What in the world is going on in the poker community! Now I don’t follow the intricate details of the Ultimate Bet Super-User scandal like some in the poker media do, but I do take the time to keep track of Haley Hintze’s blog, The UB Poker blog, and hit up the poker forums when a legitimate thread appears; as well as keeping tabs on Team UB interviews –which have picked up again due to the renewed interest in the case after the out-of-the-blue appearance of Travis Makar and his DonkDown Radio interviews.
So with that in mind, here are four questions I have regarding the recent revelations in the UB Super-User scandal:
#1) If poker players hate UB Poker so much why is UB Poker traffic where it is? – Obviously not as many players are playing at UB Poker, but after seeing their traffic spike to over 7,000 peak players when their jackpot surpassed $1 million tells me that a lot of UB-haters still have accounts at the site, because I highly doubt the additional 3,000 players were all new sign-ups! This reminds me of the all the guys I know who tell you how ugly a certain girl is at the club, and at the end of the night they are over there trying to pick them up!
#2) I don’t understand a lot of the victims’ stories? –As more and more players start talking about their UB experiences –Mike Matusow, Brad Booth, Dustin Woolf—it seems there is a lot of contradiction in their remarks, and an absolutely incredible amount of naivety on their part –How do Matusow and Booth not have their own hand histories??? How does Matusow claim Booth is a fish, and not to believe his account, while people say the same about Mike?
#3) Why all the hate for current UB Poker reps –Why are Sebok, Friedman et al. catching so much heat? Realistically, what do the UB naysayers expect Joe Sebok to say in his interviews? What inside information do they think a middle management/PR type employee can uncover? When people pull-off a huge fraud they usually cover their tracks fairly well, and this seems to be the case at UB Poker. Don’t hate people trying to make a living through their attachments.
#4) Why is UB Poker the Fall-Guy? — Do we really think UB is the only one? It just came to light that bWin allowed the same player to sit at the same table using two different accounts! Party Poker’s software allowed players to enter the same tournament multiple times! How many people have E-Mailed PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker support about collusion and other infractions only to receive a generic E-Mail response that after an investigation we have found no wrong-doing, and then two months down the road these same accounts are outed on poker forums? Hastings/South/Townsend vs. Isildur1, anyone??? Yes UB Poker was caught, but this doesn’t mean that all the sites who have not been caught are on the up and up.
Now I’m not saying that these infractions are on par with the Super-User scandal, but nobody thought there was any valid evidence of anything nefarious taking place at Absolute Poker or Ultimate Bet before the scandals broke either.
Related Posts
- Travis Makar Talks to DonkDown Radio Regarding UB Super-User Scandal - February 22, 2011
- Should the Super High Roller Tournaments Stay or Go? - February 9, 2011
- A Look at UB Poker Pro Prahlad Friedman - January 18, 2011
Written by Steve Ruddock on March 18th, 2011