Itās generally not that often I dip my hand into the world of top level professional poker for my article, but the actions of the past couple of weeks have been incredible to say the very least.
So much so that there is a schism developing in the world of top level poker, ostensibly between two camps who either claim a certain player cheated, or that they did not.
This comes on the back of a couple of other cheating scandal claims, some of which are strange beyond belief and all of which, when combined, have left people with plenty of questions they want answering.
And thus far, not a lot of answers have been provided.
Fortunately, you donāt have to worry about this if you use your bet365 Sport account to play at bet365 Poker as these issues are surfacing only in real world live games, so by all means check out the poker options available there if you want to test your poker skills.
So what are these scandals rocking the world of poker? Well, letās investigate some of the former accusations before we get into what happened a couple of weeks ago, the repercussions of which are still being felt in the industry right now.
Scandal 1 ā Bryn Kenney Accused Of Cheating By Martin Zamani
Bryn Kenney is one of the most successful poker players of all time in terms of winnings, but have at least some of those winnings been earned by cheating?
That was the claim made Martin Zamani, a poker professional who claimed that he was one of Zamaniās āhorsesā who participated alongside numerous other horses to collude in online poker games to win money from other players not mart of Kenneyās group.
Kenney twice was interviewed in an attempt to clear his name, but neither interview proved satisfactory in doing so, but some of the claims made by Zamani were astonishing and perhaps a little disturbing.
Zamani claimed that Kenney required his players to follow a vegan diet, to follow his demands and standards, such as practicing Yoga, in order to be part of his group.
However, Zamani also claimed that Kenney sent him to see a Shaman for a worrying and potentially dangerous āritualā which he called the āKamboā which involved burning an individuals skin and then putting poison from a frog into the wound.
Kenneyās attempted rebuttal of those claims didnāt cut the ice with many viewing the interviews and there are still plenty of questions for Kenney to answer, even if he remains able to play in all the major tournaments and is looking to set up his own poker site.
Then a few months later, we had scandal number 2.
Scandal 2 ā Ali Imsirovic And Jake Schindler Blacklisted After Cheating Accusations
Not long after the Bryn Kenney affair came the news that a number of top poker professionals including Alex Foxen, Chance Kornuth and Justin Bonomo had accused two of the most successful players on PokerGO Live of using Real Time Assistance (RTA) and multiple online accounts and āchip dumpsā during live high roller tournaments.
Using RTA in poker games offers the player a big advantage over those that do not āA huge edgeā according to Justin Bonomo.
Kornuth claimed that there were hundreds of players on GGPokerās banned list, but that he only knew two people on the list personally; Jake Schindler and Ali Imsirovic.
A short time later, Imsirovic and Schindler were removed from the PokerGO Tour Leaderboard and banned from competing in the Poker Masters or any other events until at least 2023, with speculation the ban could last considerably longer.
Since then, Imsirovic and Schindler have both been banned from other poker services too.
Then just as the poker world was digesting the fact that two of the biggest names in high roller poker games were actually suspected of being cheats, one hand on Hustler Casino Live a couple of weeks back has sent the poker community into meltdown.
Scandal 3 ā Garrett Adelstein Accuses Robbi Jade Lew Of Cheating On Hustler Casino Live
Hustler Casino Live is a high stakes cash game that is shown on the Casinoās live feed and regularly features a host of top level high rollers taking part and sometimes, it will also include some newer, less well-known faces too.
Well, a week last Thursday, highly regarded high stakes cash game professional Garrett Adelstein went heads up against a relative newcomer to the high-stakes scene in Robbi Jade Lew.
The game had proceeded in a generally convivial manner up to this hand which saw Adelstein and Lew both holding relatively weak hands against each other.
The hand is shown in the Tweet below.
Initially, the play was hailed as a gutsy hero call by Robbi, who had faced down Garrettās aggression and called his semi bluff with a weak hand.
However, Adelstein felt that his opponent should not and would not have called his bluff bet, unless she had somehow known that her hand was better than his.
Adelstein then accused Lew of cheating by using some form of vibrating device which when paired with an accomplice watching the live feed, allowed her to know which hands to play and which to fold.
The plot thickened away from the table as Adelstein and Lew spoke at the casino with Lew agreeing to hand back the money she won from Adelstein.
However, what has followed has been a litany of tweets, interviews, claims, counter-claims, a sacking, the launch of an investigation and the entire poker world rallying either to believe Adelstein, to believe Lew, or sit on the fence.
Many people claimed Lewās handing back of the money implicated her as guilty. Others felt if she had cheated and won, why would she hand back the money she gained?
Other said how would Lew know what cards would come in the Turn and River to ensure that she would win, if her accomplice was only able to watch on the live stream?
Both players involved have taken to social media to defend their positions, with talk of a heads up game between the two to āproveā that Lew can read Adelstein.
However, Hustler Casino Live are now in the middle of an investigation into the incident, which has already seen them sack a former employee on the show after they stole $15,000 worth of chips from Robbiās stack after the game.
Furthermore, there is talk of both players involved being asked to take a lie detector test to see whether they are telling the truth or not.
Robbi initially declined to press charges, but after finding out about the former employeeās criminal past, decided to press charges after all.
And now, day after day, thereās new claims and counter claims emerging from the hand, with more and more players from the poker community making their views on the issue known.
The Schism Is Open
We now have a poker world that while not in crisis as such, does require a test of faith. How rampant is cheating at the higher levels of the game? Is it time for a poker banned list?
The next few weeks and months may tell us.
Tags: bet365 Sport online poker poker
Worried about your gambling?