I write things about poker at my Poker Blog and elsewhere on the Internets
That's a reasonable read. It's clear from the way Pierson and Friedberg describe certain things that they already knew Russ did the cheating before he admitted it, though the thing that a lot of people don't realize that all this talks about is just the "post Oracle" cheating, which is like 2005-07. Before that it's a different story, and it's a between-the-lines presence in what is said on the tapes.
A lot people are also posting elsewhere that what Russ says exonerates Matloubi, to which I say, "Hell, no." Russ knew he was taping and his intent was to get the others to incriminate themselves, and anyone thinking everything that Russ says on those tapes is gospel needs his head examined. Russ never planned for this to come out; he just wanted leverage against the other guys, and that was why he taped these.
Trying to understand criminal behaviour is a slippery slope. They simply don't think like decent people. Unless Russ tell us why he did what he did, we'll never know for sure. Even if he did, would you believe him?
A message from Annie Duke.
http://t.co/CAhOd75eLI
Statement from Annie Duke, John Vorhaus and Joanne Priam
by Annie Duke (Notes) on Saturday, May 18, 2013 at 11:24pm
Statement from Annie Duke:
Listening to the leaked audio that describes an elaborate attempt by some of UltimateBet.com’s founders, including Russ Hamilton and Greg Pierson, to cover up cheating reminds me once again how much I regret having been associated with the people that were involved in this conspiracy. The release of this audio has spurred accusations and I want to make it clear that I have never used a tool on a delay or otherwise that gave me or anyone else access to hole cards for use during real money play nor was I aware that such a tool existed until the scandal broke.
Knowing what I know today, I would have never encouraged anyone to play on the UltimateBet.com site under that management. I’m horrified at the lengths to which these people went to try to cover up their actions, and I am very sorry that I ever agreed to work with them. I remain very upset that people were cheated and that, partly because of the actions of the people on this tape, it took far too long to pay back the $23 million that was owed to the victims, and that hand history information was never fully provided to the public.
However, the audio recordings and the data dump from Travis Makar and others also make it completely clear who the perpetrators of the UltimateBet.com cheating were, and that I was not involved in their scheme in any way. For those who have not taken the time to listen to the full audio, at one point Russ Hamilton mischaracterizes my legitimate role as a commentator as he tries to concoct a cover story for his scheme. I can only assume that he is referring to the several times that I commentated on tournaments in which a delayed broadcast was provided to the public, as this was the only delay that I was ever aware of.
In the audio Dan Friedberg says, “I think for the public, it just has to be former consultant to the company, ah, took advantage of a server flaw by hacking into the client…” (This can be heard at 47:01 on the audio). Then Russ Hamilton adds, “And what you could also say is that the tool was originally set for a 15 minute delay and he [Makar] hacked it to a, uh, yeah, to a real time…” (47:29 on the audio). Then Russ continues, ‘Annie Duke used it on a 15 minute delay quite a few times.’ (47:41 on the audio). It is clear that they are trying to concoct a story to cover up what they did by suggesting that a third party hacked a legitimate delayed broadcast tool to create a cheating tool.
The facts are that during commentary, what I saw as the hands were being played wasexactly what every other spectator of the table was able to see. I and other co-commentators were providing commentary as we watched live play, and the broadcast of our comments was delayed as is standard practice to avoid affecting play. The screen that I saw was captured and streamed onto the internet along with my commentary so anyone who tuned into the broadcast saw exactly the same screen that I saw. The broadcast delay was designed to protect the integrity of the game by making sure that the hands my co-commentators and I were commenting on would be finished BEFORE our commentary was broadcast on the Internet. The existence of the delay was made public during the broadcasts. And we were never shown any non-public hole card information, during or after hands. Delayed commentary on tournaments was and still is standard practice for semi-live broadcasts of events, including the World Series of Poker Main Event.
At a separate point on the tape Dan Friedberg and Russ Hamilton discuss Houston Curtis’ account on UltimateBet.com. (This can be heard beginning at 59:55 on the audio). Dan says ‘we don’t want to come and ever mention that name [h_curtis], obviously’ and Russ adds (at 1:00:11): ‘you can’t, ‘cause a lot of people know him, that’s his name, Hellmuth knows him, Annie knows him, and they know the name on the screen.’
Russ is saying they can’t include Houston’s name on any cheating accounts list provided to the public, because I know Houston. Russ knew that if I heard that cheating had been detected on that account that I would have immediately called Houston to ask him what had happened. Russ also knew that Houston would have then told me that the only other person who had access to the login for this account was Russ himself and that would have opened Russ up to suspicion. This highlights the fact that I was unaware of Russ’s involvement in the cheating and that they were actively trying to hide it from me.
These tapes make it clear that the perpetrators went to great lengths to lie, concoct multiple stories and conspire to cover-up their cheating. They tried to minimize their exposure in part by pawning off responsibility to Absolute Poker, the new owners. Absolute Poker did eventually, through an arduous audit process, working closely with the KGC, refund more than $23 million to players who were affected by the cheating. I stand by my decision at the time the scandal broke to try to work with Absolute to help facilitate that process.
Statement from Co-Commentator JohnVorhaus:
I worked alongside Annie Duke doing play-by-play and color commentary on UltimateBetonline poker tournaments during the mid-2000s. The use of a delay function during those broadcasts was for the express purpose of ensuring that our commentary didn't inadvertently give information to the tournament players and had no connection whatsoever with the so-called ‘super-user scandal.’ Those who attempt to tar Annie with this brush are saying, essentially, ‘Person A used a hammer to build a treehouse, then Person B used a similar hammer to bludgeon a victim; therefore, Person A is guilty.’ The logic of this doesn't hold up to the merest application of common sense.
Statement from Joanne Priam:
I am the former Pro Relations Manager for UB and was part of the team that helped organize the commentating of online tournaments. Annie agreed to participate as a commentator only if we could ensure that there was enough of a small delay in the broadcast so that we could avoid any live commentating affecting players' behavior in the event they were listening. After it was confirmed the delay was feasible she agreed to commentate. It is my understanding that during the tournament, Annie was isolated in a recording studio with only a screen in which to report on and that she did not have access to a computer in which to log on to UB, view hole cards or interact in any way with players. I am disgusted by the actions of the criminals that cheated people out of millions of dollars, and wish they could be thrown in jail, but I can assure you that during the few times that Annie Duke was commentating it was impossible for her to do anything more than view a screen and commentate as requested.
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Chris Webster I am behind you annie. It is easy for people to throw mud to dirty others, but you are going to be someone who i believe will be clean when all is said and done. You did nothing wrong
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Interesting that Annie was praising the Absolute Poker people (Scott Tom, Oscar Hilt Tatum, etc) and painting them as victims of Russ and friends.
She also said this:
There is no proof that $23 million was actually received by the players.Originally Posted by Annie Duke
Scott Tom does not deserve any praise here. He was one of the AP cheaters. He also tried to cover everything up, just as Russ did. The only difference is that we don't have recordings of those meetings.
Annie will not explain why she was fine with the full hand histories never being provided.
Annie also seems to forget that these same "Absolute Poker people" were supposed to have left when "Cereus" began. She told me on DD Radio that she believed there were actually new owners in place, when she knew the whole time that was not true.
LOL @ her claim that she was working with anyone to help facilitate refunds. She couldn't get far enough away from that scandal other than to defend the company.
Originally Posted by Annie Duke
Things are heating up...
One of my most impressionable memories of Annie Duke were not in poker, it was watching Donald Trumps The Apprentice. She got destroyed by Joan Rivers, although Joan Rivers was being bias and narrow minded about poker in general but, Annie didn't come off the show looking overly amazing. She did make it to the finale iirc though, so she did play the game well. That tweet is so scandalous sounding.
I have a different theory and its just speculation...
She tweets that she had access to the delayed viewing of cards for a tournament broadcast
Then days later she releases a testimony that she wasn't aware of and didn't use the "god mode" software
Makes no sense. Why wouldn't she just tweet that?
She thought it could be said the software was designed to also work in delay and thus could state that
So how was she seeing the delayed cards 15 minutes later? They would need to elaborately record it then somehow delay it. It makes no sense.
Something is fishy. Maybe she can re-explain what her tweets meant?
And it's not like she has a saint-like history. I'm suspicious
Who can forget what Annie said when she left UB in Dec 2010?
http://annieduke.com/2010/12/moving-on/
It’s bittersweet, but I’ve decided to leave UB.
I have nothing but positive things to say about UB and my experiences with the brand, management team, and dedicated employees who work hard every day to deliver a terrific online poker experience for players like you.
I’ve sincerely enjoyed wearing the UB patch, but it’s time for me to move on.
So why am I leaving UB? In a nutshell, professional and personal growth.
I’m going to explore and pursue other business opportunities on a full-time basis. And, while I will no longer be a part of UB, I will remain a part of the online and offline poker community and am confident that we will continue to cross paths playing this amazing game that we all love.
See you at the tables – always,
Annie
-----------------------------------------------------------
bittersweet, lol.
nothing but positive things to say about the brand, lol.
It was obv. her UB deal wasn't going to be renewed because UB was broke and circling the drain.
She left when the cheques stopped rolling in.
She's still a pos.
I'd say the chances 23 million was paid back is close to 0.
Who was going to pay that back, exactly? You broke down Russ pretty accurately in the tapes - he had no desire to pay people back. My guess is they got zero from Russ.
If Russ's Iovation shares were really revoked, it sounds like Pierson and Russ became adversarial at some point. I am not sure how Pierson can revoke the stock of a shareholder without their consent , so I doubt that really happened.
I'd bet they paid back less than 5 million.
Does anyone know how much the AP guys paid for UB? That was never really clear to me but I doubt these guys gave up this super successful company and all the cheating they could get away with just because of some Port Security bill making something that was already illegal (online poker) even more illegal.
Picture taken today posted on Pokernews twitter:
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