[bigboydan]

Bluff Magazine Editor Fired for Cheating in Full Tilt

The following statement was made today:

“Bluff Media, publisher of Bluff Magazine, has made the decision to terminate Chris Vaughn as Managing Editor. In light of Chris’ involvement, recently admitted facts and the feedback obtained from industry professionals, it became apparent that the credibility required to perform the job functions of Managing Editor of Bluff Magazine at our company’s level of standards have become severely diminished. While we regret having to make this decision, we believe that it is the best alternative for all parties involved, including Chris, Bluff Media and the poker playing community at large. We wish Chris the best of luck.”

[Illusion]

Anybody have more info on this. This is a very interesting story.

[jon13009]

Link to interview with Vaughn on the issue:

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2007/1...-speak-one.htm

I still think what Vaughn did ("account selling") was wrong, and FT was correct in closing his account. This type of thing is an example of why playing in big time on-line poker tournaments can be wrought with peril. Better to just play live (if you can.)


A short commentary on the Vaughn interview from a poker bot (!) programmer:

http://robopoker.blogspot.com/2007/1...-admit-to.html

Bots, collusion, account selling, "super" accounts, ...... These are examples of why on-line poker is not a place to tread lightly. The biggest problem here is collusion, and I cannot see any means of stopping this plague on the on-line poker world.

[Illusion]

Thanks jon.

[jon13009]

No problem.

At least the issue has come to light and the on-line poker community seems to be dealing with it.

[sweethook]

yes thats just { 1 } more , and they are 1,000s we dont no about, i can beat the game just cant beat the cheats

[rugbybdyb]

thats why Im not a big fan of online poker. Can this guy get charged criminally for any of this?

[Illusion]

yes thats just { 1 } more , and they are 1,000s we dont no about, i can beat the game just cant beat the cheats

Maybe this is the big catch they needed to shed some light on the problem. We all have horror stories that leave us shaking our heads. I hope this story doesn't die because the major sites need to police their rooms on a more efficent level.

[Al Masters]

He just came in 5th in the super tuesday tourney at Stars.......16k.

He lost his job at Bluff mag, they froze his account at F.T,his reputation has been destroyed, his buddy has also paid and will continue to pay a hefty price for this huge indiscretion.

Yet with all that grief that hes gone through this week and will continue to have to deal with, here he is a few days later banging away at STARS, where hes welcome with open arms.

[SBR Lou]

It is unfortunate that stuff like this goes on, but that's just the nature of the technology. Hopefully more measures are taken to secure who can log in from what account, it doesn't seem unreasonable to have some sort of hardware identifier tied in to the cashiers.

By synchronizing your poker account with your computer hardware, you are drastically reducing the risk of having unauthorized parties log in with your account details, as well as parties you may be peddling the account to during a tournament.

If you have a couple of computers and a laptop, go through the process of registering your systems so you aren't limited to only playing poker on one machine.

[jon13009]

Yes, you may be able to limit the number of computers a player is actually using at his home and try to prevent account selling by various methods; however, how can you stop players from instant messaging each other or talking to each other by phone during a tournament or money table play on the internet?

The top players have the skill to play high level tournament poker, and they will also take advantage of any means to crush average players in any situation because they all know each other and are continuing to push the limits of what they can get away with. When they are caught, the just get banned from one site and move on to another.

On-line poker players who play at high stakes usually feel like they are being fed to the lions at one point or another.

To me, the Absolute Poker scam was the end of it all, and you would be kidding yourself if you think it still doesn't happen because the technology is there and the temptations are too high with no real regulatory arm to stop it. Absolute Poker still continues to operate as we speak, and when you mention it at other on-line poker sites, few people know it even happened.