1. Who Is Martonas
2. Ziigmund Poker

Last year’s biggest online high stakes crusher, ‘Berri Sweet’, has gone public with a threat to unmask the players he feels have led the nosebleed PLO games on PokerStars ‘to a point where breaking the rules has become the norm’ – with Joe Ingram calling on Daniel Negreanu to ‘use his influence’ to fix the problem.

As reported here in the New Year, the anonymous online beast topped the nosebleed stakes winner’s list with a $1,769,395 profit in 2017 – ahead of a host of famous highstakes players including ‘Isildur1’ and ‘Trueteller' – but he took to the 2+2 forum yesterday to decry those he claims are ‘cheating’.

Sweet’s 2+2 appeal

‘Hello everyone. High stakes PLO on PokerStars has degenerated to a point where breaking the rules has become the norm. Most people reading this probably don't care. That is understandable. The people who do care can, if they would like, help significantly with little effort.’

Who Is Martonas

What we do know about martonas is that he is from Sweden, his favorite game seems to be $500/$1,000 NLHE at Full Tilt Poker, and he has had some big sessions against the likes of Di “Urindanger”. The bulk of martonas‘ $1.4 million downswing came at the hands of Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond last Friday at the $300/$600 PLO tables. Martonas clashed with durrrr. A look at the week's high-stakes cash game action on Full Tilt Poker. This week, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius enjoyed big wins, while volatile Swedish player 'martonas' returned to the tables.

‘Sweet’ then lists the various ways in which the as yet ‘unnamed’ villains are cheating the system, stating the most common as:

• Sitting out on a 6-max with 3 people on it, unwilling to play 3-handed.
  
• Sitting out specifically when a recreational player busts/takes a break.
  
• Starting tables because a specific recreational is around, while having no intentions of playing unless the targeted player gets a seat at the table.

Cheating

“These types of cheating shouldn't be separated too far from MA'ing or colluding in terms of severity”, says Berri Sweet in his post, and it didn’t take long before Joe ‘Chicago Joey’ Ingram picked up on the contentious matter, himself making a stand this week for the integrity of the game with videos entitled Tournament Poker CHEATING Exposed On Winning Poker Network!! and Online Poker Cheating EXPOSED On America's Card Room!!!

Ingram calls on Negreanu to ‘use his influence’

Ingram replied to Sweet’s post, stating:

‘Thanks for posting this Berri. I have posted it to Daniel… so maybe this might be the first of 1000 he actually does something with it.’ He added: ‘I also might have meetings in place with higher up at Pokerstars about the state of high stakes games, bots, etc.. so we might be able to make an actual impact here in improving the current ecosystem. I think the first step is drawing awareness to these type of things.’

Negreanu himself had been the apparent target of a failed ‘bumhunt’ last month, after which Ingram, the Canadian PokerStars legend and a host of others discussed ways in which the problematical practice of singling out weaker players could be tackled…

‘Berri Sweet’ had explained that:

'Although I personally don't lose much, if any, EV from the poor behaviour of these people since they tend to make my games softer and I hold all tables anyway’, he believes that ‘there are many ethical regs that get cheated out of at least 5 figures each year’.

Naming the bad guys?

Ziigmund Poker

Although at this point Sweet says he won’t be naming and shaming those he holds responsible for the ‘degeneration’ of the high-stakes PLO games - ‘I ultimately decided against making a list of repeat offenders at this time’ – he says:

‘If things don't change, I believe public outings will be in order. Just like they have been when people have colluded or MA'd in the past.’

Shout out to the good guys

He does make a point of naming those who DO behave responsibly however, those he describes as players who ‘never fail to show the highest level of ethicality at the tables’, listing Gavz101, fjutekk, Cobus83, Sauce123 and WRUUUUM, just to mention a few people off of the top of my head.’

He finishes his post with the following statement:

‘Often times, as a high stakes player, you have the choice between sacrificing a little money/EV or degenerating into narcissistically making whichever unethical choice makes you the most $$ in the moment. Far too many regulars have chosen the latter path lately. 'Everyone else is doing it' is one of the worst excuses of all time.'

Up and Coming Poker Pros

It seems that everyone has the same list of online poker pros. We have looked for the up and coming online poker pros that are making a name for themselves in the online poker world.

Player Profile: Tommy Vedes

Tommy Vedes is a player whose star is on the rise. You could be excused for asking, Tommy Who? Because you’d only have known the name if you’ve been watching poker stats with extreme attention to detail over the last ten years.

Full profile of poker pro Tommy Vedes.

Player Profile: “martonas”

In August of 2009 a new player burst onto the online scene with a bang. Described by many as a “bomb”, the player known only as “martonas” created a storm by calling out some of online poker’s biggest players – and beating them.

Full profile of online poker pro martonas.

Player Profile: Isaac Baron

Isaac Baron has achieved more in his short career than most players will achieve in a lifetime. Only 27 years old, Isaac burst onto the scene playing online games exclusively for the simple reason that he was more easily able to lie about his age .

Full profile of poker pro Isaac Baron

Player Profile: Joe Sebok

You would think that growing up as the adopted son of Barry Greenstein would have a lot to do with Joe Sebok being the exceptional level of poker player that he is. You would imagine childhood games and father-son coaching sessions. You would be wrong.

Full profile of poker pro Joe Sebok

Player Profile: Justin Bonomo

The Internet is littered with young players that have exploded onto the scene, won a big tournament, and then vanished again once their 15 minutes of fame had run out. Visit the front page of any major poker news website for examples of this.

Full profile of poker pro Justin Bonomo

Player Profile: Alex Jacob

Alex Jacob’s story reads something like a fairytale: the kid could have done anything. Brilliant and charismatic, almost any career would have opened its door to him. Instead, he decided to become a pro poker player – and has done exceedingly well out of it.

Full profile of poker pro Alex Jacob

Player Profile: David Ulliot

While David Ulliot can’t be described as an up-and-coming poker player, he is perhaps one of the most colorful characters in the game. His early life story reads like a fantastic adventure novel: Ulliot came up hard.

Full profile of poker pro David Ulliot

Player Profile: James Mackey

James Mackey’s appearance is deceptive. He’s skinny, and his fine bone structure gives him a delicate look that makes you think he’s even younger than he actually is. He wears his hair in a trademark pudding bowl trim, its flaming red color is the only warning of the danger you’re in.

Full profile of poker pro James Mackey

Player Profile: Ram Vaswani

We’ve been reading a lot lately about professional poker players who got their start at a tender young age. Well, none ever got started as young as Ram Vaswani: his earning career kicked off at the age of 12.

Full profile of poker pro Ram Vaswani