I already wrote about how Ali Tekintamgac and Perica Bukara and their associates cheated at the PPT Cannes, and how they might have done it, but there are some interesting developments in the case already. As I have reported, WTP winner Ali Tekintamgac has been disqualified from PPT Cannes Main Event because of cheating.Now there are more details available: it turned out recently that there are more cheaters, dealers and a floorman at Full Tilt Poker events involved in the conspiracy,
Individuals involved in the scandal:
Deniz Yavuz
The Turkish Deniz Yavuz used to be the owner of the Nuremberg Card Club that lies on the border of the Czech Repuclic and Germany. He also owns pokertravels.de, checkraiser.de, and the pokerevents.de website, and also is a director of Pokerevents GmbH, which organized many Full Tilt Poker events such as the 2009 Million Euro Challenge and the 2010 Merit Cyprus Classic. Yavuz started playing poker at live cash game tables and began participating in live tournaments since 2008, though his main interest were organizing tournaments.
Dejan Dimov
Winner of the 2009 Million Euro Challenge, also a regular at the Nuremberg Card Club.
Perica Bukara
Winner of the $25,000 High Roller Event at Merit Cyprus Classic tournament. His live tournament winnings are $464,495.
Ali Tekintamgac
Winner of the WPT Barcelona Main Event. His live tournament winnings are $461.080.
Ersin Burun
Worked as a dealer for Pokerevents GmbH.
Roland Schuster
He worked as a floorman at the Czech King’s Casino Rozvadov. Schuster is a close acquaintance of Yavuz’s, with whom they were delivering presentations at the IPEX (International Poker Exhibition) and were playing as the CheckRaiser team at the 2009 Mountain Poker Team Cup tournament.
The scandal broke out earlier than Tekintamgac was caught but it didn’t attract as much attention as the disqualification did, as Full Tilt Poker tried to conceal the conspiracy which Ersin Burun described to a German newspaper:
"I want to tell the truth about Dejan Dimov, and about his ways of getting into the final table, in which he didn’t have the right to participate. He only managed to do so because I helped him, as I’ve worked there as a dealer and a floorman. His starting stack was 10,000. He has hidden 300,000 chips in his clothes, with what he filled his stack up slowly. He easily made it to the final table, other players didn’t have a real chance against him. At first I didn’t want to participate in this, but he promised me to split the winnings. Later I contacted Full Tilt Poker, and after a conversation with one of their representatives I was asked not to talk about this to anybody, as Full Tilt has already paid the winners and do not want the case to be public as it would shed a negative light on Full Tilt Poker."
Full Tilt Poker made an official statement on the case in which they state that the whole situation is blown up, no real evidence was presented to reinforce accusations that some players have been given help by the external agency that organized the tournament. Full Tilt also rejected accusations of them wanting to hold back information on the case. They went ahead and investigated the case thoroughly, and found everything legitimate and in order. They admitted though that the accuser contacted them after the tournament, but he just claimed money, which Full Tilt rejected because they say they will not submit to blackmail. However, if the accuser can prove the validity of his accusations, they will take the necessary steps.
Tekintamgac was under surveillance at the PPT Cannes as he already behaved suspiciously at the EPT Tallinn, and as an acquaintance of Bukara’s and Yavuz’s. Together with Dimov they frequented the King’s Casino Rozvadov to play cash games and tournaments, so their connection was obvious.
The scandal has been a trending topic in German newspapers and online media for days now, and judging from the many comments on the topic, there might be some truth to the accusations.
Manuel Blaschke, Austrian poker pro, who finished 4th at the WPT Barcelona and was sitting at the same table as Tekintamgac also commented on the issue; if somebody, he really has some experience concerning the conspiracy:
"Tekintamgac is not only the worst player at that final table, but overall the worst I have ever played against. He went all-in for small pots on dangerous flops. When there were only 4 of us at the table, we were talking about making a 4-way deal, but I rejected it, because only Ali’s stack was threatening to me, but he played so badly I didn’t feel him to be winning. We played 5 weird hand afterwards, during which I lost half of my stack."
