Flashback Friday - Does anyone remember Russ Hamilton?

Russ Hamilton is one of the few past world champs who are no longer remembered for winning the WSOP Main Event. Flashback Friday reminds us when Hamilton was responsible for a $22 million online poker scam from 2004-2008 involving a superuser account that made him nearly impossible to beat.

Flashback Friday: Former WSOP Main Event Champ Cheated Online Poker Players Out of Millions

I started getting interested in poker around 2006-2007 but don't think I was interested enough to be following a lot of poker news reports, so I was not at all familiar with Russ Hamilton or this scandal.

Interesting that the gaming commission paid back the players and Hamilton basically walked away with the money, only losing his reputation in the end.

The first scandals I remember being aware of were the Justin Bonomo multi-accounting ones on partypoker and pokerstars in 2006. I believe in both cases, his winnings were confiscated and used to refund the players.

The poker community doesn't seem to have a strict 'rulebook' in regards to how cheaters are punished. Hamilton was 'banned' for life. Bonomo was welcomed back and look where he is now.

I had just started to play poker around the time when Russ Hamilton was being investigated - it almost seemed like a scripted movie and really helped me understand the powers of the online poker industry. I still hate what he had done but didn't stop me from learning how to play poker (and still learning!). There was a documentary out there on this very topic but I can't seem to find it! The audio included in the article was a part of the documentary as well.

A fine example of how to be a Con-artist 101 - he has no conscience as well as all the people involved.

(If I find the documentary, I will post it here...I know it was worth a watch)

This isn't the video I once watched (a long while ago) but this could give some people a little clarity on the Ultimate Bet scandal featuring Russ Hamilton (and others).

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT2KzfoEJf0&feature=emb_rel_end[/ame]