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Bob Heick Photo Then

Bob Heick Photo recent years

Turns out the Cereus/Ultimate Bet/Absolute Ultimate Bet Poker scandal keeps getting more interesting (and worse) as time goes by. The latest information suggests there is a link between Ultimate Bet and racists, and that link is Bob Heick. Bob Heick, a former employee of Ultimate Bet, was married to the former Fraud Manager of Ultimate Bet, Carolyn Heick. Carolyn Heick was in charge when the internal cheating took place. The security technology tool in place at the time of the scandal should have easily uncovered the multiple accounts originating from a few specific locations/computers but was overlooked by Carolyn. There have been some rumors regarding her alleged involvement in the scandal. The evidence is mainly circumstantial but suggests she knew about the cheating and could have easily been involved. In addition to the questions surrounding her professional life, there are now some additional questions about her personal choices. Carolyn Heick was married to Bob Heick. Bob used to work for Ultimate Bet but is best known for his work as founder of the white supremacist group, American Front. American Front was a white-power skinhead organization started in the mid 1980s in San Francisco, California in the 1980’s. Bob left the group and moved to Portland with Carolyn around 1990 and the two lived there for several years. During his time there, it’s said that he tried to organize and was apparently one of the many who trekked to Idaho in support of Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge. There are no reports as to whether Carolyn accompanied him but she certainly knew of her husband’s history and interests. Rumor has it the two are no longer together but it still brings her judgment into question yet again. And what does it say about the judgment of those hiring at UB??? According to some, UB has never had any African American Pros on their roster. If this is true, it could bring an entirely different scandal, not to mention lawsuit, to light.

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Disclaimer: The following does not reflect the opinions of PokerBloggs.com.

Haley Hintze, former Editor-in-Chief of PokerNews.com, has been running a series of blogs related to the UltimateBet (now UB.com) cheating scandal. Saturday, she decided to shift her focus away from the UltimateBet scandal and provided her user with what she called evidence that Scott Tom, former head of Absolute Poker, was indeed the person responsible for the cheating scandal involving PotRipper.

She starts off the blog rehashing the whole Absolute Cheating scandal and stating that she has been among the many entities that Scott Tom has threatened with libel suits due to speaking out against him and AP. She has obtained what she considers evidence that proves that Scott Tom may indeed be the force behind the AP scandal and the other involved players may have been pawns in his game.

She starts by providing information from the anti-fraud software “ieSnare” that AP purchased from UltimateBet. She shows the information for account PotChopper that clearly points to Scott Tom as the owner.

Next, she explains how that the software assigns an ID to each new computer that logged onto AP. Tom’s primary computer was assigned “11451887.” Using this ID, the software can show where the account was logged on at. It showed that two unique machines logged onto the site from various location, but always the same two computers.

Next, she stated that his pc’s ID was linked to several of the known cheating accounts, including PotRipper, the account that brought the cheating scandal to the forefront. If you look at the image following, you will see that the device and NUID sets match those for logins from PotChopper.

Next, she produced an image of what she said was the “Graycat” account that was also involved in the cheating scandal. As you can see from the image, the ID and NUID again matches other accounts. She also provided the same information for the “Doubledrag” account.

Hintze then goes on to claim that Scott Tom was indeed behind the computer and using these accounts and not being “hacked” as he had claimed. She then produced evidence of several large deposits and a substantial withdrawal from Scott Tom’s account. Notice that he received a transfer for $70,000 from Double Drag and the account was immediately black listed. However, the account was then cleared within less than two hours and according to Hintze, this was based on directives from upper management which she stated was Scott Tom and others.

After winning a huge tourney on September 13th, 2007, Hintze indicated that Tom chip dumped a large portion of his “winnings” to other cheater accounts. After making the $70,000 withdrawal, she claims he then blacklisted the account. She states that the same was done to other accounts so that the majority of money was taken off the site.

Hintze then points out that the cheating accounts were flagged so that customer service would not close the account. She provided an image that shows the PotRipper account with the comment “Please do not close this account for any reason. Issues please consult with Brent, Adrian or Nolan.” Most of the pertinent information has been removed but she believes that the information was a “college buddy” he was using to launder money.

The allegations made by Hintze have not been proven by any other source as of the time of the writing of this article. Hintze did not reveal her sources. Should this prove to be true, it would raise a new set of questions and confirm the beliefs of many conspiracy theorists that, like Hintze, believed that Scott Tom was the head of the AP cheating scandal all along. Hintze says that she has more to publish on this matter at a future date so this isn’t the last that we will hear on this story.

- James Guill

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2008 was a history making year in the world of poker. Let’s take a look back.

January 2008

2008 kicked off with Alexander Kostritsyn winning the Main Event of Aussie Millions after surviving a grueling heads up duel with Erik Seidel. Kostritsyn took home the title and $1.65 Million AUD.

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission released their findings regarding the Absolute Poker cheating scandal. Absolute Poker received a $500,000 fine and refunded around $1.6 Million to players.

February 2008

The Women’s Poker Hall of Fame was instituted at Binion’s in Las Vegas. Marsha Waggoner, Linda Johnson, Susie Isaacs, and Barbara Enright were enshrined in the inaugural class.

March 2008

Chris Ferguson won the NBC National Heads-Up Championship after besting 63 other players, including Andy Bloch in the final.

April 2008

The Poker Players Alliance reached 1 Million members. The purpose of the organization is to lobby politicians in Washington, D.C. to try and forward the interests of poker.

Rep. Barney Frank and Senator Ron Paul introduced a bill to try and block the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act from being implemented. The bill was eventually voted down in committee, but the fight continues.

May 2008

The World Series of Poker announced that the final table of the Main Event would be delayed 117 days. The move was to increase exposure for the event. The final table was scheduled for November 9th.

Allen Cunningham won the WSOP Circuit Event stop in Las Vegas Nevada. He took down the gold championship ring and $499,162

Tokwiro Enterprises released a statement in late May acknowledging cheating that had occurred at the website. The incidents spanned four years and involved 88 different accounts. The incidents were discovered by users who determined that the win rates by certain accounts were unnaturally high. The amounts won by the accounts exceeded $16 Million.

June 2008

The World Series of Poker was the only tournament of consequence during June. Many stories topped the headlines at the series. Perhaps the most reported and criticized was Scotty Nguyen’s win in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Event. His actions at the final table were criticized by many but in the end, nobody could deny his ability at the table. Scotty received the first ever Chip Reese Memorial Trophy, the bracelet, and $1.243 Million in prize money.

John Phan was the only multi-bracelet winner of the 2008 World Series of Poker. He first took Event #29, the $3,000 No-Limit Event. This event was memorable for three hands being played “all-in blind” between Phan and Johnny Neckar. Phan would then win his 2nd bracelet in Event #40, the $2,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw event.

The 2008 World Series of Poker was known as the “Year of the Pro” as several pro’s won a bracelet. Erick Lindgren, Mike Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Max Pescatori, Layne Flack, David Benyamine, Dario Minieri, and Vanessa Selbst all won bracelets.

July 2008

The Main Event of the World Series of Poker took center stage as 6,844 players took their shot at the top prize. While Tiffany Michelle garnered a lot of headlines both for her deep run and the controversy around her dealings with PokerNews, she fell just short of true poker immortality. The “November Nine” was finally reached with Ivan Demidov, Scott Montgomery, Peter Eastgate, Ylon Schwartz, Dennis Phillips, Darus Suharto, David Rheem, Craig Marquis and Kelly Kim all hoping to get their shot in November at poker immortality.

August 2008

Chan Poker shut down operations in August, a casualty of the UIGEA and a shaky economy. The World Poker Tour also announced that they would be restructuring their business and nearly became delisted on NASDAQ before the market suspended delistings due to the economic climate of the country.

September 2008

Kentucky Govenor Steven Beshear had a seizure order drawn up for 141 online poker domain names in a move to have the sites removed. Sites such as DoylesRoom.com and many others were being threatened with domain name seizure. Many sites enacted measures to block TN residents from accessing the sites. A stay was granted to the order and an appeal is expected to be ruled upon sometime in early 2009.

October 2008

John Juanda took the Main Event of the World Series of Poker Europe. A final table that boasted Daniel Negranu, November Nine participant Ivan Demidov, and Scott Fischman, came down to a heads up match that lasted 242 hands. After 22 hours of play at the final table, Juanda walked away with the bracelet and £868,800.

November 2008

The final table of the WSOP Main Event kicked off on November 9th and was played down to a final two of Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov. They returned on the10th and put on a heads-up match for the ages. In the end, Peter Eastgate came out on top and became the first true professional to win the WSOP Main Event since 2001. He took home $9,152,416 for first and became the youngest WSOP bracelet winner in history.

December 2008

PartyGaming co-founder Anurag Dikshit cut a deal with the U.S. Dept of Justice where he forfeited $300 Million for violating the 1961 Wire Act. The move drew heavy criticism for Dikshit (Ya that’s his name), including chastising from Doyle Brunson who said that Dikshit fits his name.

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Tiffany Michelle has been the recipient of a lot of negative press lately due to her actions on recent ESPN World Series of Poker broadcasts. The recent backlash is just the latest in a nasty saga that started back at the beginning of the Main Event. Tiffany Michelle as many know was an on camera personality for Pokernews.com. For years she has been seen interviewing many of the worlds top poker stars. Tony G and Tiffany Michelle were friends and he thought that she had the potential to be a huge stars. As he noted in his blog, he invited her over to a celebration that he was having and talked about putting her into the $1,000 Rebuy Event at the 2008 WSOP.

At his meeting, Tiffany Michelle convinced Jeffrey Lisandro to try and talk Tony into putting her into the Main Event. Tony outright said that he didn’t feel like that she was skilled enough to be playing on such a large field. Finally, a compromise was reached between Jeff and Tony. Tony would put up $6,000 and Jeff would put up $4,000. Tony would retain any rights to market Tiffany Michelle and while she played, she was to represent PokerNews. It even stated such in her contract. Tony also said in his blog that Tiffany heard what he said and she knew what the agreement was.

As the Main Event progressed, Tiffany Michelle started showing up at the WSOP wearing UltimateBet gear. She had so much gear on that it obscured and even covered the PokerNews patches that she was wearing. This was relayed back to Tony G in Russia. Tony then contacted Tiffany Michelle, who basically told him at that time that all contact needed to go through her manager. She had hired Kathy Lymberopoulos to manage. Tony G was naturally furious. Later, after Tiffany Michelle had busted out the Main Event, PokerNews made a statement regarding the matter.

They stated that “without any consultation with PokerNews, Tiffany went ahead and signed a sponsorship deal with Ultimate Bet.” “We believe, that based on advice from her agent that the contract may have loopholes; she went and made a deal with an online gaming operator that completely contradicted the trust that we had put in her, both as an employee and as a sponsored player. As an organization we felt completely sabotaged by Tiffany, her agent and Ultimate Bet.” “We are currently seeking legal council on this entire situation and potential damages to PokerNews.”

Tiffany Michelle came out with her own statement and part of that said, “I have a written contract that has been reviewed by legal counsel – and it is very clearly a non-exclusive contract meaning that while I was expected to wear the Pokernews logo – I was in no way prevented from wearing any other logo. Furthermore Pokernews did not possess any power to make, advise or negotiate any kind of logo or sponsorship deal that came about via my playing the main event.” “I am a grown woman and I can decide for myself who I choose to associate myself with. That should not be Tony G’s decision.”

Here she is giving an interview:

In the end Tony G took the high road. He stated, “I have never sued anyone and I don’t like using my energy on negative things. The court would be the one that decided if she broke a contract with me but I don’t like using my energy on negative things. I believe that the time it would take for me to go after her and the hard feelings that would build because of it, that I would lose so much of my good energy that I am not going to prosecute her.”

Tiffany Michelle made a huge mistake in many people’s eyes. First, if she would have let Tony G represent her, right now she would be sponsored by PokerStars.com and would have an endorsement of no less than $1 Million in tournament buy-ins. Instead, she signed with UltimateBet.com. UltimateBet is going through a huge scandal involving superuser accounts and evidence of wrongdoing is pointing back to the founder of the company, Russ Hamilton.

Before the WSOP episodes on ESPN, Tiffany Michelle’s reputation had already been severely damaged. In poker, nothing is as important as your word. Once you have been pegged as a person that goes back on their word, it is hard to recover from that. Just look at Jamie Gold and all the sponsorship opportunities that he lost as a result of his decisions. Tiffany Michelle may have put herself in a bigger hole. Not only did she go back on her word with PokerNews, but she is associated with a site that is under investigation of cheating. This may be a near fatal combination for her poker career.

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