Pitbull Poker Players and Affiliates Chase Losses

Oftentimes at a poker table, a good player will suffer a bad beat at the hands of an inferior opponent for a stack of cash. If it’s one of those sessions, it might happen two or three times and even more if it’s really a doozy. What follows is that some players quit, while others stand firm until they recoup as much as they feel is possible. The same can happen in real life away from the virtual felts, as affiliates and players victimized by the sudden shutdown of Pitbull Poker can attest to. As the months have gone by covering the story, we’ve seen a small post on the TwoPlusTwo online poker forum lead us to witnessing the closure of a poker room with hundreds of thousands of dollars missing amid a superuser scandal.

A major affiliate who goes by the moniker “JC Hawk” has led the charge in seeking justice and not just accepting his losses as a bad beat. He was an affiliate with Pitbull Poker and the Flash Poker Network and was also in contact with Network Manager Dave Brenes and Pitbull Poker owner Kevin Baronowski. When asked if there were any indications that something might be awry at Pitbull before the closure, Hawk said, “There were lots of red flags. When I told them [my lawyers and I] were coming down to Costa Rica in late September, they stopped talking to me.”

JC Hawk estimates that he is owed well over $100,000 from his affiliate poker site NLPT.tv on top of cash investments into Pitbull Poker directly. Through the article comments here at Poker News Daily as well as by private messages on TwoPlusTwo, he has put together a list of people claiming losses against Pitbull Poker and brought his case before the government in Costa Rica. “The government has been great to work with so far. They don’t want to see people from other countries scammed, as it hurts their trade market worldwide and scares investors away. The U.S. Embassy and the Costa Rican government are working hard to prosecute this and get any recovery they can.”

The debates rage on in the forums about which accounts were superusers, with many regulars agreeing that there’s solid evidence in support of the theory. “Chesterboy,” the original poster who started the discussion about the issue, has decided to quit poker altogether and recently joined the U.S. Army. Brenes, the former Network Manager for Pitbull Poker, has stated multiple times that he is no longer employed by Pitbull, never handled player funds, and is not to be considered a principle for the ownership group in any way. He has declined further comment on the issue.

All that exists now on Pitbull Poker’s website is a message stating that the room is now closed. The item of note on the site is a message informing visitors, “To cash out your balance, please email support@pitbullpoker.com,” which appears at the top of the page. Since the closure of the poker room, there seem to have been no players having contact with the accounting department at Pitbull, much less receiving payouts on their outstanding balances.

There have been no statements from current or former Pitbull Poker employees or management and the forums continue to rage on about the superuser scandal. With Chesterboy off to serve in the Army, “BCloud,” who has pinpointed a number of highly suspicious accounts, has raged the main argument in the superuser debate. Through replaying Pitbull hand histories and compiling a list of activities, he’s certainly raised some eyebrows in recent weeks.

The legal battle begins to ramp up in Costa Rica through the efforts of JC Hawk and numerous high-stakes players who believe they can recover funds. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily as more develops.

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Poker terminology:

CUT - To break the deck into 2 stacks of at least 5 cards each. Usually performed by the player to the dealer's right to insure that the the deck is not stacked.
REBUY - [1] To purchase additional chips after an initial buy-in, usually after losing most or all of the previous buy-in. This term is most often used in certain tournaments where if one loses all one's chips, or falls below a certain minimum chip level, for an additional sum of money one can purchase a fixed amount of additional tournament chips. Usually there is a time limit (The "REBUY PERIOD") as to how long rebuys are allowed. [2] The additional chips "rebought" in tournament play.
DEAD MONEY - Money contributed to the pot by players who have folded.
CARDS SPEAK - Winner(s) of the hand are determined by turning their cards face up, the best hand(s) wins (no declaration).
FLAT CALL - To call a bet. Emphasizes that the caller did not raise.
DRAW - [1] A class of poker games characterized by players being dealt 5 cards face-down and later having the opportunity to replace some of the original 5. "Draw poker" and "Five-card draw" are examples of usage. [2] In stud and Hold'em games, the set of cards that will be dealt later can be collectively called "the draw". [3] To discard some number of cards and have dealt an equal number of replacements.

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