true story into something completely opposite.

F Mezrich, and F this book.

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Spot on description. He tries to turn them into the prototypical Greek hero like Achilles, Hercules or Theseus -- flawed but well meaning. Apparently Mezrich is of the belief that if it sold in Athens in 800 BCE it will sell now, and he's right

That part 6 showing the visual evidence of Scott Tom's transfers off-site is now up. I shuffled my series sequence a bit this morning to get them out there (again) right now.

http://www.flushdraw.com/news/ben-me...funds-transfe/

Seriously, I'm going to need help pushing this into the mainstream to make sure someone picks up the story of Mezrich's literary fraud.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by haleylh

That part 6 showing the visual evidence of Scott Tom's transfers off-site is now up. I shuffled my series sequence a bit this morning to get them out there (again) right now.

http://www.flushdraw.com/news/ben-me...funds-transfe/

Seriously, I'm going to need help pushing this into the mainstream to make sure someone picks up the story of Mezrich's literary fraud.

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The problem as I see it is that Mezrich only needs to get the word out that he has a new book, the mainstream buyers of the book don't care if it's fact or fiction they just like something to get their mind off of their mundane life. Any attempt at discrediting him in the mainstream will probably only result in more sales for him.

I like your work and you easily convinced me not to buy the book. I just don't think you can have the desired impact on his overall sales because there are only hundreds of people that fall into my category and the mainstream won't help find many of us at all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deal

The problem as I see it is that Mezrich only needs to get the word out that he has a new book, the mainstream buyers of the book don't care if it's fact or fiction they just like something to get their mind off of their mundane life. Any attempt at discrediting him in the mainstream will probably only result in more sales for him.

I like your work and you easily convinced me not to buy the book. I just don't think you can have the desired impact on his overall sales because there are only hundreds of people that fall into my category and the mainstream won't help find many of us at all.

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I totally agree with your assessment. What I want to do is see a mainstream outlet report on the fact the Mezrich is himself a giant fraud, and thereby discredit him in the manner he deserves. All of his books are similarly bogus; it's just that we as poker people are particularly attuned to the lies in this one.

This is a pretty funny #, or thread or whatever you call it.

#benmezrichsnextbook





.@AdventuresPoker @ikepoker The Accidental Racists: The True Story of the Fun-Loving Frat Boys Who Started the KKK. #BenMezrichsNextBook

I see PFA is contributing to this hashtag.

#benmezrichsnextbook

That is funny Steve, I was trying to think of one for OJ, myself.
I like the Enron one at the bottom.

Here is a good article about how one of his previous books, bringing down the house, was essentially based on no facts, just him putting 2 and 2 together and making things up.

I've heard 2 interviews w/people that book was based on, Jeff Ma, and one other, (I want to say Mike Appointe, not 100 %), but both of the people said the book was maybe 50 % real, but the movie was 100 % fiction.

1 thing is for sure, he has heard everything the poker world has thrown at him, before.
His motto must be "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/20...house-a-fraud/



“Mezrich appears to have worked more as a collage artist, drawing some facts from interviews, inventing certain others, and then recombining these into novel scenes that didn’t happen and characters who never lived.”

The kind of liberties Mezrich seems to have taken, Gay Talese told the Globe, are “unacceptable” and “dishonest,” adding “I have little respect for people who do it.”

“It’s lying,” said Sebastian Junger, whom Mezrich cites as one of his “idols.” “Nonfiction is reporting the world as it is, and when you combine characters and change chronology, that’s not the world as it is; that’s something else.”

Go to Amazon page for the book and click reviews: the first 10 or so are all 1 star. As slacker-filled and dispassionate as the poker world is... hell hath no fury like a poker player scorned

http://www.amazon.com/Straight-Flush.../dp/0062240099

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Steve-O

Go to Amazon page for the book and click reviews: the first 10 or so are all 1 star. As slacker-filled and dispassionate as the poker world is... hell hath no fury like a poker player scorned

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True, but many of them would probably still lineup for a photoshoot and autograph with the same folks they spew digital venom at from the comforts of their mother's basement...

Just checked the itunes store. Haley, any chance you could add your review here? Too big a marketplace to ignore, it has a 4 star average review now. We should fix that.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/str...9221541?mt=11#

I would encourage everyone to give this thing a 1 star review wherever you see it. Why the fuck not, you know? It's the right thing to do, I'm fairly certain.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crowe Diddly

Just checked the itunes store. Haley, any chance you could add your review here? Too big a marketplace to ignore, it has a 4 star average review now. We should fix that.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/str...9221541?mt=11#

I would encourage everyone to give this thing a 1 star review wherever you see it. Why the fuck not, you know? It's the right thing to do, I'm fairly certain.

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The best thing to do on Amazon is to say the 1-star reviews were helpful, as Amazon sorts them that way

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crowe Diddly

Just checked the itunes store. Haley, any chance you could add your review here? Too big a marketplace to ignore, it has a 4 star average review now. We should fix that.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/str...9221541?mt=11#

I would encourage everyone to give this thing a 1 star review wherever you see it. Why the fuck not, you know? It's the right thing to do, I'm fairly certain.

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I tried to do that, but Apple wants my credit-card info merely to register an e-mail address. So that's not happening.

To be honest, the only way Ben Mezrich will receive his proper comeuppance is if a mainstream outlet of significant size can be interesting in covering the story of his fraud. I'm trying to interest a few, but more contacts to places such as Huffington Post, Smoking Gun, Salon, etc. might convince the powers that be to look into this. Pick your faves and send them links and background on the story; if you don't at least try, the AP thieves win.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by haleylh

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crowe Diddly

Just checked the itunes store. Haley, any chance you could add your review here? Too big a marketplace to ignore, it has a 4 star average review now. We should fix that.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/str...9221541?mt=11#

I would encourage everyone to give this thing a 1 star review wherever you see it. Why the fuck not, you know? It's the right thing to do, I'm fairly certain.

---

I tried to do that, but Apple wants my credit-card info merely to register an e-mail address. So that's not happening.

To be honest, the only way Ben Mezrich will receive his proper comeuppance is if a mainstream outlet of significant size can be interesting in covering the story of his fraud. I'm trying to interest a few, but more contacts to places such as Huffington Post, Smoking Gun, Salon, etc. might convince the powers that be to look into this. Pick your faves and send them links and background on the story; if you don't at least try, the AP thieves win.

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Do we know Mezrich's political persuasion? would probably make a particular outlet more likely to bash him if they disagree with his politics. HP and Salon are left leaning (to put it nicely) so if Mezrich is a lefty they are probably unlikely to trash him, whereas Free Republic, The Blaze, Drudge, etc might be more than happy to lambaste a lefty author, or vice versa if he's righty... He seems more Libertarian than anything to be honest

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Steve-O

Quote:

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Originally Posted by haleylh

I tried to do that, but Apple wants my credit-card info merely to register an e-mail address. So that's not happening.

To be honest, the only way Ben Mezrich will receive his proper comeuppance is if a mainstream outlet of significant size can be interesting in covering the story of his fraud. I'm trying to interest a few, but more contacts to places such as Huffington Post, Smoking Gun, Salon, etc. might convince the powers that be to look into this. Pick your faves and send them links and background on the story; if you don't at least try, the AP thieves win.

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Do we know Mezrich's political persuasion? would probably make a particular outlet more likely to bash him if they disagree with his politics. HP and Salon are left leaning (to put it nicely) so if Mezrich is a lefty they are probably unlikely to trash him, whereas Free Republic, The Blaze, Drudge, etc might be more than happy to lambaste a lefty author, or vice versa if he's righty... He seems more Libertarian than anything to be honest

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That's a good thought, re Drudge in particular. Also, my little series is now up to eight parts. I swear I could do 25 on all the badness and lies in that book, but enough is enough.

Mezrich speaks on 2+2:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ben Mezrich

Ok, been following this thread since its beginning; some very interesting conversations, and certainly everyone is entitled to their opinion. I went into this book knowing there would be a fair amount of controversy when it came out; not unlike my Facebook book, there are multiple sides to the story, and I'd chosen to come at it from the direction that most intrigues me, which may not be the direction that everyone out there wants this book to be written from. However, as an author, my goal is to go inside a story and see it through the eyes of the people who were there; to try and tell it as a thriller, from the POV of the characters themselves, in as true a fashion as my research- which involves hundreds of hours of interviews with the people themselves; thousands of pages of court documents; and whatever else i can find- allows. The only agenda I have is to tell this true story in an entertaining, enjoyable fashion; people who read my books understand what they are getting into. Some like the way I write my nonfiction, others don't; that's the nature of the beast.

Straight Flush is not a book focused on the AP cheating scandal, or the UB cheating scandal; that book may very well still be written, and there are plenty of competent journalists who seem to be very interested in writing that story. Straight Flush is the story of the rise of AP from an idea formed by a group of frat brothers, and the crash of AP due to the DOJ's takedown of the industry. It's about young men who turned a simple idea into a million dollar a day business; how they navigated the wild west atmosphere of Costa Rica; how they took risks and often got into trouble; and how it all fell apart, through the hypocrisy of UIGEA and what i see as a ridiculous, unfair legal action by the DOJ. My hope is that this book helps in the fight to make online poker legal, while telling a thrilling story about a group of complex individuals; these guys aren't saints by any stretch of the imagination- nor are they apparitions of evil. They are a group of friends who tried to do something cool, got caught up in a world of fast money, exotic thrills, and yes, temptations; it is indeed a story that involves greed, risky decisions, danger, and in the end, a big fall.

Both the AP cheating scandal and the UB cheating scandals are in the narrative; within the ten year timeline of the story, they are not the central focus, nor do i believe they should be; certainly, there are those who disagree with the way those scenes are written, and I look forward to reading other accounts of those events.

The truth is, the vast majority of people who lost money on Black Friday did not lose money because of cheating, or because of Scott Tom; IMO, they lost money because the DOJ shut the business down, froze assets; shady processors vanished with millions of dollars, many millions more were used to pay off employees because of costa rican laws, and millions more went to lawyers for legal defense. If Black Friday had not occured, players would not have lost that money. Unfortunately, the company didn't have a big enough war chest to pay off its accounts, and many people were devastated. All of that is presented in the book.

In any event, I appreciate the discourse, am fascinated by much of the research that those on this blog have done into the cheating scandals and the storyline, and look forward to continuing the debate about online gambling, as the story works its way farther and farther into the mainstream.

Best
Ben Mezrich

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:facepalm4

Lots of negative responses on 2+2 to the above, as expected.

Here is a sample of one:

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Originally Posted by Eric Stoner

Ben -

You didn't have money stolen by these operators. This is where the outrage is coming from. To opine that this was a DOJ thing and these guys were scapegoats just blatantly misses on all conceivable levels, and not to mention insulting to those who were cheated by these men.

I get that by just admitting that, and conceding its point, would disrupt the version found in your book (and by its going to print too late for retractions), but that is why you are getting heat.

Just by your comments here and elsewhere, it seems to me that you only took one version of the story, put into your archetypal structure, made the timeline fit your narrative, and called it good. By doing so though you didn't account for those here that would be ripped off by your narrative (and by the frat boys who initially perpetuated that narrative and crime).

While the story of ideas, turned to riches, turned to greed, turned to vice, turned to losing everything, makes a good VH1 special (and you can spin this yarn quite well also), this is the subject where people know the truth.

These guys had the means to steal money - something in the poker community is very sensitive about, and with good reason. The reason why Haley is appropriately angry with you is that you haven't listened or even acknowledged the possibility that you might have missed some of the important details of this particular story. Their greed caused them to cheat. The DOJ business was just icing on the cake.

These guys were never held accountable for their actions due to the unregulated environment of online poker, which is why we need it to be regulated for every jurisdiction. If you had something valuable that you had stolen from you, and the theives were still in the public eye and never held responsible for their actions, and no one listened to you, I'll wager (giving you odds), that you would be downright angry. Even more so if someone from the outside your experience believed the theives' version of events, published a book, and profited from it.

If you can't see that...then I don't know what else to write...

ES

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Mezrich responded with this nonsense, and subsequently vanished. I don't think he'll be back.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ben Mezrich

Ok, lots of posts, too many to try to respond to right now, but first off, let me start by saying I agree with many of these points concerning the end game at AB/UB vs Pokerstars; in the book I think it's clear (though many of you seem to disagree) that Black Friday left the players devastated because the business, due to prohibition-like persecution, was being run using overseas, shady payment processing, with no regulations protecting player money; the nature of the payment system was inherently flawed because of these complex steps the companies had to take to get money in and out of the US via these phony 'companies' (i.e. the ones selling nonexistant golf balls, flower delivery, etc,). I think there's a pretty good explanation on this link:

http://www.billrini.com/2011/05/12/p...imple-version/

that seems, to me, to explain some aspects of what was going on in all of these companies, and why PokerStars was able to pay back accounts while other companies couldn't. This isn't the kind of writing I do, and it wouldn't fit in the kind of book I write; but I'm sure many of you can go even farther to explain that aspect of how things went bad. The broad strokes, in my opinion, are how i described it- and I maintain that the blame should be aimed at the DOJ and UIGEA for setting this all in motion and creating this prohibition atmosphere. But I don't have a horse in this race, you can blame whoever you'd like. Scott and Hilt maintain that for the final several years of the business they had zero control of the company, they were not shareholders, directors, executives, consultants, etc. Pete, Garin and Brent were still involved but only as employees. I assume this won't convince people or keep the blame from flowing their way, but it does seem to me that the notion that people lost money because these guys were "cheats" is based more on emotion than on fact. The cheating and Black Friday are two separate events, involving different casts.

Most of the other comments seem to either be attacks on my style of nonfiction- which i understand, it's not for everyone- or a furious calling out of the AP 'founders'; specifically, Scott, and then after that, I think the brush seems to have a pretty wide stroke); related to the AP cheating scandal. I'm not here to defend them, again, I don't have a horse in that race, and personally i don't think the book paints anyone as a saint, this is simply the characters built via interviews, as they are, in their own words. I agree with everyone that the cheating was indeed a scandal, that the bones of that story are in the book, and that the more complex intricacies of that story are still to be told. I believe that part of the book is handled appropriately, but others can certainly go deeper and dig for more facts. In any event, I am not an investigative journalist, and I have always been perfectly clear about what I write, and how I write it. Narrative nonfiction- true stories written in a thrilleresque style; some of you will enjoy it, some will not.

Again, best, hopefully more to come:

Ben Mezrich

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There are many flaws in Mezrich's logic, but the biggest flaw is his claim that Black Friday was to blame for the demise of AP.

Black Friday simply put an end to the ongoing process of theft.

That process, simply put, was as follows:

1) Players deposit money to AP.

2) Scott Tom & associates steal it.

3) When players attempt to withdraw, they are only allowed to get paid with NEW deposits coming in -- a textbook example of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

4) If new deposits stop or cannot take place due to external factors (such as Black Friday), Scott Tom & friends simply pack up and leave with all of the stolen money.


That's the reality of what happened, and the above completely ignores the entire cheating/superusing scandal, which was horrendous all by itself.

It is likely that Mezrich was paid by Scott Tom and Oscar Hilt Tatum to write this story and pass it off as "nonfiction".

Mezrich even admits that he was "approached" by these guys to write the book:

Quote:

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“Two of the founders pitched me on, the story and it seemed like a blend of “21” and “The Social Network” so that’s why I got excited,” said Mezrich, who wrote the books on which those movies were based.

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http://www.boston.com/names/2013/06/...enL/story.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Mezrich responded with this nonsense, and subsequently vanished. I don't think he'll be back.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ben Mezrich

Ok, lots of posts, too many to try to respond to right now, but first off, let me start by saying I agree with many of these points concerning the end game at AB/UB vs Pokerstars; in the book I think it's clear (though many of you seem to disagree) that Black Friday left the players devastated because the business, due to prohibition-like persecution, was being run using overseas, shady payment processing, with no regulations protecting player money; the nature of the payment system was inherently flawed because of these complex steps the companies had to take to get money in and out of the US via these phony 'companies' (i.e. the ones selling nonexistant golf balls, flower delivery, etc,). I think there's a pretty good explanation on this link:

http://www.billrini.com/2011/05/12/p...imple-version/

that seems, to me, to explain some aspects of what was going on in all of these companies, and why PokerStars was able to pay back accounts while other companies couldn't. This isn't the kind of writing I do, and it wouldn't fit in the kind of book I write; but I'm sure many of you can go even farther to explain that aspect of how things went bad. The broad strokes, in my opinion, are how i described it- and I maintain that the blame should be aimed at the DOJ and UIGEA for setting this all in motion and creating this prohibition atmosphere. But I don't have a horse in this race, you can blame whoever you'd like. Scott and Hilt maintain that for the final several years of the business they had zero control of the company, they were not shareholders, directors, executives, consultants, etc. Pete, Garin and Brent were still involved but only as employees. I assume this won't convince people or keep the blame from flowing their way, but it does seem to me that the notion that people lost money because these guys were "cheats" is based more on emotion than on fact. The cheating and Black Friday are two separate events, involving different casts.

Most of the other comments seem to either be attacks on my style of nonfiction- which i understand, it's not for everyone- or a furious calling out of the AP 'founders'; specifically, Scott, and then after that, I think the brush seems to have a pretty wide stroke); related to the AP cheating scandal. I'm not here to defend them, again, I don't have a horse in that race, and personally i don't think the book paints anyone as a saint, this is simply the characters built via interviews, as they are, in their own words. I agree with everyone that the cheating was indeed a scandal, that the bones of that story are in the book, and that the more complex intricacies of that story are still to be told. I believe that part of the book is handled appropriately, but others can certainly go deeper and dig for more facts. In any event, I am not an investigative journalist, and I have always been perfectly clear about what I write, and how I write it. Narrative nonfiction- true stories written in a thrilleresque style; some of you will enjoy it, some will not.

Again, best, hopefully more to come:

Ben Mezrich

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Bill Rini was on 2+2 within hours to disavow the conclusions Mezrich drew from Bill's work.

Let's see, what else is new? A major review declaring the awesomeness of the book appeared as a full-page story in yesterday's Boston Globe, so I contacted the writer (a freelancer) and four editors there. The writer contacted me back, while the editors haven't, though since that's Mezrich's home city I would expect the fluffiest overall reception for the book there. One of those editors must have forwarded the complaint on to Mezrich, because within two hours there were three new Tweets from Mezrich fired in my direction. One of those complimented me on my top-notch investigative work, so I replied that that was the same work he portrayed as false in his own book.

All fun, all in a day's work in outing a literary liar. The object remains to make a big enough stink to be noticed, so then the poker world's complaints about AP and this horrible rewriting of history can be seen.

Off topic slightly but Brent Beckley is supposedly out of jail.

http://www.casinos-online.co.uk/news...c-out-of-jail/

9 of 10 parts are up.

Good read!

http://www.flushdraw.com/news/ben-me...-of-deception/

Usually these authors have book signing tours and go to book stores all around and show up at local news stations.......maybe there should be an organized hecklers union to make sure he gets a "warm" reception every place he shows up to try selling his book

Here is an idiotic interview with someone from CalivinAyre.com.

Looks like he got hair style tips from Doc Brown from Back to the Future.

http://calvinayre.com/2013/06/14/pok...view-bl-video/

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T66ipEp81J.../Doc+Brown.jpg

I'm hoping Druff won't mind me putting up links to each of the ten parts in the series, for easy reference. The meat of it comes in parts 3-6, plus part 9, though every entry has something juicy, blatant or hilarious within it.

Part 1: The Elements of Deception

Part 2: The Imperative Blackjack Omission

Part 3: The Biggest Lie about the Plane-Crash Story

Part 4: Return of the Unnamed Low-Level Employee

Part 5: The Scandal Timeline Falsification

Part 6: Ignoring Scott Tom's Funds-Transfer Incrimination

Part 7: The Payment-Processing and Banking Falsifications

Part 8: The Ridiculous Lifestyle Justifications

Part 9: Rehashing a Faked Corporate Sale

Part 10: Assorted Hilarities, Links and Reviews

I think stage two to getting the book and Mezrich justifiably discredited is to now take the most important of these things and keep putting them in front of mainstream outlets.

P.S. And thank you all for those who have visited and said kind things or offered constructive criticism. If you want to keep visiting Amazon and upticking mine and the other genuine reviews, I'd be very pleased by that.

Excellent job as always Haley, thanks

Part 11 is up:

http://www.flushdraw.com/misc/ben-me...ews-interview/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hockey Guy

Part 11 is up:

http://www.flushdraw.com/misc/ben-me...ews-interview/

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There are actually a couple of new things in there about the AP story which I don't think were publicly known, such as that Scott and the Hilt and the boys were planning a land-based casino complex in the Caribbean. One thing most casual observers don't understand is that of the two situations, UB and AP, the far larger theft occurred at AP. However, most of that larger theft was done against the company's other shareholders, with only an unknown few million being stolen from players directly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLnPd7lzT4g

love your work haley.