Latest Scam Scandal Involves WSOP Champion?

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

According to ’feruell’, a fixed limit high stakes regular, and his fellow players, 888 Poker Pro and WSOP winner Darren ’Dooshcom’ Woods may be involved in a collusion scam at 888 push or fold tables.

Darren ’Dooshcom’ Woods at WSOP 2011

In a recent blog post, fixed limit specialist ’feurell’ (aka’jama-dharma’ on PokerStars, aka ’ThrCnBeOnly1’ on 888 Poker) has claimed, in the name of a group of high stakes players at 888 Poker and iPoker, that WSOP 2011 $2,500 Limit Hold’em champion and 888 Poker Pro Darren ’Dooshcom’ Woods is involved in scamming his fellow players, colluding with unknown usernames ’liverfc123’, ’benhamcheese’ and ’benkaremail.’

Telling his story about how he met ’Dooshcom’ online and how he came to suspect he was involved in colluding, how he carried out his investigation with his fellow players and how he relayed what they found to 888 Poker Support, he eventually breaks down his claims and findings into these cliffs:

“Darren Woods, known as Dooshcom, a sponsored 888 poker pro and a WSOP winner, colluded with his friend Benkaremail (real name unknown) at the 500-1000 shortstack tables.They won hundreds of thousands of dollars during the August of 2011.Cheating was discovered by the group of high stakes players.The investigation has started only after the group made a big detailed report asking Pokerstrategy CEO to present it to the 888 poker management and fraud department.Another cheating occured on iPoker, under SN's of Dingdonk1984 and Salamdolphie.This cheating was also discovered and reported. But the evidence is weak and it's very likely they will get away with colluding on iPoker.The group would like to take it to court with the help of 888 poker.A help with the investigation is appreciated.”

In addition, they (‘PoolFc1,’ ‘hhhhhhhhhepp,’ ‘NeedAAAA’ and ’feruell’ himself) have produced a collective statement as well with a similar content, sent to 888 Poker. Its introduction reads as follows:

“This is a collective statement from the high stakes players of 888.com. What brought us together is a very strong suspicion that some other players at the highest stakes of the 888.com PushorFold (PoF) tables are colluding (they are sharing hole cards with each other).

The push or fold tables are perfect for this as the play is very easy and straight and the advantage provided by collusion maximized as all decisions take place early.

We are all agree that something suspicious is happening and we ask you to immediately freeze the involved accounts and their assets until a thorough investigation is done. They keep playing every day and many innocent players are getting hurt.
Its very important to stop what we suspect as cheating as soon as possible.

The players suspected of colluding is dooshcom (Darren Woods) working togheter with benkaremail, liverfc123 and benhamandcheese.

Why do we think they are cheating?

They always sit down at the same table, leaving an empty seat for a victim between them. During 07/24/2011 to 9/6/2011 dooshcom basically never missed a single session with benkaremail or liverfc123 or benhamcheese. Out of 50 their sessions we know about, he was always there except for a few very short ones.Whereas dooshcom considered benkaremail a weak player, he would be taking a seat right next to him. This is what all good players (dooshcom included) are doing in normal circumstances.Dooshcom didn't play PushorFold tables on a regular basis before. Moreover, during August and July of 2011 he missed a lot of good action benkaremail, liverfc123 and benhamcheese was not involved in. But he is always there when they are.They are all from the same country, UK.All of them play very good and understand the game as deeply as we do. Although they deviate from the good play in some spots. These situations only make sense in case of the collusion. More detailed explaination of how and why they deviate from the optimal play is rather complicated and can be found below.They start 6-max tables by playing heads up. Their heads up play is absurdly bad. This is obviously performed to lure viewers to join and maybe to chipdump.We are experts in the game. Our observations and discusions led to a mutual agreement on the collusion taking place. Whether any one of us was in doubt, you would never receive this email.”

The statement goes on with the technical details and how they can prove their right – you can read it, together with the post, in its entirety here. ‘Feruell’ states that it seems the involved accounts are currently shut down.

To be sure, this year does not run short of scams and scandals, although it has been going on for way too long for my taste. Will online high stakes game be clean once again, I wonder?