Yet another high limit online regular scams people: Brandon Barnes / CompleteDonk / MatadorCC

[Dan Druff]

Brandon Barnes is a young player who has been around for a number of years, primarily online.

He played as "CompleteDonk" and "MatadorCC".

Here is a picture of him:



People on 2+2 say he was playing since the age of 14, using a false age to play online. His pokectfives profile goes back to 2007.

Anyway, apparently he scammed people, according to this 2+2 thread: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...ammer-1406093/

This actually goes beyond the typical "poker player borrows money and doesn't pay it back" story.

In late December, he was soliciting "trades" from 2+2 regulars who had been known to have made successful trades before. He solicited them using the enticing "zero vig", offering cash at the PCA for money on Stars.

Barnes was promising these players that he would pay them at the PCA, which was coming within a few days.

Here is a message he sent to "MrTimCaum" on 2+2 on December 30, someone Barnes had never communicated with before:

Subject: Swap

Hey, this is CompleteDonk/TheMatadorCC. I have been looking for a PS/FTP swap for wire (or cash at PCA/Aussie), and have had no luck so far finding one. A friend mentioned you had a score and may be interested, and we have quite a few mutual friends. I am looking for anywhere from a few k to 10-15k. 10K is probably optimal since Stars bank at PCA is 10k limit and can get it to you right away assuming you're going.

I have a ton of references and have been around for a long time with no problems, done a lot of swaps/sold actions and have 7 figs in cashes etc. I will do 0 vig as I'd really like to get some funds online ASAP and play. Let me know, thanks a lot.

-Brandon

Really scummy if true, and I think it is.

There is some talk on 2+2 of a drug problem, but that doesn't excuse it.

Rip_AA on 2+2 has known him since he was 14, and wrote the following about him:

Have known CD since he was 14 and would participate in chats and always thought he was a nice guy, albeit cocky. I haven't kept up with him at all besides investing in a pkg in 2012 that took awhile to be paid in full and that was kind of my own red flag.

I knew nothing about drugs as no one ever informed me that this was a situation in his life. I knew he had a rough route during his teen years with the loss of close family and nothing more besides that. I know barely little about the drug he was addicted to, but imagine that the recovery will be the hardest thing he probably ever experiences.

There are tons of people to be paid back by his wrongdoings and I don't know how he's going to go about that as he seems to have issues with playing lower than he believes his skill level mandates. I hope he's able to either grind low/midstakes or find a job that will take a non HS graduate.

It's going to be a rough road ahead for him to clear his name and restore any integrity, as well as trying to keep clean in a world full of enticing factors. He has the skill set to be a great poker player, but I'm not too sure the mental aspect won't eat him alive knowing the composure he usually lacks.

Barnes also asked the following to Rip_AA on December 24: "du know ne1 selling stars for wire?"

[Steve-O]

I think Dan Bilzerian was 100% spot on when he said this to Cardplayer:

BP: What do you think of the poker community as a whole?

DB: Well, it’s kind of a degenerate group. I mean, people who play poker professionally; it kind of takes a special type of person to do that. You have to be able to take a real kick in the nuts, and your life is stressful all the time. It is really hard to be a professional poker player and not go broke. The problem is that when they are winning, they feel like they are going to continue winning at the same rate and when they are losing they want to win their money back. Also, once you play big it’s really hard to drop down in stakes. Let’s say your bankroll is $1 million and you go play a game with a buy-in of $100,000. If you lose two or three buy-ins…there are a lot of guys who have done that. Now they lost a third of their net worth, or a fifth or whatever it is, and now it’s really difficult for them to go back and grind at smaller games because they are chasing that loss. And just because they have $1 million doesn’t mean they have $1 million to play with. They should be budgeting for whatever expenses they have. But they don’t do that and that’s why professional poker players go broke. If you look at Tom Dwan, he went broke; Phil Ivey just went broke. All these really talented guys who made a bunch of money end up pissing it all away. There is not a long list of professional poker players who don’t go broke. It’s crazy.

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news...yboy-lifestyle

[agerow1]

This guy should be in jail.

[nunbeater]

No shit. By his own admission he owes 60k at least but reportedly owes 100k not to mention this kid has literally tried to scam for much more. Fucking scumbag. His friend went to Canada to take him home to rehab and his friend said the first thing he asked him was if he could give him some money for some drugs that he had already done. At first I felt bad for CD now it's like fuck him.

[Dan Druff]

He posted a short apology on his Facebook yesterday.

Just want to apologize to everyone I have hurt over the last few years. I will fix things but it will take time. I just need time. I ask everyone please contact me privately on here. If you need to. If not know that I will be okay.

-Brandon

Seems like an empty apology to me with no promise or timetable for action.

Remember, even Jasep apologized at one point.

[Belly Buster]

He posted a short apology on his Facebook yesterday.

Just want to apologize to everyone I have hurt over the last few years. I will fix things but it will take time. I just need time. I ask everyone please contact me privately on here. If you need to. If not know that I will be okay.

-Brandon

Seems like an empty apology to me with no promise or timetable for action.

Remember, even Jasep apologized at one point.

Whereas Jasep's apology came with a promise and a timetable for action ......................

[BeerAndPoker]

Looking at the facts:

- Started playing very young online several years underage.

- Dropped out of high school to play poker.

- Got lots of staking and rolled several people.

- Has a drug problem. (Too bad he's not friends with pop music druggie Justin Bieber who could wipe his debt out for him.)

This Brandon kid is still very young but where is he going to come up with the sum of money to pay back what he owes if he really has intentions to payback? When you play poker for that long and never worked a real job without even a diploma your not going to grind out some min wage job and even if you did it would take several years (if ever) to wash this debt away.

It's one of them sad situations where in order for this kid to maybe get out of the hole he's in he would have to play poker to do so but whose going to stake him? His skills aren't proven like Erick Lindgren or Chino Rheem who also have lots of live poker friends in Vegas with deep pockets who kept them in action. Backers who never met this kid will most likely cut their losses now instead of keeping him in action hoping he will bink a big tournament and pay them back.

With this guys horrible reputation all backers, swappers, and loaners 99.999% can forever kiss their money goodbye.

Fake apologies are standard from horrible scammers or horrible degenerates who get stuck too deep to pay back. This one is very generic even Jasep gave a better speech stating he would make monthly payments which clearly was bogus but just saying.

[agerow1]

Has anyone notified the police? I really think this guy should be in jail. Does anyone know where he is "recovering"? I am tempted to call them myself.

[Dan Druff]

Has anyone notified the police? I really think this guy should be in jail. Does anyone know where he is "recovering"? I am tempted to call them myself.

You can try, but as evidenced by the Jasep situation here (not sure if you know about that), the police don't seem to give a shit about gamblers who loan/trade money with each other where one rips the other off.

Also, if you're not one of the victims, the police won't listen to you.

[cmoney]

I think Dan Bilzerian was 100% spot on when he said this to Cardplayer:

BP: What do you think of the poker community as a whole?

DB: Well, it’s kind of a degenerate group. I mean, people who play poker professionally; it kind of takes a special type of person to do that. You have to be able to take a real kick in the nuts, and your life is stressful all the time. It is really hard to be a professional poker player and not go broke. The problem is that when they are winning, they feel like they are going to continue winning at the same rate and when they are losing they want to win their money back. Also, once you play big it’s really hard to drop down in stakes. Let’s say your bankroll is $1 million and you go play a game with a buy-in of $100,000. If you lose two or three buy-ins…there are a lot of guys who have done that. Now they lost a third of their net worth, or a fifth or whatever it is, and now it’s really difficult for them to go back and grind at smaller games because they are chasing that loss. And just because they have $1 million doesn’t mean they have $1 million to play with. They should be budgeting for whatever expenses they have. But they don’t do that and that’s why professional poker players go broke. If you look at Tom Dwan, he went broke; Phil Ivey just went broke. All these really talented guys who made a bunch of money end up pissing it all away. There is not a long list of professional poker players who don’t go broke. It’s crazy.

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news...yboy-lifestyle

The only difference between table games and poker is that you have a chance in poker. A good poker player with a gambling addiction will last longer because of his skill than your typical degen sports bettor. Many look at Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey as poker gods that need to be worshiped. If they are both in fact broke (or even close), they are as much of degenerates as Archie Karas or any other gambler that gave it back chasing.

I think there is a misconception that if a poker player doesn't play table games and only poker he can't have a gambling addiction. This probably stems from the fact that many can build up their roles again and again after busting so that they are never permanently "broke.". However, both the addicted craps player and addicted poker player are using money in the exact same way to chase the same high. They need to bet more and more to get the same rush.

[Dan Druff]

A pro poker player's ability to hold onto money often correlates to his reason for playing.

If he primarily plays to support himself, and if that is most important (over glory, ego, desire to be respected among peers, etc), then he will probably hold onto the money he won. That's because this type of player is willing to exercise proper bankroll management, avoid non-poker gambling pitfalls, and stick to good games. You can't be a successful poker player without having some degree of love of gambling, but if your desire to support yourself with the game is stronger than your need to gamble, then there's a good chance you'll be okay.

Basically I approach poker with "I need to support myself and don't ever want to work again" as priority #1, and everything else (enjoyment of gambling, desire to be respected as a player, desire to beat the biggest games I can, etc) takes a back seat.

[BeerAndPoker]

Lots of bad habits are picked up from poker players. You hear about them degening it up with prop bets all the time and some like Phil Ivey for example can't stay out of the pit games. This isn't always terrible if the money they lose isn't that significant but the problem with a lot of poker players or gamblers in general is they risk more then they should then it comes back to bite them in the ass.

[Bootsy Collins]

Lots of bad habits are picked up from poker players. You hear about them degening it up with prop bets all the time and some like Phil Ivey for example can't stay out of the pit games. This isn't always terrible if the money they lose isn't that significant but the problem with a lot of poker players or gamblers in general is they risk more then they should then it comes back to bite them in the ass.

Another thing to note is how much the young internet kids spend on shit. For example did Phil Galfond really need to have the massive apartment with the slide in Manhattan. Did they really expect the honey hole that was online poker to last forever?

[lvpkr1009]

Lots of bad habits are picked up from poker players. You hear about them degening it up with prop bets all the time and some like Phil Ivey for example can't stay out of the pit games. This isn't always terrible if the money they lose isn't that significant but the problem with a lot of poker players or gamblers in general is they risk more then they should then it comes back to bite them in the ass.

Another thing to note is how much the young internet kids spend on shit. For example did Phil Galfond really need to have the massive apartment with the slide in Manhattan. Did they really expect the honey hole that was online poker to last forever?

Ya I love how they all buy tons of useless shit and then sell their action or need backers to play 3500 borgata events

[Dan Druff]

BUMP

Apparently he jumped off a parking structure in Detroit, 5 stories up:

http://www.wwmt.com/shared/news/feat...ge-21058.shtml

Facebook messages from his brother:

"Stable, going to surgery soon, multiple breaks and had collapsed and possibly punctured a lung. Haven't talked to the docs yet, I'll post more when I get an update."

"Compound fracture right leg, left wrist multiple breaks, left ankle/foot looks broken, collapsed lung, broken ribs. I'll give more details after talking to the trauma doc."

"He came out of surgery fine, heavily sedated. More surgery scheduled for later today or Monday morning."


----

Can't really feel that sorry for him. He stole money from people pretty shamelessly, mostly for drugs.

Then he couldn't handle the fallout, and as far as I know, he never paid anyone back or even tried. Just a lot of empty words claiming he was sorry and would fix the situation.

[zealanddonk]

Better story if he had been thrown off.
So hes such a fuck up he couldn't kill himself properly, and now he's scamming Obamacare??

[haleylh]

BUMP

Apparently he jumped off a parking structure in Detroit, 5 stories up:

http://www.wwmt.com/shared/news/feat...ge-21058.shtml

Facebook messages from his brother:

"Stable, going to surgery soon, multiple breaks and had collapsed and possibly punctured a lung. Haven't talked to the docs yet, I'll post more when I get an update."

"Compound fracture right leg, left wrist multiple breaks, left ankle/foot looks broken, collapsed lung, broken ribs. I'll give more details after talking to the trauma doc."

"He came out of surgery fine, heavily sedated. More surgery scheduled for later today or Monday morning."




----

Can't really feel that sorry for him. He stole money from people pretty shamelessly, mostly for drugs.

Then he couldn't handle the fallout, and as far as I know, he never paid anyone back or even tried. Just a lot of empty words claiming he was sorry and would fix the situation.

Not in Detroit. This is just outside Battle Creek, a very nice casino, actually.

[JimAfternoon]

I wonder if he jumped off so he could get more pain pills.

[anonamoose]

Me him and one other guy used to be a small group that hung out in aim chats together regularly and play horse. I knew he was like 13 when he started playing and he has an extremely volatile style of poker. I frequently warned him to cool it but he never really did. He got one big hit in I think an FTOP bounty event and people like Brock Parker started backing him. If I recall correctly he at one point was in make up for about 140k at 16 years old but got a couple big hits to get it back. He moved to vegas for a short while and I believe they snuck him into a few poker rooms while he was still 16/17.

Very early on I did a transfer with him on Pokerstars and my account got flagged and subsequently banned for a short period of time until I could provide proof that I was who I was saying I was and that I did know that he was on another players account. This I want to say was when he was 14 or 15. I don't know who's account it was but it was not matadorcc at the time. He later told me it was a friend's account that he was borrowing money from to stake me in something. I never got the full story on the situation out of him.

I talked to him here and there after he "blew it up huge" to check up on him and make sure he wasn't doing anything too extreme. I told him I was pretty worried when I heard about the make up he owed and told him he should chill but he didn't really want to listen.

His aim screen name might still actually be completedonk. I haven't logged into aim in a couple years, but I do remember that that's what it was.

edit: loaded up aim. s/n's were completedonk and brandonb2413

[Sanlmar]

Young poker players are renowned for their big watches and talking shit about their top flight health insurance plans.

The poker debt is gonna look small compared to the medical bills.