It's hard to access where things really stand with the 'outing' of players who are potentially cheating.
For several reasons (as I have discussed before) I am not convinced there is a deeply sincere effort to get to the bottom of much of anything...and I am talking about the likes of The Poker Integrity Council. However, there is a valid barrier to openly accusing a specific player of cheating - that of the disclosure agreements which the
poker sites agree to, so as to set members at ease. The poker sites are not allowed to release personal information (which of course covers a variety of things such as the members personal accounts) so the sites will only state they have banned or suspended members but refuse to detail who.
Therefore, nearly all the major scandals in recent years have been exposed by people sleuthing after such bans. For instance, once GG released a statement they had banned tens of players a few years ago, because so many had heard rumors about Schindler and Imsirovic cheating, it was easy to see via
sharkscope that both players activity on GG ceased immediately after the ban. They were 'identified'.
But the evidence (thought to primarily revolve around them using RTA) remains in GG
hands , or any poker sites hands, and they are not going to release specifics for fear of being sued.
However, there are valid reasons for many to accuse the likes of Imsirovic and Schindler of cheating. It's the classic scenario - small circle friends and acquaintances who at one point knew they were cheating, leaking the fact to a wider set of acquaintances. It has been stated several times certain players bragged about what they could get away with. So word gets around. Then you had high level players already suspicious of the fact they were losing frequently to certain players concluding they were either using RTA or colluding at the tables. As Matt Berkey said around the time of Brynn Kenney's accusations, what people do not realize is there is an element in the poker world which believes anything which gives an edge is okay, ethics be damned. If you can get away with using RTA or collude via a 'stable' then you'd be stupid not to do so.
And, in as much as I or anyone can access at the moment, it would appear the bragging element has come into play with Ali Imsirovic again recently. Daniel Negreanu on the DAT poker podcast in March called out Imsirovic (again), because he claimed to have been directly told (as I am sure several others had) that Imsirovic was privately bragging about the fact he was still online and cheating.
Now whether that was simply a way for Imsirovic to big himself up, or the reality who knows? But, I believe it has exacerbated the festering resentment regarding such alleged cheaters. There is no mechanism in place to re-imburse players to the level they have feel they have likely been cheated. Of course the problem remains, how does anyone prove the matter if the sites will not release the personal data? And also one has to assume Imsirovic is likely accessing sites ghosting on other accounts if true, as I am unsure as to whether he still has access to any legit sites under his own name.
Therefore Phil Nagy's offer is interesting but I would be surprised if anyone could prove anything, unfortunately.
