Pitbull Poker Fallout Continues: Players Threaten Legal Action

Last week, Poker News Daily confirmed the rumors that Pitbull Poker, a site on the Flash Poker Network, had shut down amid allegations of superusers and suspicious play. Readers of our site have since threatened litigation.

Overnight on September 29th, Pitbull Poker heads Kevin Baronowski and “Jordan” were seen taking computers out of the company’s headquarters in Costa Rica. Staff at the offices promptly called police, resulting in Baronowski and his cohort being taken in for questioning. No games were running in the client after the incident and the site was completely down for eight hours. On whether the room was operational on Tuesday, October 6th, former Pitbull Poker Network Manager Dave Brenes told Poker News Daily, “From what I heard, it was shut down. There was a rumor that it was back, but it’s shut down.” No tables were running at the time of writing, although players were still able to log into the software client.

The future of player funds held in Pitbull Poker are up in the air, leaving Poker News Daily reader “JC Hawk” to lead the charge for legal action against Brenes and Baronowski. “JC Hawk” noted that he was out $100,000. Other readers chimed in as well, adding that they were also owed amounts ranging between $250 and $7,700. Brenes responded by posting on Tuesday, “I was a never a partner, associate, director, or in any way related to the ownership of Pitbull Poker, Pitbull Casino, or Pitbull Partners. I was an employee hired to manage the network and support operations in whatever [ways] necessary.”

Brenes revealed that players aren’t the only party seeking financial compensation from Pitbull Poker. A group of former employees is also threatening litigation as a result of lost wages. Brenes explained that he is among those owed money and, on a lawsuit initiated by players, explained, “It’d have to be in Costa Rica. They would have to come down here and see what they can do. They’d have to pursue the company, though. A Costa Rican customer hired us. I was an employee hired to do a job. Once the company folded, I was out of a job.”

He continued, “I was not in charge of cashouts. I never really handled money or bank accounts or anything like that. I suspect that players won’t be seeing the money because employees aren’t seeing money either.” The industry is fresh off the liquidation of Eurolinx by its parent company, Linx Media Group, in August. As of the time of writing, Eurolinx has given no update on the status of its cashouts after an initial statement was posted in August.

Baronowski and “Jordan” handled payments and day-to-day operations at Pitbull Poker, while Brenes handled the network aspects of the online poker site. He lamented, “I know the position of the players. I understand how they feel, but they have to find the real target.” Brenes was responsible, specifically, for developing the network, procuring clients, making sure clients received support if they had questions or requests, negotiating new deals, and making sure that everyone got their payments on time.

Brenes expects to issue a personal public statement within a “few weeks or months” depending upon when he finds new employment in Costa Rica. In the meantime, “JC Hawk” contacted the U.S. Embassy in San Jose and posted on Poker News Daily, “I have been able to get the help of the Costa Rica government and the U.S. Embassy to looking into what can be done on freezing the money accounts and bringing charges on Dave Brenes and Kevin Baronowski. I should get an answer the latter part of this week or the first of next. I will get the website up and an e-mail so everyone can stay in touch shortly.”

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the Pitbull Poker closure.

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Poker terminology:

PAY OFF - Calling a bet with little expectation of winning, unless the opponent is bluffing.
PROP - Also PROPOSITION PLAYER. An employee of the gaming establishment whose primary purpose is to keep enough players at a table to prevent breaking up the game for lack of players. Unlike SHILLs "props" make a small hourly wage but play with their own money, winning or losing based on their skill.
REPRESENT - Implying, by one's betting style, that one has a particular hand.
SIDE POT - When an active player runs out of money during the course of a hand, the remaining players participate in a second or SIDE POT for the rest of the hand. Additional side pots are possible if several players run out of money at different points in a hand.
RAINBOW - In flop games, a flop in which no two cards are of the same suit. "The flop was A 9 7 rainbow."
RACE - In tournaments it is sometimes convenient to remove all lower-denomination chips from play, as the remaining players' stacks tend to grow. Small chips are converted to larger chips and any odd chips are "raced off" in the following way: each player with odd chips places them in front of his stack and is dealt one card for each chip. Highest card (rank and suit) takes all the small chips and converts them to higher-denomination chips.

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