ShareNorman Chad has echoed Phil Galfond’s calls for a minimum 10-year ban on poker’s most brazen cheats, the veteran poker commentator agreeing with the RunItOnce boss that Ali Imsirovic and Jake Schindler shouldn’t have been allowed to play at the WSOP this year...
Chad’s tweets of Galfond’s views have amplified the general unhappiness that the highstakes duo were allowed to play at the WSOP despite being silently blackballed from various other high-profile events, such as recent PokerStars EPT and Triton festivals.
Imsirovic and Schindler were both banned by GGPoker for Real-Time Assistance (RTA) use, with Alex Foxen calling out Imsirovic and opening an entire can of highstakes cheating worms that included Bryn Kenney and others.
The WSOP/ESPN commentating legend appears to agree fully with RunItOnce boss Galfond, who gave his reasoning for the “10-year ban” call...
“My understanding is that the evidence that Jake and Ali cheated is overwhelming, and my stance is that the type of cheating they engaged in is no different than theft,” said Galfond recently. “They’ve stolen millions of dollars from their peers and from recreational players. I think it’s important to point out to the casual fan tat while public accusations of cheating are, unfortunately, all too common, the majority are unproven, many are untrue... ...and some that relate to minor offenses or gray areas get too much attention. This particular scandal is especially deserving of attention (and consequences).”
Schindler hit the headlines at this year’s WSOP for topping the leader board early on, a $50k SHR victory and a runner-up spot in the $25k version making him poker’s public enemy #1.
That naturally led to increased coverage of his play, but PokerNews were then called out by Matt Berkey for shining too bright a light on his play without focusing enough on his cheating.
Neither Schindler nor Imsirovic have responded publicly to any of the allegations made about their conduct, apparently hoping that the furore will eventually die down and go away.
Whether other big events will eventually relent and allow them to play a la the WSOP remains to be seen, but a cheating blacklist could well be on its way to scupper those hopes. Watch this space!
Note: This article has been revised and updated to reflect it was in fact Phil Galfond who initially made the comments, with Norman Chad only retweeting them. HighstakesDB and the article’s author apologise for any confusion in the original version.
