Top 3 Poker Cheating Scandals of 2021 – PokerTube

10:0103 Jan

The hope that 2022 will be the best year in a while remains, but its almost a certainty that however good it is for poker, it will involve someone, somewhere, trying to cheat their way to the summit. Heres what they have to top from last year 2021s biggest cheats!

A former teen prodigy who wasnt even old enough to legally play the recent WSOP, Zhuang Ruan was hailed in poker magazine articles last year as the next big thing after scooping $1.64million at the Super High Roller Bowl Europe in August 2021.

That 3rd spot came less than a month after he toppled Dan Smith heads-up to bag the Seminole Hard Rock Poker $50k SHR for a bumper $562,500 payday.

The end of that tournament, however, gave the poker community some idea about Ruans ethics, or rather lack of them...

It then emerged that the 20-year old had been supplementing his live income with some seriously dodgy online behaviour, allegedly using RTA (Real Time Assistance) on several US-facing sites and receiving the banhammer from at least one of them.

Ruans online cheating was the subject of a 2plus2 forum thread, with several other players revealing his methods. RektByPandas stated:

Rahm93 added:

Rahm described Ruan as Low life scum who is everything but a poker phenom, and claimed:

One of Ruans stable, who played on Global Poker as ItsSpork, revealed:

Just days after MATIVANAO had scooped the 83,300 ($101,000) top prize in the Winamax Series 2,000 Super High Roller, an investigation revealed it was actually Winamax Team pro and ambassador Deyra behind the winning account, which belonged to his father.

Not only that, but Deyra was also playing the same event under his known account, ValueMergez busting out before going on to victory as MATIVANAO an even bigger no-no in the online world than just hiding behind a different screen name.

Winamax, the French-founded site that is popular among EU players, quickly terminated their contract with Deyra a relationship which had lasted more than three years and was due for renewal in June last year.

Deyra, who has won more than $1.5million in live tournament play, publicly apologised for what he did, although his reasons read more like excuses.

Claiming his punishment was logical and understandable, though heavy, very heavy, Deyras image was soon taken down from the Winamax Team pro roster as another poker cheat bit the dust.

Back in January of 2021, Mike the Mouth claimed to anyone who would listen that former Head of Twitch TV poker, Scott Ball, had cheated Phil Hellmuths private game out of a staggering $800,000.

Matusow aired his allegations in his Judgment Day podcast, with Ball accused of not only collusion and ghosting, but also of skimming money from the highstakes home game.

Even threats of litigation werent enough to stop Matusow from airing Balls allegedly dirty laundry in public, claiming:

Hellmuth banned Matusow from the game over his unverified allegations, but Mike stood by his claims, describing Ball as a scammer boy and a thief.

Doug Polk also put the boot in on Ball:

What happened next behind the scenes is anyones guess, but as others have reported, the sordid story seems to have been swept under the felt.

So, 2022 is here and we have another glorious year of poker to look forward to. Over on the dark side, however, theyre already taking bets on who will be next to lay claim to pokers Cheat of the Year title!

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Top 3 Poker Cheating Scandals of 2021 - PokerTube