the Circles of Poker Blogging Hell- 6

I thought I would be adding the latest circle to Poker Blogging Hell last week when I read a post from someone who claimed to be cheated in the Bodog tournament. It was both the claim and the reaction in the comments that I found amusing. I didn't expect Blinders to jump in with his thoughts on the Bodog tourney. Those two posts told me that the 6th circle of Poker Blogging Hell was real. The gist of this circle could have been added right after the 5th circle but it needed time to prove itself. Sadly, it did.

The 6th circle is inhabited by the cheaters and deceivers. They are out to get theirs by any means necessary.

Please, do not be so naive to think that cheating could not possibly occur in any of the blogger tournaments. I spoke with someone in Vegas about this last week. We both agreed that it would not be a shock if there was some cheating going on. The stakes are higher than most people thought they would be. With the generosity of Bodog and Full Tilt kicking raising the prize pool to such heights, people would do things that had not been anticipated in the past. With chance to win a $12,000 prize package for $11, it was bound to happen. We may think the people in the community would not stoop to lows but the fact is the action in the past BBT is a microcosm of what is happening in the Amazon Room at the Rio right now.

Cheating could easily happen in the blogger tournaments. This concept of “we all know each other and we wouldn’t fuck each other over” is beyond funny. People have already shit on the organizers, the websites, and whined about when they will be receiving prizes. Things have gotten bigger than expected and people will do what they can to get an edge just to massage their own egos. Face it, someone has most likely cheated in one of these tournaments.

Let's start with the backers. There are 2 players who disclosed that a backer had put them in a number of tournaments in the series. I am not saying these guys cheated. I have no proof to say they did, but also, I highly doubt they would have. But the question should be how many others had backers that were not disclosed? Were they playing in the same tournament at the same table? Was their chip dumping going on? How many of these teams were constantly chatting on the IM giving information or squeezing other players? It could have easily happened. With new people joining in these past months there were a number of names people did not recognize at first. We will never know if there were any shenanigans going on. But the possibility for it to happen was ripe.


Having new people come in to play these tournaments is a good thing. If there is a BBT 4, we will see even more new names. But how many of them may be existing bloggers who are setting up a front? A new blog that gives the perception of a totally different person. Playing under a different name is acceptable. It took a long time before most people knew my Full Tilt name. Some even advocate changing names ever so often in order to prevent others from tracking data on your play. I don't see anything wrong with doing so. There are no rules that state everyone needs to know what your screen name is.

Blinders goes off on Hoy for setting up a fake blog to play the Bodonkey. Was it cheating? Actually, yes. He may have not cheated at the table but he and those who were in on the scam, cheated everyone who played. This group conspired to deceive and defaud everyone who played in the tournament. To purposely set up a shell blog to lie and blast away at players and the site that is sponsoring the tournament series is deception. It is unethical and should not be tolerated. Even when confronted, Hoy denied his role until the end. A selfish act like this is a blow to the community that comes together to play cards and enjoy the company of each other. If people want to go that far to perpetrate a lie, what else would they do to cheat the community?

But who am I kidding. This isn't a community anymore. More like a dysfunctional family.