ShareDoug Polk has revealed the latest news in a shocking poker scandal involving Ian O'Hara. O'Hara has been accused of stealing $1,000,000 from his backers by faking tournament receipts and results. O'Hara had previously been accused of scamming by well-respected poker players Jonathan Jaffe and Kane Kalas last year.
Jaffe and Kalas discovered that they were both staking O'Hara and were shocked to learn that he had been lying to them about his wins and losses. The combined sting was for $715,000, and O'Hara admitted his guilt and agreed to pay back the money owed and not scam again.
However, O'Hara was recently discovered to have scammed buy-ins for the 2022 Poker Masters, faked tournament receipts, and posted old chip stack pictures from somebody else. Polk's update to the scandal, revealing that O'Hara owes hundreds of thousands of dollars more to other players. Chris 'Big Huni' Hunichen, Jack Schanbacher, and Tyler Rueger are among the known victims, with the total amount owed is estimated at around $1million.
O'Hara has also been accused of trying to sell fake EPT packages and lying about having repaid money. Polk reveals that, even while scamming his stakers, O'Hara had his own 'horse', Luke McIntosh, and was scamming him as well.
Faraz Jaka was one other player who had an unpleasant experience dealing with Ian O’Hara. He tweeted: “I asked for his tax info after paying him out for a swap once. A year later my accountant told me the SSN was invalid. He made up some excuse that he mixed up the last couple digits with his girlfriends SSN.”
“Everyone who’s active and doing lots of business in poker will get scammed at some point. It’s the nature of this human jungle we call the poker world. If you are getting scammed over and over & not learning anything then you’re probably fishing it up.”
Despite the severity of the scandal, some in the poker world consider being scammed a normal part of the business. Faraz Jaka stated that being scammed is something everyone in the industry will experience at some point. O'Hara has attempted to keep the details of his scamming hidden and has threatened those he owes with receiving nothing if they discuss the matter publicly.
