PP Poker: Individuals running "clubs" on an app where they hold all the money -- what could go wrong? (Adnan Mohammad scam)

PP Poker is an app which has been growing in popularity in 2018 (and now 2019).

Here's the website for it: http://www.pppoker.net

How does it work?

In short, people start "clubs" on there, which act as virtual private games. The owner of each "club" handles the money deposited/withdrawn from the game, and it's basically a way to play online poker in the US, even if you don't want to deal with ACR/Bovada/whatever.

The manager of the PPP club pays some sort of monthly fee to PPP, and then there's some split of the rake collected (not sure of the exact split percentages).

This is totally illegal in the US, and people could go to prison if caught running a PPP club for real money, but it's no riskier than running an illegal brick-and-mortar home game.

Would I ever consider running one? Fuck no.

Of course, the big flaw is that the money is being held/handled by a third party you can't necessarily trust. And there's been a number of stories thus far of people being ripped off by managers of PPP clubs.

According to a thread on 2+2, a pretty big ripoff has occurred on one of the PPP clubs.

Adnan Mohammad, aka "NYPokerKing", a trustworthy-sounding screen name if I ever heard one, is accused of stealing over $100,000 from players on his PPP club.

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/pict...n+Mohammad.jpg

His club's gimmicky website can be found at http://pokerclub.ag

The evidence in the 2+2 thread suggests that Adnan basically ran a ponzi scheme, pocketing all of the money on deposit, and then using new deposits to pay requested cashouts. Reportedly he would pay the most active rakers at the moment, figuring that they were the ones he wanted to keep most happy. However, even they were paid in a trickle. One person on 2+2 reported that it took 10 payouts just to get paid $3000!

Two people were chronicled in the thread to have lost over $40k and $20k, respectively.

Others chimed in, and apparently Adnan looks like he's not paying anyone unless new deposits come in, and then he forwards those to existing players, based upon their current rake generating activity.

Adnan Mohammad is a fine gentleman who was convicted of grand larceny in 2013, but I'm sure it was all just a huge misunderstanding, and he's a salt-of-the-earth character.

The writing was on the wall regarding Adnan Mohammad and his PPP club, as there was already a thread calling him out in April 2018. Why anyone continued to play there or trust this guy is beyond me.

There was another PPP scandal based out of Houston last year, and I've heard of plenty of others.

Best to stay off that entire app.

In fact, even if your PPP club is being managed by someone solvent and trustworthy, there's still the matters of game security, which basically you have no reason at all to trust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV9uECcTjSs

Joey crushing it again

More villains!

Pete Burrell aka "Peteystayfresh" apparently was Adnan's partner in this scam. He lives in Florida.

He's said to work for Allegiant Airways. When his Facebook page was posted to 2+2, Pete abruptly deleted his Facebook, presumably because Pete was erroneously believed to be working for Spirit, and was hoping no one would realize the mistake.

People on 2+2 researched Pete and found that his father was convicted of a number of felonies over the years.

Courtney Hamilton aka "LiberalChick" lives in the Los Angeles area. She's appeared on Live at the Bike a few times. She's in her early 30s and pretty, but has an incredibly abrasive personality, and always seems to be crying victim that guys in poker are harassing her.

I was surprised to see that Courtney was caught up in this mess, working for Adnan as an "agent" since at least December 2017. Courtney was made aware of the club being a scam back in April, but she continued promoting it until December. Some on 2+2 have reported that she's taken a flippant attitude with anyone who signed up through her (because they trusted her) who subsequently got scammed.

She's also abandoned Twitter for the past 4 days.

I actually had a Twitter battle with Courtney in July 2017. You can see a lot of it here, but her original tweet (a guessing game regarding a "male friend" who supposedly stopped talking to her after she rejected his sexual propositions) has snice been deleted. The argument had nothing to do with scams, but interestingly, not one social media white knight came to her defense, which was highly unexpected given that she's a pretty girl in poker. I figured that she had to be really insufferable for that to be the case.

More recently, in October 2018, she got into a nasty Twitter fight with WSOP Main Event 4th place finisher Nic Manion, and got him suspended from Twitter. Laughably, in the midst of that fight where she was claiming victimhood once again, she was openly promoting Adnan's scam.

I feel bad for the victims, as they are being tricked all over again.

Realizing that his carefully crafted image of a poker/pit game baller has been ruined, Adnan called up the main victims of this scam and attempted to make nice.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DonkeyCopter

I just got off the phone with Adnan. He will be paying those that were removed from their chips and cashout balances by Pokerclub.ag. He says he is getting the cash together now which could take up to 2 weeks.

He wanted to pass along that Petey was not involved in any of the decision making surrounding this, Petey was just a referral agent for the club and had nothing to do with what happened. I believe the same goes for cortney.

Adnan apologizes for the way this was handled, and will be contacting Joey and chase as well to make his own public statement.

Adnan has sent me $911 of the $43,511 balance so far.

I will update this thread on payment follow through.

He’s already contacted at least one other person who is owed money.

I will only be providing the facts of further interactions I have with adnan.

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Source: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=281

Quote:

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Originally Posted by philly2230

Update. This is Slizzle. I like DonkeyCopter spoke to Adnan personally and he is making this right. He just sent me $1000 in good faith and will clear the remaining balance in next couple weeks. Is sending another 2,000 by Tuesday. I will keep you posted.

He also asked me to make it a point to mention that Petey was not involved in running anything and just plays for fun and promoted for a short time.

Thank you for everyone help in putting this in spotlight.

---

Source: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=296


Good luck to these guys, but I doubt this is going to happen. How is he going to get the $100k+ he probably owes? From the money tree?

He's buying time. If he wasn't, he would have sent far more than a laughable $911, which was probably every penny he had to his name at the moment.

Oddly enough, Adnan seems to be telling them to ask people to lay off Pete and Courtney. I'm assuming that both are giving him heat about this, especially Pete who is now worried about his airline job.

Regarding Pete and Courtney, they deserve no sympathy. The payout issues were made known to them back in April, and they continued promoting it. They are also reading the thread yet refusing to make any public statements about it.

I'm guessing the "You'll get paid in 2 weeks" promise was done in order to induce positive public statements from you and other major creditors, and they'll get some excuse/stall in 2 weeks regarding why nobody's been paid.

https://youtu.be/cE--tWCCWqM

guessing the amount of dick to ride in the LA area to get buyins for those LATB games has dried up so she's had to go the shady route...

im shocked, SHOCKED I SAY, that this chick has an entitle attitude about all of this...

Good article by Haley Hintze about the situation: http://www.flushdraw.net/news/adnan-...o-play-blowup/

Oh... and that lawsuit from Rapid Cash, Inc. against Adnan for stealing from their machines? Here it is below. Note that the suit was dismissed for unknown reasons.

LOL

Ryan Depaulo approached Adnan at Borgata, and Adnan pretended they had no issue.

This was after Adnan had threatened Ryan 2 weeks ago that he would "slap the shit out of him" if he showed his face at Borgata.

The story is here: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=687

“Adnan has sent me $911 of the $43,511 balance so far.”

Sounds like jasep. What ever happened after he was outed, shamed, and sent in a couple of payments?

I follow this guy on IG and on his story he bragged about how 20+ people came up to him to wish him nothing but luck and good vibes over at Borgata...and then re-bragged about how none of his "haters" had the balls to show up and talk shit to him in person...riiiiggghhht, Adnan.

It was entertaining watching him lose $35,000 teasing the Pats/Chiefs game and him acting like it was no big deal on his IG Story - most likely because it was from the money his poker club is stealing from its own members, lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

LOL

Ryan Depaulo approached Adnan at Borgata, and Adnan pretended they had no issue.

This was after Adnan had threatened Ryan 2 weeks ago that he would "slap the shit out of him" if he showed his face at Borgata.

The story is here: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=687

---

The general consensus was that he didn't lose 35k on that game, and the ticket he posted was fake.

Dude is all image and no substance.

Heard of PP Poker before about 3 weeks ago. I got invited to play a home game and heard about it there. One of the guys running the game was opening another spot in the city and needed dealers and invited me to deal their PLO, and PL Big O Hi-Lo game a few times a week.

Turns out he runs one of PPP's unions with 2 other gents. Nice guys, so far... You never really know til shit hits the fan.

They do recruit players to get them into there PPP games and guys like me can recruit as well and get a small % of what they bring to the games. Personally I don't bother with it, I have other crap to do. Also I almost got owned by a pyramid scheme thing with Life Vantage back when I was 18, so I see these things from at least a quarter mile away now. Side note... Turns out churches are a breeding ground for pyramid schemes... Every church I've been too, there is always some dude doing this. The latest has been a guy rounding people up for a crypto currency pyramid scheme at an old church I visited for the holidays. Anywhoooo.

The players playing on PPP are not bound to only playing within their own union. They are pooled together to play with other players belonging to other unions and the union shareholders per se get a % of the rake collected from whatever their players bring to the game. They pay separate fee's to PPP themselves and I'm not quite sure how that breaks down, but its much, much less than the rake they are making.

They do however run some union specific tournaments and cash games through the app. That usually comes through the live game crowd they offer games for throughout the week...

As of now there has been some hoopla concerning some outstanding debts. Shocker. However those controlling the union I have come to know were not to blame. The guy who ran the union before those that I deal for, took off with 5000 in player funds leaving the union high and dry. Some individuals stepped up to take over the union and those are the people I have gotten to know over the last month or so.

They decided to keep the union going but could not pay the 5k in debts without using their live game profits to do so. So, other unions belonging to PPP that they have connections with decided to split the 5k in debt evenly and pay out the players. I believe it was 5-6 other unions that helped pitch in. There were prior problems with big players not making good on money fronted through the books...

I wouldn't money on that thing, at least not anything more than a few hundred without routinely cashing out excess winnings. Also the rake is set by union ops, so it can change whenever, but PPP has a cap so it doesn't get to retarded. Thus as Joey mentioned in his Youtube video union ops taking addition $$ from winning players.

I hate to say it, but I think more people are going to get burned. It's not regulated so anyone can start a union and get more players as time goes on and be as shady or upstanding as they want to be. My bet is that it's usually the former.

NYPK should take my user name and tattoo is across his forehead...

Any Updates on This?

NYPokerKing just drove his Bentley cross country to Vegas for WSOP. Saying no haters approached him at the RIO. Todd, please confront him and try to get him on radio, it will be pure gold! His own custom PPPoker type room is launching soon. U probably will hear of middle men trying to get players signed up at the WSOP.

With tons of Instagram followers there should be lots of fish to start. Clearly taking a HUGE risk if U join but the first few months could possibly be worth it. Especially with WSOP going, the avg instagram Donk is pumped up to get in on the action. Obv being rigged is huge concern but if U get in and out in the first few months and limit your risk - it might be worth the gamble. It would be the worst Business model ever if players don't get payed out during the first few months.

Listen to Todd discuss on radio: 23:12 https://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sh...oker-SSScammer

https://www.instagram.com/nypokerking/ (U need to watch his stories - he doesn't do many actual posts)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dale1

With tons of Instagram followers there should be lots of fish to start. Clearly taking a HUGE risk if U join but the first few months could possibly be worth it. Especially with WSOP going, the avg instagram Donk is pumped up to get in on the action. Obv being rigged is huge concern but if U get in and out in the first few months and limit your risk - it might be worth the gamble. It would be the worst Business model ever if players don't get payed out during the first few months.

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Nice thinly veiled shill.

I’ve played on this app before. Started off ok but after 2-3 weeks it was pure gold - I was doing very well. But then the guys running the club had to shut it down because of the one critical flaw of PPP..... you can’t control the amount of credit. Turns out 5-10 of the 70sh club members were feeding the other 60. When they ran out
Of money, and even worse couldn’t pay the 10k+ they owed, the club collapsed. The runners did their best to payoff everyone (my agent guarnetted the funds so I was good) and they tried to move everyone over to a different app where they could control the credit. By the time (2 weeks) the new place got up and running only 20-25 of the players came over and it was the top winners from the other site. The games were fucking dogshit.

I don’t mind the model and I think it can work but beware who is actually running the club. Additionally if they using PPP just know there is a good chance there may be issues if you see people shooting off on credit.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daly

I’ve played on this app before. Started off ok but after 2-3 weeks it was pure gold - I was doing very well. But then the guys running the club had to shut it down because of the one critical flaw of PPP..... you can’t control the amount of credit. Turns out 5-10 of the 70sh club members were feeding the other 60. When they ran out
Of money, and even worse couldn’t pay the 10k+ they owed, the club collapsed. The runners did their best to payoff everyone (my agent guarnetted the funds so I was good) and they tried to move everyone over to a different app where they could control the credit. By the time (2 weeks) the new place got up and running only 20-25 of the players came over and it was the top winners from the other site. The games were fucking dogshit.

I don’t mind the model and I think it can work but beware who is actually running the club. Additionally if they using PPP just know there is a good chance there may be issues if you see people shooting off on credit.

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yup, I have had good luck with a couple smaller club-like sites. At the time my main dude was always trading poker stars/ft money for the main club site that I made money on so I would get some stars and sell it to my poker bar buddies. One of my biggest hands was when I shoved a river with jack high and got called by seven high for a huge pot. Unfortunately black Friday fucked that site up too since trading for Stars/FT $$ was the only way to get the money off for me.

Another drive a bently living on hoe ave in bronx ny, Gotta blame they players who did not due the due diligence . However it seems people caught up pretty quickly that this was a ponzi. Hope a lot of other people don't get sucked in. Acr ,Bovada are bad enough with all their miss dealings. At least there is some recourse when things go south.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daly

I’ve played on this app before. Started off ok but after 2-3 weeks it was pure gold - I was doing very well. But then the guys running the club had to shut it down because of the one critical flaw of PPP..... you can’t control the amount of credit. Turns out 5-10 of the 70sh club members were feeding the other 60. When they ran out
Of money, and even worse couldn’t pay the 10k+ they owed, the club collapsed. The runners did their best to payoff everyone (my agent guarnetted the funds so I was good) and they tried to move everyone over to a different app where they could control the credit. By the time (2 weeks) the new place got up and running only 20-25 of the players came over and it was the top winners from the other site. The games were fucking dogshit.

I don’t mind the model and I think it can work but beware who is actually running the club. Additionally if they using PPP just know there is a good chance there may be issues if you see people shooting off on credit.

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Yea I was offered a spot on this in one of these clubs and played a bit. Not sure how good/bad people are.. I hated hte interface and not that into poker to play in an app. Supposedly full of "vietnamese shrimpers" and so forth. haha. But the problem is they'd get players who would just go off for 1500 or more and they weren't the kinda guys that should have ever been allowed to do that. From what i could tell owners couldn't manage credit because there was no tool to do so. haha.. what a fucking oversight. I assume this was PPPoker. You slid your finger to peak at the cards. Had an annoying interface. So these $100 stack players get a couple thousand deep and they'd just disappear. doh

Someone hacked Adnan's voicemail and showed that he has debts as low as $90.

:lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvPVIBD4WuA

There are a couple of these (at least) that players in my local card room play, at the table in a casino. I just can't think of all the reasons this is a bad idea but getting scammed out of your money, collusion, rigging and the card room getting pissed and ratting them out are just a few. I asked one "Don't you worry about collusion?" and he said "I know all these guys..." Even more reason that there would be collusion.

Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if the feds go after the software vendors after awhile. Play chips or not, generally if the vendor (software provider) knows, has reason to know, or consciously avoids knowing that its system is being used illegally, it can be liable for that use, regardless of the (ignored) TOS or contract.