Up until 2008, the trajectory established for Greg Pierson poker career was going great. He was creating new businesses and innovating new technologies. However, not many knew about him until his poker scandal became public. The case was one of the biggest in the industry.
Today’s casino news details Greg Pierson poker legacy and how it became tainted by some unlawful dealings.
Greg Pierson Poker and Its Industry Implications
Born in 1967 in Portland, Oregon, Greg Pierson is a poker player and an excellent entrepreneur. His passion for software innovation led him to establish ieLogic, a software and iGaming company, in collaboration with Jon Karl, in 1999.
In 1989, Greg Pierson graduated from Oregon State University, where he studied business administration and economics for four years. He then worked at Accenture as a business innovator and system architect, preferring to find solutions to business challenges. Simultaneously, he improved his skills and positioned himself for future business success.
Building Ultimate Bet
Convinced by Russ Hamilton, a poker player and WSOP professional, to start powering poker with ieLogic, Greg Pierson began building a company’s poker site. In 2001, ieLogic was incorporated as an Slots Paradise online poker site regulated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC). The platform offered different poker variants and Slots Paradise table games and was quickly gaining recognition and rapid adoption by poker pros and amateurs.
Hamilton and other poker pros, such as Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth, became front-runners for the poker site as the company thrived. In 2004, ieLogic founded Iovation, which manages the software solutions and cybersecurity for Greg Pierson’s poker website. Greg personally handled Iovation because of his business and software-savvy track record.
A Poker Partnership
The growing popularity witnessed by his venture eventually attracted another online poker site established in 2003. Both companies struck a business deal and partnered for more recognition in the poker community, just as other brands renamed when fusing or partnering up. The partnership was a strategic move to enhance their market presence.
Iovation provided cyber security for the brand merge. It tracked the sites’ associated computer interactions for fraudulent activities or track records. Therefore, Greg Pierson became intimately involved in both platforms, creating business ideas and solutions due to his business background.
In 2007, the sites experienced unprecedented growth, becoming two of the three biggest poker sites. But then, the Greg Pierson poker scandal was looming behind the scenes.
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Greg Pierson Poker Legacy: The Infamous Poker Scandal
In 2007 and 2008, as the company grew, players started to notice suspicious events. Some players reported unusual patterns of card distribution, while others brought attention to the unprecedented winning streak demonstrated by certain players.
This cheating claim was later exposed on the Two Plus Two forum, with some players alleging that these winners, known as “Superusers,” might have had access to hole cards. These allegations prompted investigations from regulatory bodies, including KGC.
Allegations
The first allegation was related to an account named POTRIPPER, who was the first to be implicated in this cheating affair. In August 2007, this account played and won flawlessly in a tournament.
Investigations revealed that the account had the unusual ability to make the right move every time. It would raise when opponents were bluffing and fold when opponents had a firm hand. It was as though he knew what cards his opponents had. And he did.
As the investigation into POTRIPPER’s impossible winning streak continued, three more accounts were implicated: GREYCAT, STEAMROLLER, and DOUBLEDRAG. Despite playing with mathematically losing strategies, they consistently won the games flawlessly.
An account named NIONIO was implicated on January 12, 2008. NIONIO was winning at a rate statistically impossible with each hand, raising suspicion.
Thorough investigations revealed that skilled players were not behind these accounts. Instead, they were operated by “Superusers” and cheaters who had inside knowledge of the hole cards, giving them an unfair advantage over regular players. Both companies eventually folded in 2012, months after a previous poker scandal from a related poker business.
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Role of Greg Pierson in the Scandal
In May 2008, one of the companies finally admitted that the cheating had been taking place on their site for almost two years. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission fined the company $1.5 million. However, having lost trust in the site, players, including well-known female gambler Annie Duke, fled, unwilling to risk their hard-earned money further.
Unfortunately for Greg Pierson, a three-hour audiotape surfaced in 2013, which was said to have been recorded by Travis Makar, Hamilton’s business associate. The tape contained a conversation between Russ Hamilton, Pierson, and attorneys.
Their discussion revealed that the cheating scheme had been going on for far longer and on a much larger scale than previously believed. The conversation highlighted how such schemes could extend beyond just poker into various online casino games. One could hear Hamilton confessing to stealing between $16 and $18 million without remorse.
Conclusion
Though he has moved on since then, Greg Pierson’s poker identity has always been associated with this poker scandal. The case also served as a reminder that a few’s actions can cause many’s downfall.
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