UB Scandal Russ Hamilton Recording via Travis Makar

Here is a three hour recording about the UB, Ultimate Bet Scandal where 1994 WSOP Main Event Champion Russ Hamilton admits cheating players as other Ultimate Bet executives plan a cover up.

Below that is a ten minute version with some interesting and shocking highlights including Russ Hamilton’s claim that Annie Duke used the cheating software at UB called “God Mode” to see her opponents hole cards.

Since these cheating accusations have surfaced Annie Duke has admitted using the software to see hole cards but insists she only did so a couple of times during Radio broadcasts of UB tournaments. SOP according to Annie. However Martin Harris of Flushdraw.com reports that was not standard operating procedure for the time period Annie Duke is referencing.

This video was uploaded on YouTube by abcdef8741 and later posted on Two Plus Two Poker Forum by PartyGirlUK.

Members of Two Plus Two are discussing this shocking recording in this thread. Also you can find another UB Scandal Two Plus Two thread here.

Americano55 posted the following “sweet spot” ten minute abridged version on YouTube. Two Plus Two member Grange95 provided the recording timeline Cliffs found below the video.

“Cliffs of this 10 minute snippet:

2:55–Russ Hamilton: “Annie Duke regularly used [God mode software] on a 15 minute delay”

5:07–Russ Hamilton: “I did take this money & I’m not trying to make it right … so let’s get that out of the way”

6:30–Russ Hamilton claims he spread his ill-gotten gains to high stakes players: “Freddy Deeb got the most cash.”

8:20–Russ Hamilton justifies his fraud by claiming he used it to pump up UB: “I spent a lot of this money on [UB promotions].”

8:30 to end : UB exec suggests some of Russ Hamilton’s cheating was “sanctioned” by mgmt. to help UB survive a financially difficult period.

9:00 to end: UB exec suggest shifting blame/liability for fraud to Excapsa”

We hear Russ Hamilton admit stealing millions of dollars from innocent victims plus Russ implicates poker player Annie Duke in the scandal saying she used the God Mode software script exploit that allowed a user to see opponents hole cards by viewing another computer screen as “observer”.

Hamilton states Annie Duke used the cheating software on a 15 minute delay. If true that would still give Duke an unfair advantage over opponents she played against online at UB. Another theory is that Russ commonly tossed in the “15 minute delay” sanitized description in referring to a player using God Mode when in fact there was no such delay or was used without the delay.

Although the recording appears to have been made by Russ Hamilton it was his computer assistant Travis Makar who released the audio files.

Two Plus Two member ElevenGrover breaks down the people on the recording:

“The tape is a damage control session sometime between Feb/May 2008. Russ made the tape. Greg Pierson is the former CEO of ieLogic, developer of UltimateBet. Daniel Friedberg has the mousey voice and was early legal counsel to ieLogic, then later went on to be in Senior Management at Excapsa (company that took UB public). I believe he still has a client relationship with Phil Hellmuth. Sanford Millar is a business partner of Hamiltons and also a lawyer primarily engaged in helping clients offshore wealth. He was one of the nameplates behind the Ultimate Blackjack Tour.”

This recording is very damaging to Russ Hamilton, Greg Pierson, Annie Duke, Freddy Deeb, Dan Friedberg, Jim Ryan, Joe Norton and Paul Leggett. Phil Hellmuth has not been implicated in these recordings.

For more read John Mehaffey’s excellent article on LegalPokerSites.com titled Travis Makar Releases Damaging Ultimate Bet Recordings.

Plus don’t miss Scott Bell’s revealing article on Diamond Flush Poker What’s Behind the UltimateBet tapes?