Discussion starts at roughly 22:15 in this podcast from May 16.
Can also be found here on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/live/G-TKR5ca5jI?feature=share&t=1635
For context this is a poker-focused podcast by Matthew Berkey (a well-known professional poker player for 20+ years who lives in Vegas) and his close friends with whom he runs a poker coaching company.
Transcript in comments.
by sixseven89
20 Comments
Transcript:
> *Matt:* There are a lot of stories about it. There’s one that cropped up, must’ve been like 5 years ago, 2019ish I think? 4 years ago? Where there was this game, it started in LA and then it came to Vegas for a few days, and it was all built around Chauncey Billups. And I had heard about the game, and the person who told me about it was like “Look, I know the game runners, I am telling you 100% this game is on the up-and-up.” And I was like “Well, I know a lot of the people that are involved and I am telling you 100% that it is NOT on the up-and-up.”
> We kind of went back and forth and I agreed that I just wasn’t going to go play. But I had some friends who went and played it both in LA and in Vegas, and it obviously was like, for sure confirmed to be cheated. Like people who clearly didn’t even understand the rules of No Limit Hold’em are just jamming hundreds of big blinds with a gutty and then just drilling it.^1 [laughs] Only the pros are losing…
>*Conrad:* How was it figured out?
>*Matt:* I can’t remember if this was the game where…
>*Conrad:* The loudspeaker? No… that was Pierce [referring to a different cheating story involving Paul Pierce]
>*Matt:* Oh, okay. Well it’s still, it’s not like Chauncey and Pierce don’t know each other [laughs]. I feel like it’s probably the same crowd overlapping there, but maybe not. Either way, it was basically confirmed amongst all the pros that the game was cheated but here’s just no recourse. And just, you know, they got absolutely flayed.
>*Conrad:* Yeah, there’s no recourse in a lot of these situations.
>*Matt:* Well it’s tough too whenever you’re dealing with someone high profile like that, because they carry a lot of weight and hold a lot of power, so all you can do is unite together and threaten to publicly out him or extort him in some sort of capacity, in which case… good luck. It’s like, this guy beat rape charges. You think he cares about you calling him a cheater?
>*Conrad:* Yeah, I mean it’s like… most people cheat and come prepared for a situation when it does happen. So you just can’t really out them. When they’re there, you don’t want to call them out in public–
>*Matt:* Well what’s crazy to me is that some of the guys I’m friends with that played the game kept going back, not fully convinced. Just like “These guys are so bad, man. So bad!” Yeah man, they know what’s fucking coming, man. You don’t have to be good if you can know the deck start to finish. Of course they look bad, they’re putting it in with no equity knowing that they’re going to win the fucking hand. Pretty tough you know?
^1 This sentence is a lot of poker jargon, but basically says that people were betting absurd amounts of money with statistically horrible hands, only to end up getting “lucky” and winning the pot anyway.
Also by pure coincidence, Matt’s cat is named Chauncey and immediately after this part of the podcast he starts biting Matt’s arms (can see easily in the youtube video).
This isn’t fireable is it
Yo hold on lemme grab some popcorn.
This is gonna be a long offseason, isn’t it?
Haven’t done any deep research or anything, but at face value I’m having a hard time understanding motive here. Anybody that can enlighten? Is it a poker thing?
So Much for your Characteristic
Leaked just in time to hire Monty Williams
He’s scamming the organisation out of millions right now.
Unfortunately this won’t amount to much because those games aren’t legal to begin with, so unless you get several people to snitch that can prove xyx people were there, in a room and the fix was in there isn’t anything the league or us can do about it.
I know they have taken down games like this before and got the organizers for tax crimes, but most won’t speak out for fear of retaliation or it exposing their other dealings that aren’t exactly above board either.
that cat was hilarious
NO. MORE. SCAMMING. ADULTS.
Coach said he wanted to see more hustle, but this isn’t what I was expecting.
There’s a lot of good coaches available rn. Let Chauncey go, bring one in, make the #3 pick, go from there. Also, don’t get Brandon Miller.
don’t particularly like chauncey but this is great. modern poker guys are such pieces of shit.
Why can’t we be a fuckin normal team that hires normal people and makes normal trades?
I can see him do that.
Honestly…? This sounds like a load of crap. I am NOT a Billups defender, i think is is the worst possible coach for the Blazers, but provide some solid examples or evidence other than folks “feelings”.
Could there be some legitimate cheating going on? Maybe. But it sounds like a buncha sore losers to me.
This is our chance. Use it as an excuse to fire him!
Here we go again…
Checks out.