ShareHigh stakes pro Jeremy Ausmus has hinted at potential foul play after coming second in a WSOP Online bracelet event, tweeting cryptically that his opponent is not known for his high roller prowess...
Strauss took down the $7777 buy-in Lucky Sevens one-day High Roller event for $181,769, ahead of Ausmus and 70 other players (88 entries total), to bag his first WSOP gold.
However, with cheating stories and allegations running rife in the poker world in recent months, it appears that Ausmus – looking for his 6th WSOP gold bracelet – isn’t convinced he was defeated fair and square, although his sarcastic tweet wasn’t universally popular...
Jeremy Hamey replied: “As a guy that plays 100+ daily tourneys a year….I see some high level play mixed in with amateur/new to the game players. A big fan of yours, but not this. I have taken shots at $10k buy in tourneys a few times, if I bink one do I get this from pros? Congrats Jared.”
Recent scandals involving Ali Imsirovic and Jake Schindler, accusations against Bryn Kenney, and the ongoing Hustler Casino Live cheating investigations has everyone in the community worried, if not paranoid, about being cheated.
Imsirovic and Schindler were both banned from GGPoker for RTA-use and suspended indefinitely from Poker GO Tour live events, while Kenney was accused of promoting and even personally indulging in ghosting and collusion in online tournaments.
That’s the background to Ausmus’ tweet, although it would appear from the scandals mentioned above that perhaps non-high rollers have more to worry from their ivory-tower counterparts!
Not that you’d know it from some of the replies...
...but there is, of course, some truth to the idea that playing way above your usual buy-in, and in a different style, is a definite red flag.
Whether that is the case with Jared “jstrizza” Strauss or not is unproven, but it does appear that Ausmus has cherry-picked Strauss’ buy-in levels to suit his argument.
Strauss did play several $60 buy-in events late 2020-early 2021, but these were relatively few and sandwiched between 3 -figure buy-in tournaments, and his most recent live cash was at the $52250 buy-in WPT Legends of Poker in August.
Ronnie Bardah pointed this out in reply to Ausmus’ tweet...
Justin Ford also responded to Ausmus’ veiled allegations: : “Kinda unfair to say that to a guy who has a 4th place for $46k on an online event in 2019, has plenty of other successful binks online and even has a $5k live cash in a WPT main. Random people win bracelets every year. Doesn’t mean cheating.”
As pointed out by another Twitter poker fan, “some people just like to play poker” regardless of the buy-in, a point Ausmus accepted, though with a crucial proviso:
“Without a doubt, I think that’s great and we see run ups etc often. But what if a lower stakes player shows up and you can’t see them cause it’s online and they nail every spot like their Stephen Chidwick? You think you might want some people to know about that?”
Although Strauss has yet to comment on the situation, Ausmus had toned things down a bit, later tweeting: “Want to be clear I’m not saying with certainty the guy who won was being ghosted or rta’ing. Just saying there are some cheaters out there and the biggest lead is solver-esque sharp play + limited results. People playing in these events def keep an eye out for these things now.”
