SharePhil Hellmuth has revealed he gave one of his 17 World Series of Poker gold bracelets to Greg Pierson, one of the men believed to be behind the Ultimate Bet scam...
Hellmuth, who bagged his 17th gold bracelet this week increasing his record for most WSOP bracelets ever won, unashamedly included Pierson in his list of who has received his gold jewellery.
Although he has kept his inaugural bracelet from the 1989 Main Event victory, and family members and rich friends dominate those who have been given his bracelets as gifts, it is Pierson who stands out from the crowd.
Hellmuth’s tweet was confirmation that the software engineer and high-level exec at Ultimate Bet was the recipient of Hellmuth’s 2012 Seven-Card Razz bracelet, and it was quickly spotted by award-winning poker journalist Haley Hintze...
Hintze, one of the main writers at the heart of exposing the Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker scandals, tweeted: “I want to verify that Hellmuth himself did not cheat, to the very best of my extensive knowledge."
“But Pierson put a lot of money in Hellmuth's pocket, and when someone's livelihood is at stake, most people will find any rationale to not believe the truth.”
The Absolute Poker “Potripper” scandal broke in the summer of 2007, while the inextricably-linked Ultimate Bet “NioNio” scandal was revealed in December of that year.
It was Pierson who was in charge when Iovation Software, and previously his firm ieLogic, first created the software used by both online poker sites, and he is believed to have been asked by Russ Hamilton to create superuser, or “God-mode”, back-door access as far back as 2003.
This allowed Hamilton, Scott Tom and others to see unsuspecting opponents’ cards, enabling them to siphon an estimated $22million from the cheating before being uncovered by poker community investigations on the 2+2 forum.
Hellmuth - formerly an Ultimate Bet sponsored pro alongside disgraced former poker pro Annie Duke – had his alleged involvement in the scandal called out as recently as last year, by Jungleman Dan Cates...
Cates responded to a Twitter poker fan’s question with: “I think misusing people’s trust (including fans) for profit will not taking any of the downside when things go badly is pretty fucking bad actually!”
Hellmuth’s response was a rather self-serving reworking of the truth, his response:
“Jungle, 2 things (that are well documented, and easy to verify):
- I instigated, and then forced, the investigation at UB, when I repped them—after players on the site came to me.
- audio tapes came out that completely cleared me.”
Greg Pierson, never a poker player of any note himself, has claimed that audio tapes purporting to reveal him discussing ways to minimise the hit UB would take, were taken out of context. He stated at the time: “I was never employed by Ultimate Bet in any way."
With no legal repercussions to date for any of those involved in two of the biggest cheating scandals to ever hit online poker, it is unlikely the full truth will ever emerge.
However, Phil Hellmuth's unabashed revelation of his very close connection with Greg Pierson is sure to be a big talking point. Let us know what you think on our social media.
