WCOOP Main Event Collusion ??

I played a little on-line poker last week, Simultaneously winning a $2 Omaha8 buy-in over 21 runners on Vegas 24/7 (Absolute Poker skin) and finishing 3rd in the Bodonkey, turning $11 Tourney dollars into $25 cold hard US$$$.

Friday nite was APL week 2. Back to back final tables for IG, back to back 8th place finishes. I pushed all in on my big blind with pocket threes when I didnt need to and ran it into the UTG (new-comer Zack's) pocket tens. Because numbers are down we have only been paying top 4 spots vs last years top 6. Snake5970 managed to nurse his pitiful small stack to a 4th place in the money finish proving that he is a balla even with about 7 beers in him. The new jeans I bought at Kohl's (with the coupon) were a hit too.

Last Monday I was able to watch most of the final table of the WCOOP ME which by my estimate came in at 22 hours (Ive lasted 14 live and never got tired once the adrenaline gets coursing thru the system) . Actually, make that the final two tables. I didnt have to sign on to the phones till 10:30 AM and since I was hopping on and off for various stints I kept Pstars up and followed along when I could.

Snake and I didnt get a chance to really talk Friday nite as I left when I busted but he called me Saturday Afternoon to fill me in on the details and catch-up. So as usual we talked poker and some sports goings ons and our discussion mades its way around to the the upcoming FTOPs on Full Tilt (Im still in exile but may return), How Western Union transfers to pokerstars are fast but you are raped with the fee (I wired $250 and it cost me $29 - Epassporte may be slower but its cheaper) .

I then of course mentioned the WCOOP. First I will state that Ive been busy with watching lots of TV and have been behind on blog reading. So I of course pose the question to Snake " I wonder if Chad Brown took over for Vanessa at any time or assisted her?". It's no secret that the two are a couple. Usually when we discuss Chad we try to guess his real age since its no secret Chad refuses to divulge it. Of course Snake (who is 44), always says "No doubt hes older then me... gotta be at least 50". I of course am not so sure since Im going to be 47 next Saturday and dont really look it either (without the benefit of Botox, I might add)...... Sorry Chad, but even if you are pushing AARP age you're a good looking man. Somehow or other we diverged to Marion Jones pleading guilty to doping and the BALCO fiasco as well as Floyd Landis being stripped of his Tour de France title and didnt revisit the WCOOP.

Anyway out of boredom today I decide to google 'WCOOP main event collusion" for shits and giggles. I got more then I bargained for as up popped various threads on various forums ( 2+2 and NeverWin Poker)

First there was rumours of soft-playing and chip-dumping as Chad (Stelladora) and Vanessa (LadyMaverick) were at the same table early on and people are hypothesizing that Vanessa who had a big stack didnt put her boyfriend to the test for his chips when she should have. Not sure how that is construed as chip dumping since that is usually when two equal stacks are involved. I dont know all the details but it seems like Chad's stack at the time wasnt enough to really give Vanessa a bigger boost then the stack she had already acquired. Besides, being a team pokerstars player I reckon she is scrutinized pretty heavily. I you review the pocketfives hand histories I link to below note the prescence of another top online player SamENole


http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=12316387&page=5&fpart=1&vc=1

and

http://www.pocketfives.com/B2EA1C20-9912-4F8B-A10F-64F3012AA614.aspx


Then there is the post that Nitbuster the 6th place finisher was really a double secret account of none other then Josh Arieh. Come to find out Josh has apparently been accused of colluding or multi-accounting at the cash game tables at pokerstars. This allegation came from some railbirds intrepretation of something Daniel Negreanu said as a WCOOP commentator about Daniel knowing that Nitbuster belonged to Josh or slipping and saying "Josh" (who is one of Daniel's good friends). Now isnt Josh a Bodog sponsered pro. (Do the pros have exclusives with their sites or are they allowed to play elsewhere or does it depend on the contract)


Finally, the biggest allegation is that TheVoid, pro Mark Teltscher who won the WCOOP over Ka$ino (there was a slight chop) multi-accounted and is being investigated by pokerstars. There is a huge thread over on 2 + 2 that made my mind go numb much as the Brandi Hawbaker thread did. Apparently his real account is play2kill and TheVoid account was a newly created account that is registered to his sister.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=12335302&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

This Hendon Mob report has a nice recap of last weeks alleged cheating in poker.

http://www.thehendonmob.com/poker_news/5th_of_october

Overshadowed by all this is the fact that the PokerPixie aka Anna 'VietCutie' Wroblewski finished in 16th.

Finally, this is old news but is Jose Canseco such a loser that he had to enter a LadiesOnly Tourney as a protest?

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2007/09/womens-poker-spotlight-canseco-enters-tourney.htm

Happy Sleuthing