TJ kinda blames Russ Hamilton for UB cheating scandal – but doesn’t

TJ says don’t rush to judgment in the Ultimate Bet cheating scandal

In his blog this week, TJ Cloutier writes about the Absolute Poker/UB cheating scandal. In it he addresses the accusations made against his fellow poker player, Russ Hamilton. While TJ is clearly tiptoeing around the issue he does go as far to say that’s generally bad to cheat (thanks for the clarification, TJ!). He rambles about more shit that’s not worth repeating before finally getting the meat of the situation -

There’s no doubt that cheating was going on at these two sites. That has been proven. And there’s no doubt that they’ve hooked up the addresses where a lot of online cheating was happening to houses that Russ owned. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he was doing any of it himself. There’s a lot of circumstantial evidence involved. But still it’s pretty hard to think that he had nothing at all to do with things.

Where's my craps tables at?

TJ, are you fkin serious dude? All of these houses that Russ owned and he MAYBE didn’t have a hand in the cheating? I suppose there’s the slim chance that despite having access to the critical, secured systems that run Ultimate Bet and his insider knowledge of how to crack the damn thing, that Russ had NOTHING to do with the whole cheating thing. Read that last sentence back to yourself a few times, TJ. Care to restate that sentiment?

Cmon folks, Russ is guilty and it’s pretty damn clear to most of us. Yes, you are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law here. Yes, it’s unfair to be judged guilty by the public and the media before your day in court. However Russ needs to come forward and say something in his defense to sway public opinion and he needs to do it quickly. It’s pretty suspect that he skipped the entire WSOP this year, just months before the findings were made public. He’s been a virtual ghost on the poker scene ever since. This is bad for online poker, bad for poker in general, and certainly not good for Russ.

Regardless of the outcome things aren’t looking good for you, Russ. It appears that the temptation to cheat overwhelmed you so hopefully those millions you bilked from unsuspecting victims are enough to tide you over until your day in court. It’s pretty clear that you’ll need a good chunk of that cash to pay for your defense.