Annie Duke's boyfriend Joe Reitman cheated to win UBOC tournament on UB?

[Dan Druff]

From ElevenGrover:

So, I've decided not to use the information I received in the film. I will post it here instead.

The source is close enough to know the truth, but is only a single source. They said that in the UBOC tourney that Joe Reitman won, it was actually UB pro Gary Debernardi that took over at the last 3 tables when it was down to 20 players. He either ghosted or outright made all play decisions including the TPTK vs bottom two pair call. It is not known whether the tool was being used but seems probable it wasn't for at least this portion of the tourney. It was also not told to me whether AD actually played the 1st several hours.

I have had a lot of conversation with Joe and he maintains he played the whole thing. I like Joe, but have to remind him he is a thespian by trade with some ability to act. I personally believe the source, though have to remind them that ghosting/coaching did not have the same stigma in 2006 it has today.

The reason I am not putting it in the film is a) single source and b) all three or four people in a position to know the truth could easily decide perjuring themselves would be a low risk proposition in a defamation case and thus I didn't want to jeopardize the film over this minor bombshell. Most people I have spoken with have never believed AD on this issue and now we at least have a name to pair up with what happened.

This tournament was already controversial after the UB superusing came out, because of his connection to Annie, and his inexperience in poker.

Annie also showed up late to commentate that day, and did not mention her connection to Reitman, who was playing under a screen name that was not known to be him.

After Annie admitted that she had the ability to see cards on a 15 minute delay, there were questions as to whether she was using the tool to see cards and communicating them to Joe.

This story says that Annie didn't cheat, but was also lying in that Reitman was helped by Gary Debernardi during the tournament, while she said Reitman did it all himself.

[elevengrover]

I talked to Debo and have come to believe it prolly wasn't him but instead Shawn Rice. I sent Shawn an email and have not yet heard back.

Here's the ToS from UB at the time of the tourney
http://web.archive.org/web/200512302...ral-rules.html

To me, it's mostly an issue of AD lying about the situation while being a major stakeholder in Excapsa, a company that would hand her a giant payday just 6-8 weeks after this tourney when the IPO popped. I wasn't really interested in this direction, but Duke's almost complete lack of integrity forced the issue.

Also, just as a reminder. The refund list included Duke's HHUMBERT account for a couple hundred dollars and she is the listed owner.

[haleylh]

Alright, enough silliness. To the best of my knowledge, there was no super-using during that tournament, and Joe Reitman played most if not it all of it, possibly jointly with Annie (or with some oversight by her) during the early stages, and then by himself later on. That tourney appears to have been more a classic case of "donk on a rush" than anything else. Since Annie had plenty of funny money available to her on the site it was easy enough to let Joe have fun in a tourney like that.

Reitman was in communication with several people during the later stages of that tournament, including Shawn Rice, but maybe not Debo. Rice did not help Reitman with any hand decisions, but was instead trying to help Reitman stay calm -- breathing exercises and whatnot. It is probable that neither Rice nor Debo offered any insights during that infamous two-pair/TPTK hand that drew all the attention.

Where Rice did help out Reitman was when the players began discussing a chop at the final table, since Reitman had never been in a tourney-chop situation before. Rice helped out by telling Reitman how a chop worked and how much he should probably get (since Reitman had a massive chip lead), and by calling UB support to help get the action stopped when the players agreed to a chop when three-handed.

[elevengrover]

Can't wait for the book, where apparently everyone at UB is completely innocent and only Scott Tom is guilty. But then again, I guess most of your followers won't take the time to work through that there is no way for you to know what folks were doing on that day since you weren't there. Won't stop you from making your bs pronouncements though. Between Annie and Carolyn, you should be getting a paycheck.

As for silliness, lets recap what a real journo did. I got information about the tourney and decided it didn't carry enough weight to report based on prevailing attitudes about ghosting, etc. The source is well-placed enough to have an idea what happened and mentioned that it wasn't in the film. In speaking with Reitman, he says his story never changed but in fact it did evolve over several conversations with him only offering more as I zeroed in on what happened.

Personally, I don't know who played the event and I unlike you have the sense to admit that. But most importantly is the bit I keep bringing it back to. When she got on the air, she could have just been forthright and said what was going on but didn't. Ask yourself why and before you answer about her concerns for how it would look, etc etc, just skip it. She lies, whether she has to or not. It's who she is. And we all have known for ever that she is one of your big sources. She won't talk to me and I'm pretty fine with that considering most of what she has to dispense is sheer crap. So yes, enough silliness. But granted you did get your UB PR in for the day, again.

breathing exercises??? priceless

[haleylh]

Can't wait for the book, where apparently everyone at UB is completely innocent and only Scott Tom is guilty. But then again, I guess most of your followers won't take the time to work through that there is no way for you to know what folks were doing on that day since you weren't there. Won't stop you from making your bs pronouncements though. Between Annie and Carolyn, you should be getting a paycheck.

As for silliness, lets recap what a real journo did. I got information about the tourney and decided it didn't carry enough weight to report based on prevailing attitudes about ghosting, etc. The source is well-placed enough to have an idea what happened and mentioned that it wasn't in the film. In speaking with Reitman, he says his story never changed but in fact it did evolve over several conversations with him only offering more as I zeroed in on what happened.

Personally, I don't know who played the event and I unlike you have the sense to admit that. But most importantly is the bit I keep bringing it back to. When she got on the air, she could have just been forthright and said what was going on but didn't. Ask yourself why and before you answer about her concerns for how it would look, etc etc, just skip it. She lies, whether she has to or not. It's who she is. And we all have known for ever that she is one of your big sources. She won't talk to me and I'm pretty fine with that considering most of what she has to dispense is sheer crap. So yes, enough silliness. But granted you did get your UB PR in for the day, again.

breathing exercises??? priceless

LOL, so much fail in this post. I'm giggling at all the wrong assumptions therein, such as that anyone who didn't or doesn't kowtow to your threats is therefore one of my "big sources." Paranoia, perhaps? Still, "real journo" is the true gem. You and Mezrich for the winz. What a howler!

Speaking of, what happened to all those peeps whose photos you used in your trailer whose names weren't found anywhere in the final film? Among them are at least two programmers who have clearly been connected to the creation of God Mode but who seem to have disappeared.

I mean, I could eviscerate it a la Straight Flush, but it's really so obtuse an effort that it's almost impregnable. Congrats on your crappy documentary. P.S.: You got the founding of the company wrong, too.

[elevengrover]

ps real artists ship

[Steve-O]

I would find it hard to believe that someone unfamiliar with something as trivial as how a chop works, who is talking to a tournament pro, wouldn't at least ask the pro's opinion of what they should do in certain spots. I find it even harder to believe a poker pro would let someone who is ostensibly a friend go it alone in this situation, possibly costing them a six-figure payday.

In these situations, even if you don't ask for advice, it is given.

Basically, if Joe was talking to Anne, Debo, Shawn Rice, or anyone else there is no way that strategy and advice was not given. But that doesn't really bother me as this was obviously during a different time, and ghosting or account buying wasn't seen as a huge deal by many players, so I really don't care if Reitman played the event himself, had help, or whatever.

What is a bit annoying is Annie's on-air denial of knowing who was playing. It's either to cover something up, or lying for the sake of lying... probably the latter

[Erin Micunt]

Is there any audio anywhere of annie duke's commentary during that tournament?

[TheXFactor]

Everyone has shit on their face from their association with UB.

If I was having sex with Annie Duke back then, I know damn well
that I would have made hundreds of thousands more than ugly Joe Reitman,
just from Annie Duke fixing online poker tourneys for me.

[Shizzmoney]

I remember when this initially came out that she "railed" Joe's win at home on his computer, and most thought the reason he won was because she was playing for him.

But then I thought: "Wait, Annie blows at poker......she would never win!" and have just assumed the motherfucker cheated ever since.

[bukowski72]

Annie Duke is involved with something that reeks
UB is rigged
01/23/06


This caused some controversy on another msg board where most of the UB players post, and a lot of the UB pros, until the board (Pocketfives.com) told everyone to shut up about it. The situation as explained by several people is this:

Annie Duke showed up several hours late for the webcast and explained it as "I got the wrong directions to the studio". Many people take this as "I was playing for my boyfriend". The interesting part is, while they were waiting for her to show up, Jon Vorhaus (another commentator) was talking about some of the players still in the tourney and commented on the Lolita-inspired username hhumbert. Someone present informed him that Hhumbert was Annie Duke's boyfriend.

When Annie finally showed up, she said "my boyfriend is still in this, but don't tell anyone what his username is", and neither Vorhaus nor the 3rd commentator mentioned to her that they had already let the cat out of the bag.

At some point, Annie mentioned that her boyfriend was playing on HER account.

Several times at the final table, the third announcer (forget his name, some british guy who has a poker show on Sirius radio) said "humbert raises... and he takes down the blinds", etc, and then very very oddly added "I mean he or she, we don't know whether humbert is male or female". This was weird, and at no point did anyone say anything similar about any other player, but I think the announcers had decided to not acknowledge that hhumbert was Annie's boyfriend, in case it looked ultra-shady.

Many people thought Annie was coaching through the webcast. While she gave general commentary of all the players, a few people pointed out that she gave somewhat in-depth instructions of the general strategy for playing a big stack when it was about 5 or 6 handed and hhumbert was the big stack. She went into detail saying "humbert should be sitting back, not taking any unnecessary risks and making sure he has a lot of chips when it gets 3 handed", etc. She gave commentary on all the game, but at no point anything that specific, nor did she discuss how small stacks or medium stacks should be playing at that point.

On one very big hand, a flop came ace high, one player bet out big, the second one went all-in and hhumbert went into the tank, thinking for a long time. Annie gave some of the most specific info she had given all game saying "If I was humbert, I would want at least AK to call here", at which point he came out of the tank and called the bet. (While the result of the hand is irrelevant, the all-in guy had bottom 2 pair, and when hhumbert caught an ace on the river to eliminate him, Annie said "serves him right!". I swear none of this is made up).

At one point, Annie was chatting to the other commentators and mentioned how the spacebar of her keyboard wasn't working and it was very annoying because she was instant messaging with someone during the broadcast. Later on she posted on the msg boards saying "I was messaging Shawn Rice (another UB pro)" to explain this, when people pointed out she was probably messaging her boyfriend.

So, the real issue with this situation for a lot of people is that the whole thing is very shady. Whether Annie coached her boyfriend through the broadcast or not is up for debate, but the fact is that UB held it's biggest tournament of the year, with a huge field, and somehow the account that won belonged to Annie Duke, a UB employee (she plans and schedules all the tournaments) who was actually commentating the tournament at the time. This would be analagous to Lee Jones winning the sunday Stars tourney and then saying "Nice work Lee, you pick up $266,000 for your efforts!" at the table. Had the account not actually belonged to Annie Duke and had she ackonledged at the final table "You know what, there's a conflict here, my boyfriend is at this table, I just want to be upfront", instead of the commentators falsely saying they had no clue who hhumbert was, this would not be such an issue

http://www.thepokerforum.com/forum/u...te_id/1#import

[haleylh]

Right, the exact same story Shawn Rice has told all along about his involvement. Meaning if there was any sort of cheating, he wasn't part of it. He's told me that on multiple occasions, the same story with varying degrees of detail, and I believe him.

Given that it was one of Annie's many accounts (HHUMBERT) which was being played, there's plenty of reason to think that the story as originally guessed at on P5s might not be far from the truth: Annie could have helped Joe out early on, then realized she was in a bit of a time bind and turned it over to Joe when she had to get to the studio. Annie clearly recruited others to help Joe out, Rice for sure and maybe Debo as well, but if Rice insists he wasn't giving strategy tips, there's little reason not to take him at his word.

And as for God Mode, it almost surely wasn't being used. I wasn't listening that day, but Rice told me that Joe got it all in that hand with TPTK against top two and then (I think) sucked out; no one using God Mode would have ever got it in like that while behind. And, as Shawn also noted, no one using God Mode would ever settle for a chop, and it was talked about at seven-handed as well as three.

Whether any of us like Annie or not -- and I don't -- I still won't hang the use of God Mode on her regarding this tourney. That's a false accusation; it doesn't make any sense at all. What does make sense is that this is a typical Annie situation, wherein she gets herself into a spot where it's clear that something hinky is going on, but exactly what is never quite clear.

Don't forget that back in '06 when this went on, team play and ghosting was a lot more common and accepted, and it wasn't until a few events were marred by obvious cheating in '07 and '08 that most online sites began cracking down on it. UB had to have been the very worst site for all of these sorts of insider gamesmanship, since they allowed each player 25 different accounts.

Rice has nothing to gain from defending Annie at this point, even if he admits to wanting to defend Joe. And, as we all know, it's possible that Annie was continuing to do coaching herself, in which case she might not want other players offering Joe conflicting advice. So she was in the booth with who, John Vorhaus? John is (or at least was) a friend of Annie's so he might not want to talk, but if she was coaching from the studio via text messages, John ought to have had at least an inkling of it. That they so clearly covered up that HHUMBERT was Annie's account, not Joe's, makes me think that John ought to share what he knows at this late date, even if it turns out that Annie was innocent and Joe really was flying solo. Maybe Vorhaus would and maybe he wouldn't, but that's on him either way. Someone should point out this thread to him and see if he shows up to share his memories of that event. It's a small, dead-end story either way, more symptomatic of UB's foulness than anything else.

[lvrplfn]

I can shed some light on this issue.

I did the play by play for the UB stream with Annie during this UBOC (the one that Joe won) from our studios in LA. I haven't spoken to Annie in a long time and have no vested interest in this other than stumbling on this post and feeling somehow obligated to set the record straight.

I can assure you that Annie was NOT looking at hole cards at any time. We used the very same screens that anyone else who was watching the tourney would have seen.

Anne had mentioned to me fairly early on that Joe one of the players (I did find this strange, FWIW). On numerous occasions he text messaged Annie asking advice. I remember her getting a little irritated with him and telling him that she couldn't help him. I'm pretty sure this had more to do with her being on the air with me and very busy as opposed to an ethical rejection but you'll have to ask her about that one. I personally felt that Annie should have disclosed the fact during our broadcast that Joe was at the final table but I don't think her doing play by play in any way changed the outcome.

Whether or not Joe sought help from Shawn Rice or Debo I don't know. But I CAN tell you, with 100% certainty that Annie DID NOT HAVE A SUPERUSER SCREEN to look at.

Hope this helps.

[Crowe Diddly]

I can shed some light on this issue.

Are you John Vorhaus?

[lvrplfn]

One more thing -

John Vorhaus was never in the studio - he called in via our on air phone system and was on the air with me early on during the final table as Annie had not yet shown up.

Annie was late because she got lost. I had given her the address of the studio which was on "south sepulveda" blvd in LA. She put "Sepulveda Blvd" in to her nav system and she and her Prius ended up deep in the ghetto and very irritated (there is most certainly some humor in this).

[lvrplfn]

I can shed some light on this issue.

Are you John Vorhaus?

Nope.

[Crowe Diddly]

Are you John Vorhaus?

Nope.

Now that we know who you aren't, would you mind telling us who you are?

[lvrplfn]

Lol.. sure. Nick Geber.

[Steve-O]

One more thing -

John Vorhaus was never in the studio - he called in via our on air phone system and was on the air with me early on during the final table as Annie had not yet shown up.

Annie was late because she got lost. I had given her the address of the studio which was on "south sepulveda" blvd in LA. She put "Sepulveda Blvd" in to her nav system and she and her Prius ended up deep in the ghetto and very irritated (there is most certainly some humor in this).

What are the odds, lol

[Crowe Diddly]

Lol.. sure. Nick Geber.

no shit! used to love listening to your WSOP shows. great radio voice you have. I think the first time I ever won an online mtt for any real money I had been listening to your show well into the early morning hours on the east coast.