Merge seizes $1500 from Magic612 because he thinks they may be rigged. Click link/vid.

Merge seized $1500 from Magic612. This guy has never cheated and many witnesses will confirm. I posted a link to his show a while back. Apparently if you question Merge's integrity they will seize your cash. He had controversial beliefs but he never cheated.


Play the vid. at this link where he reads the letter Merge sent.
http://www.blogtv.com/People/PokerStarsIsAScam

Fair or unfair seizure? I vote unfair, the least they could of done is allow him to cash out first since every dime in his account is 100% fair and legit.

Edit: They offered a check for the account balance. CASE CLOSED imo

Which Merge skin was this?

Carbon

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Originally Posted by FPS_Russia

Merge seized $1500 from Magic612. This guy has never cheated and many witnesses will confirm. I posted a link to his show a while back. Apparently if you question Merge's integrity they will seize your cash. He had controversial beliefs but he never cheated.


Play the vid. at this link where he reads the letter Merge sent.
http://www.blogtv.com/People/PokerStarsIsAScam

Fair or unfair seizure? I vote unfair, the least they could of done is allow him to cash out first since every dime in his account is 100% fair and legit.

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I was with him until he said, "I folded kings, I folded queens, I folded tens, just to fucking fold to the gold". So it sounds like he's claiming that he folded big pairs preflop because he was looking to min-cash.

That last statement is a bit suspect, because that makes it sound like they were accusing him of softplaying or colluding (such as folding KK preflop when someone else opens with AA), and if he was folding big pairs like KK in spots where it otherwise didn't make sense to do so, I have to think maybe Merge was right.

Does anyone have any more information on this subject? I think he might be playing this up as retaliation for criticizing Merge, when in reality it might be a legitimate case of cheating.

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

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Originally Posted by FPS_Russia

Merge seized $1500 from Magic612. This guy has never cheated and many witnesses will confirm. I posted a link to his show a while back. Apparently if you question Merge's integrity they will seize your cash. He had controversial beliefs but he never cheated.


Play the vid. at this link where he reads the letter Merge sent.
http://www.blogtv.com/People/PokerStarsIsAScam

Fair or unfair seizure? I vote unfair, the least they could of done is allow him to cash out first since every dime in his account is 100% fair and legit.

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I was with him until he said, "I folded kings, I folded queens, I folded tens, just to fucking fold to the gold". So it sounds like he's claiming that he folded big pairs preflop because he was looking to min-cash.

That last statement is a bit suspect, because that makes it sound like they were accusing him of softplaying or colluding (such as folding KK preflop when someone else opens with AA), and if he was folding big pairs like KK in spots where it otherwise didn't make sense to do so, I have to think maybe Merge was right.

Does anyone have any more information on this subject? I think he might be playing this up as retaliation for criticizing Merge, when in reality it might be a legitimate case of cheating.

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He never soft played, colluded or cheated in any way. you're misinterpreting what he's saying. He prided himself on making folds and TBH he was pretty damn good at laying down the big pockets when he thought they were beat. He's got 200 YT videos where he calls out Stars the same as Merge. Trust me Stars would of loved to ban him but they couldn't because he never cheated. For reals, a cheater he is not.

Druff I am always wary when people come out and say that a site just banned them for no reason.

This guy is pretty well known in some circles for his videos on youtube. He is basically the modern day Tufffish from the old party poker videos.

I don't and can't see this guy scamming/colluding/ or cheating in any way. This guy has years worth of bad beat videos uploaded where he really gets the worst of it.

With that said, something else definitely happened. I don't think the guy cheated, but he is very vocal in expressing his opinion on poker sites being corrupt and scamming their players. He may have bad mouthed them to a serious extent. He may have said some shit or expressed some feelings that were just over the top. Is that enough for Carbon to confiscate his balance? I dunno.

I am willing to bet money this guy didn't cheat in any way. He is absolutely a friggin nut job, but I don't think a cheat.

Check out some of his videos, he def is a funny dude

http://youtu.be/jkykUDjWqvI

totally agree with FPSRussia

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Originally Posted by TheTemplar

Druff I am always wary when people come out and say that a site just banned them for no reason.

This guy is pretty well known in some circles for his videos on youtube. He is basically the modern day Tufffish from the old party poker videos.

I don't and can't see this guy scamming/colluding/ or cheating in any way. This guy has years worth of bad beat videos uploaded where he really gets the worst of it.

With that said, something else definitely happened. I don't think the guy cheated, but he is very vocal in expressing his opinion on poker sites being corrupt and scamming their players. He may have bad mouthed them to a serious extent. He may have said some shit or expressed some feelings that were just over the top. Is that enough for Carbon to confiscate his balance? I dunno.

I am willing to bet money this guy didn't cheat in any way. He is absolutely a friggin nut job, but I don't think a cheat.

Check out some of his videos, he def is a funny dude

http://youtu.be/jkykUDjWqvI

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sounds a lot like Scott Matusow

Dude is paid by sites to do this shit. They pay him to expose cheating in a way that no one would ever believe and laugh at, to further confuse people into thinking they are not getting cheated. Apparently he now has a job with Merge.


He's funny as hell though.

I should be a little more open minded about this.

After all, I was almost unfairly banned from Cake Poker in 2007 for "best balling and whip-sawing", and they were going to seize my 46k there. I had not cheated in any way, and they refused to provide me with any evidence that I had done so. Another high limit player was also banned. I somehow talked their moronic security guy out of it, after it seemed he was digging his heels in and refusing to reverse his decision. Perhaps it was because I was threatening to expose it all over the internet, including on my own site.

So perhaps this guy really got unfairly banned by Merge. I was skeptical because of his weird statement at the end about folding kings, and because I have known Merge to err on the side of inaction. That is, they seem to be too permissive about bots/collusion/etc, rather than too trigger-happy.

I am also a bit suspicious because this guy won't explain why Merge is closing his account. He is reading their final closure letter, but none of the communications before that.

Can someone invite him here to explain himself? I'll even be glad to put him on a radio show (either our upcoming pilot, or a special one just about this topic) if he would like. However, I'm going to ask the tough questions and attempt to get to the bottom of it.

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

"best balling and whip-sawing"

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I threw my back out doing this with a POF girl one time

So how do we get a hold of this dude and ask him to tell his side of the story here?

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

So how do we get a hold of this dude and ask him to tell his side of the story here?

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Nah he hates poker forums. It may of been because he broadcast live or whatever. I just think they should offer him the chance to cashout, which I doubt he would accept anyhow. He's said on many occasions he has no intention of cashing out, that money is for his poker show. It's amazing how deep he runs considering he's one of the tightest players I've ever seen.

Dudes got some pretty good coin in the bank, not 7 figure Dan Druff amounts but he's doin ok.

Druff how much money you got, are you really a millionaire?:)

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Originally Posted by FPS_Russia

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

So how do we get a hold of this dude and ask him to tell his side of the story here?

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Nah he hates poker forums. It may of been because he broadcast live or whatever. I just think they should offer him the chance to cashout, which I doubt he would accept anyhow.

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Then there's pretty much nowhere to go with this until we get more information.

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Originally Posted by FPS_Russia

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

So how do we get a hold of this dude and ask him to tell his side of the story here?

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Nah he hates poker forums. It may of been because he broadcast live or whatever. I just think they should offer him the chance to cashout, which I doubt he would accept anyhow.

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I've listened to this guy. He's hilarious.

We've all experienced the bad beats he discusses but if he's so certain it's rigged why does he continue playing?

I think he's so jaded that he feels he must fold KK, QQ, 10/10, because he knows the DOOM hammer is coming on the turn or river. He continues playing but employs an odd strategy to beat the 'rigged' RNG deck. That's why I strongly feel this guy never cheated.

Who cares if he hates poker forums? Get him as a radio guest! I think he'll be great.

Merge has offered to send him a check for the account balance. That's fair in my book, can't really blame them for not wanting his business.

CASE CLOSED imo

Magic is god. I used to speak with him a fair amount in his shows. He is back on semi regularly now, isn't he? I will tell him, if there is any forum for him, this is it.

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Originally Posted by DJ_Chaps

Magic is god. I used to speak with him a fair amount in his shows. He is back on semi regularly now, isn't he? I will tell him, if there is any forum for him, this is it.

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DJ try to get him here. That guy is in a class all by himself.

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Originally Posted by TheTemplar

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Originally Posted by DJ_Chaps

Magic is god. I used to speak with him a fair amount in his shows. He is back on semi regularly now, isn't he? I will tell him, if there is any forum for him, this is it.

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DJ try to get him here. That guy is in a class all by himself.

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Can we also invite Bill Fillmaff and have them play heads up for rolls.

this is not the first time i've heard of this practice but all the previous times i've heard of this happening on merge it was because the customer had contacted the KGC and/or another regulatory body with complaints. they even told the people that they had the right to refuse their business without provocation and but then went on to mention their formal complaints as part of the reason which I found to be pretty outrageous; even if its allowed...its just immature and wtf is the KGC doing sharing the names of these people with merge??

ill look around later and post the links, but i'm 99% sure these guys did nothing wrong, technically, but were stilled perma-banned from the entire network and even a few cases of people not getting their money after this happened.

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Originally Posted by ktx49

this is not the first time i've heard of this practice but all the previous times i've heard of this happening on merge it was because the customer had contacted the KGC and/or another regulatory body with complaints. they even told the people that they had the right to refuse their business without provocation and but then went on to mention their formal complaints as part of the reason which I found to be pretty outrageous; even if its allowed...its just immature and wtf is the KGC doing sharing the names of these people with merge??

ill look around later and post the links, but i'm 99% sure these guys did nothing wrong, technically, but were stilled perma-banned from the entire network and even a few cases of people not getting their money after this happened.

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Can someone put up a BracketGeek thing where we guess which Cake Poker skin (or US network/room) this guy works for?

I'm thinking Colt. The past couple months, they have been making a big push.

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Originally Posted by ktx49

this is not the first time i've heard of this practice but all the previous times i've heard of this happening on merge it was because the customer had contacted the KGC and/or another regulatory body with complaints. they even told the people that they had the right to refuse their business without provocation and but then went on to mention their formal complaints as part of the reason which I found to be pretty outrageous; even if its allowed...its just immature and wtf is the KGC doing sharing the names of these people with merge??

ill look around later and post the links, but i'm 99% sure these guys did nothing wrong, technically, but were stilled perma-banned from the entire network and even a few cases of people not getting their money after this happened.

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Can you link me to proof of these allegations?

If Merge is really banning people for complaining to the KGC, that's pretty bad, even if it's not illegal.

jesus. i made small deposit to try carbon out. 2 hours later and i witness such bad beats. like people hitting 1 and three outers on me. never fails. might be me.

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Originally Posted by ktx49

this is not the first time i've heard of this practice but all the previous times i've heard of this happening on merge it was because the customer had contacted the KGC and/or another regulatory body with complaints. they even told the people that they had the right to refuse their business without provocation and but then went on to mention their formal complaints as part of the reason which I found to be pretty outrageous; even if its allowed...its just immature and wtf is the KGC doing sharing the names of these people with merge??

ill look around later and post the links, but i'm 99% sure these guys did nothing wrong, technically, but were stilled perma-banned from the entire network and even a few cases of people not getting their money after this happened.

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Oh Christ not this fuckin character again. Are you ever going to sumbit any proof for all of the shit you've spammed every poker forum with?

you guys are retarded. i need proof for every topic i want to discuss about merge? and stop trying to act like i'm some shill you guys refuse to address anything ive brought up and continue to scream proof when i'm not calling out anyone specifically. if i said "______ is running four accounts and cheating on merge" then i'd need some proof.

so back off and stop trying so hard to make me look bad. its stupid if you want some proof of the ability for people to reg into the same tourney from the same IP using multiple accounts check out this:

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[25/04/2012 7:38:34 PM] JPetch01 (Joe): hey andrew
[25/04/2012 7:38:36 PM] JPetch01 (Joe): i dont know what happened
[25/04/2012 7:38:52 PM] JPetch01 (Joe): but all what was left in my account just got transfered to CSGinc
[25/04/2012 7:43:42 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): hey
[25/04/2012 7:43:55 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): yeah the guys were speaking to me today
[25/04/2012 7:45:06 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): and they showed me a transcript of you registering into the same tournaments at the same times on both your accounts on 7 different occasions
[25/04/2012 7:45:36 PM] JPetch01 (Joe): who showed you the bcp people?
[25/04/2012 7:47:01 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): no it wasnt them
[25/04/2012 7:48:06 PM] JPetch01 (Joe): soo i dont see the problem not like we got caught or anything..
[25/04/2012 7:48:37 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): well that statement in and of itself is very unsettling
[25/04/2012 7:48:59 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): you shouldnt be joining tourneys with two accounts because it is flat out wrong
[25/04/2012 7:50:16 PM] JPetch01 (Joe): tbh everyone and the mother is doing it on merge
[25/04/2012 7:52:31 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): that may be, but just because they do it doesnt mean you should be donig it as well
[25/04/2012 7:56:13 PM] JPetch01 (Joe): i really dont see this as a big deal
[25/04/2012 7:56:28 PM] JPetch01 (Joe): i saw the same guy in one tourney on 4 diff names
[25/04/2012 7:56:52 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): well he should be reported then
[25/04/2012 7:57:12 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): 4 names in the same tourney gives him a ridiculously unfair advantage over everyone else
[25/04/2012 7:57:16 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): especially in small fields
[25/04/2012 7:59:49 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): if you see all these guys miltiaccounting, you should be reporting it to merge, not doing the same thing yourself just "because everyone else does it"
[25/04/2012 8:00:05 PM] JPetch01 (Joe): lol im not reporting people
[25/04/2012 8:00:44 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): well whether you decide to report them or not is up to you
[25/04/2012 8:00:55 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): but you cant play on 2 acconuts in the same tourney
[25/04/2012 8:03:03 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): unfortunately the damage has been done and we are ending the stake
[25/04/2012 8:04:04 PM] JPetch01 (Joe): okay
[25/04/2012 8:04:17 PM] JPetch01 (Joe): im in 5 games right now tho
[25/04/2012 8:20:51 PM] Andrew Helleur (Mtlpokerking): ok

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and i'm serious, you need to fkn stop it now with trying to make me out like some shill or someone with some grudge against merge. i'm a MTT reg on merge i dont have some agenda like you seem to think, all i care about is cleaning UP THE GAMES THAT I AM PLAYING IN. i know for a fact that Merge security is a joke and this stuff is going largely undetected and is going to completely ruin the site....

merge has a lot of potential, as a MTT grinder they've done a lot lately to improve the schedule, add better tourneys, better structures etc...they seem to care some what about keeping the customers happy but if they are going to completely ignore the security issues any poker site will need to address, then they are going to fail and fail hard.

Still not paid, here's a lil update from Magic. He shows examples of him folding big hands preflop etc. IIRC he got nothing for his boatload of fpp's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIkUngMAu58&feature=g-all-u
The views expressed in this video are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FPS_Russia:)