Questions surrounding the WPT Borgata counterfeit chip scandal...

[Junior Senior]

i say play it out as is.  Replace the counterfeit chips with real ones for completeness then refund all players that entered their buy in and reg fee.  That way everyone is compensated in some way and the rest of the players still in get to carry on and play it out.  There might be no cheats at all in the final 27.

After the event they need to look hard at this and ensure measures are taken to stop it happening again.

How exactly could you both play out the event and refund everyone's buy-in and reg fee

the WPT puts their hand in their pocket and covers it. they took their eye off the ball and allowed this to happen? maybe i am being harsh

[dwayne110]

How it can be played out if there 'might not be cheats in the final 27' is beyond me, tourney has been compromised, has to stop.

[Boba Fett]

Don't they have state of the art cameras recording everything from every angle at these casinos? Rewind through the footage and follow the fake chips from stack to pot to stack until eventually they find people putting them into play. Would take teams of people a bit of time but surely they can handle it. I guess refund and comp anyone that's busted already is deffo a start and wait for results from investigation before deciding on the rest.

[youthnkzR]

Don't they have state of the art cameras recording everything from every angle at these casinos? Rewind through the footage and follow the fake chips from stack to pot to stack until eventually they find people putting them into play. Would take teams of people a bit of time but surely they can handle it. I guess refund and comp anyone that's busted already is deffo a start and wait for results from investigation before deciding on the rest.

THIS. Surely they should invest time and money into finding out where the chips came from. It must be possible with the amount of cameras...etc in casinos. Find one culprit and the rest would follow surely.

*In before another 'top' pro scandal.

[leethefish]

Only a few people will get this .......and I won't be allowed to elaborate !

Has the "rock " started playing wpt 's  

Sorry couldn't resist !!

[Oxford_HRV]

pretty sad that there will be no considerably fair conclusion. they will have to refund to all that played.

[MC]

Interesting who came 28th!

[KarmaDope]

Interesting who came 28th!

Is it wrong that without even looking, I assume it is Men the Master?

[Delboy]

(bogus) twitter account sprung up with some funny tweets...

    5k Chips ‏@5kChips Jan 20

    @TabDuchateau Clear my good name. @MenTheMaster call me. #chipgate
   
       
    5k Chips ‏@5kChips Jan 18

    The 2 plus 2 rumor mill is spewing lies about my denomination. #chipgate
   
    5k Chips ‏@5kChips Jan 18

    @MenTheMaster call me on my private line. We need to talk. #chipgate
   
    5k Chips ‏@5kChips Jan 17

    @AllenKessler Meet me in the food line. Leave the bag of chips near the coffee dispenser. Keep this on the hush hush. #winterpokeropen
   
    5k Chips ‏@5kChips Jan 17

    @RealKidPoker accusations of me being fake at the #winterpokeropen @MenTheMaster has vouched for me but I need your help!
   
    5k Chips ‏@5kChips Jan 17

    @MenTheMaster Good luck in Event 1! #winterpokeropen #1kchipssuck
   

[SuuPRlim]

Roughly 4,000 ppl didn't cash.  That's $2m + reg fee, no way they cough that up.

See if you can catch people first and when you do try sue them for the compensation to players money I guess. If not then chop the prize pool as is up and gg the event.

[Magic817]

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2014/01/christian-lusardi-counterfeit-chips-17347.htm

[kinboshi]

Is it likely he was working alone, or the only one who 'benefited'?

[TightEnd]

Barry Carter has the latest...

http://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/world-of-poker/Man-arrested-in-Borgata-chip-smuggling-case_80765/

42 year old Christian Lusardi was arrested yesterday after 2.7 million in counterfeit tournament chips had clogged the pipes of his hotel room at Harrah's resort. They had been flushed down the toilet.

Lusardi was one of the early chip leaders in the event, which was cancelled with 27 players remaining after fake chips were discovered. He was eliminated on day 2, cashing for $6,814....etc

[Doobs]

Barry Carter has the latest...

http://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/world-of-poker/Man-arrested-in-Borgata-chip-smuggling-case_80765/

42 year old Christian Lusardi was arrested yesterday after 2.7 million in counterfeit tournament chips had clogged the pipes of his hotel room at Harrah's resort. They had been flushed down the toilet.

Lusardi was one of the early chip leaders in the event, which was cancelled with 27 players remaining after fake chips were discovered. He was eliminated on day 2, cashing for $6,814....etc

The twitter feed of @7thecho us worth reading back.

FWIW the toilet incident was known about before becauseIcan posted his story.

[tikay]

3 things in this story interested me.

How many runners? 4,800? Wow!

Interesting how the WPT have attracted so much negative noise, whilst the villain of the peace seems to have escaped censure from the poker masses. What strange people we poker players are. 

But mostly......if you have not played in a Live Poker Tourney where chips have been weeded on, then you can't have played many, it used to be widespread, may still be for all I know. I've seen it happen in at least 4 Venues, to my certain knowledge, though we are going back a few years. 3 of those Venues still operate, but I'm sure they are tickity boo these days with monitoring chips.

I played in a Room less than 2 years ago where 3 Tourneys of different buy-ins were on the go at the same time, & all three Tourneys used the same set of chips. Obv, nothing untoward arose, as I spoke to the Manager & he assured me they kept their eyes open. Yes yes, quite so.