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Thread: Female chess YouTuber Qiyu "Nemo" Zhou wins $12k WPT package, runs contest to give it away -- and then rigs it for her boyfriend Alex "Thallo" Epstein

  1. #21
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    Nemo is annoying.
    Anyway, here is Nemo getting worked (repeatedly) by Xuan Liu.

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    Platinum JeffDime's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dive_Bar_Dave View Post
    Nemo is annoying.
    Anyway, here is Nemo getting worked (repeatedly) by Xuan Liu.
    Xuan seems like a nice person but this is just bizarre af. I couldn’t even get through it at 2x speed. She also looks like 14 years old with whatever filter she is using in the video. Not sure who this content is for… but it’s not me.

    Druff I think you covered this well on radio. I did want to mention that reports were that Thallo was already selling the seat before he even “won” it. I also feel like it’s highly doubtful that she deposited money on WPT Global and won the satellite. Then was told she has to give it away. This just doesn’t pass the smell test that WPT would make her give it away if she actually paid to enter.

    My understanding was these influencers were largely playing in the US. They didn’t put up money and that was the supposed loophole as the prize they were playing for was a “giveaway”. However, those playing on the platform in other countries depositing real money to enter were actually playing for the seat.

    Thallo is clearly just trying to talk in circles. They fucked up and they should own it already. They were so consumed they had to give this away and felt they were entitled to it. Just bad all around. Now Nemo gets a trip to the Bahamas and buyins on the house. What a world.

  3. #23
    not surprised Thallos action, a little surprised Nemo still took wsop 's money even though knowing the reaction this would bring. shady stuff. half those giveaway last year had some favoritetism behind them ,which is probably a reason wpt cut back on them for this December.

  4. #24
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hesterandeldridge View Post
    not surprised Thallos action, a little surprised Nemo still took wsop 's money even though knowing the reaction this would bring. shady stuff. half those giveaway last year had some favoritetism behind them ,which is probably a reason wpt cut back on them for this December.
    Yeah I haven't even noticed them this year. Did they do a giveaway via influencers at all this year? I haven't seen any, whereas in November 2022, you couldn't miss these WPT giveaways when reading poker social media.

    I agree that a lot of these giveaways last year were fairly shady, and riddled with favoritism or outright rigging. In most cases, though, it wasn't provable or blatant enough to really make public allegations. I had a lot of people coming to me, asking me to publicly bash X or Y social media personality for "rigging" their giveaways, but the strong evidence just wasn't quite there. I agreed with these allegations in many cases, but it just wasn't enough for me to accuse people, so I didn't.

    The Nemo/Thallo one was the only giveaway which had such an obvious rigging element that it drew the most attention. The initially flippant attitude by both Thallo and Nemo also poured much more fuel on that otherwise small fire.

    As I said on radio, WPT Global made a mistake by not giving stricter guidelines on how these could be given away. Had they done so, the various rigging controversies (of which this one was biggest) would have been virtually nonexistent.

    Thallo claims that Nemo won this seat in a cash satellite, and didn't get it for free like the others. If that's true, I agree with them that Nemo should have been allowed to transfer it to Thallo without any contest nonsense. Still, even if unfairly commanded to hold a contest if she wanted to give it away, Nemo/Thallo badly mishandled it from that point.

    I do wonder how much WSOP paid her to be a sponsored player for their Atlantis tournament. You raise a good point that it may not have been worth the renewed backlash if she wasn't getting paid much.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Yeah I haven't even noticed them this year. Did they do a giveaway via influencers at all this year? I haven't seen any, whereas in November 2022, you couldn't miss these WPT giveaways when reading poker social media.
    They just don’t need them this year. They have given out a few here and there. But mostly, they are giving out $2,500 packages to their $1,100 prime tournament. Andrew Neeme and Brad Owen have been involved but they are WPT ambassadors. They don’t seem to be using random influencers. I just think they don’t feel the need to spend the money this year and will still have great success.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    I do wonder how much WSOP paid her to be a sponsored player for their Atlantis tournament. You raise a good point that it may not have been worth the renewed backlash if she wasn't getting paid much.
    I think Botez was going to bring her anyways and just figured why should she foot the bill. The fact that in their tweet the WSOP tagged Alexandra in it makes this really clear to me. It’s was probably a package deal. You want me, well take care of Nemo too.

    That’s essentially what I’m getting from this. Nemo doesn’t care about her poker rep, it’s shit forever. But if they are going to pay for her vacation and buy-ins….of course she’s going to take them. I think Botez made it happen.

  6. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by hesterandeldridge View Post
    not surprised Thallos action, a little surprised Nemo still took wsop 's money even though knowing the reaction this would bring. shady stuff. half those giveaway last year had some favoritetism behind them ,which is probably a reason wpt cut back on them for this December.
    Yeah I haven't even noticed them this year. Did they do a giveaway via influencers at all this year? I haven't seen any, whereas in November 2022, you couldn't miss these WPT giveaways when reading poker social media.

    I agree that a lot of these giveaways last year were fairly shady, and riddled with favoritism or outright rigging. In most cases, though, it wasn't provable or blatant enough to really make public allegations. I had a lot of people coming to me, asking me to publicly bash X or Y social media personality for "rigging" their giveaways, but the strong evidence just wasn't quite there. I agreed with these allegations in many cases, but it just wasn't enough for me to accuse people, so I didn't.

    The Nemo/Thallo one was the only giveaway which had such an obvious rigging element that it drew the most attention. The initially flippant attitude by both Thallo and Nemo also poured much more fuel on that otherwise small fire.

    As I said on radio, WPT Global made a mistake by not giving stricter guidelines on how these could be given away. Had they done so, the various rigging controversies (of which this one was biggest) would have been virtually nonexistent.

    Thallo claims that Nemo won this seat in a cash satellite, and didn't get it for free like the others. If that's true, I agree with them that Nemo should have been allowed to transfer it to Thallo without any contest nonsense. Still, even if unfairly commanded to hold a contest if she wanted to give it away, Nemo/Thallo badly mishandled it from that point.

    I do wonder how much WSOP paid her to be a sponsored player for their Atlantis tournament. You raise a good point that it may not have been worth the renewed backlash if she wasn't getting paid much.
    i know of at least two that were semi rigged (i wont say who) , so probably a big reason why wpt did not do this year.

    wsop is willing to take a loss by sponsoring a whole group of players (they just added david williams , which is totally fine as he really is part of the poker community)

    thats at least 15-20 players they are sponsoring.


    im gonna assume at the minimum 20k in buy ins plus all expenses paid for. obviously someone like dnegs would get more.

  7. #27
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Looks like WSOP Paradise has a bit of a concern about not making the $5m guarantee!

    Look at what dropped in people's inboxes, albeit fairly last minute:

    https://twitter.com/ToddWitteles/status/1730304335001821352



    According to Twitter responses, only SOME 7 Stars got it. It's not clear which criteria was used.

     
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  8. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Looks like WSOP Paradise has a bit of a concern about not making the $5m guarantee!

    Look at what dropped in people's inboxes, albeit fairly last minute:

    https://twitter.com/ToddWitteles/status/1730304335001821352



    According to Twitter responses, only SOME 7 Stars got it. It's not clear which criteria was used.
    i mean it was pretty evident from the get go it was gonna be bad. just paid influencers , euros and those that qualified from satties

  9. #29

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