Pitbull Poker Scandal Continues Unresolved

When we think back to the major poker headlines of 2009, one of the very first ones to pop into our heads is the Pitbull Poker scandal. It all started with a single post from a disgruntled prop player on the TwoPlusTwo forums and snowballed into one of the largest scandals the online poker industry has ever seen. When the dust settled, a small Flash-based poker room had disappeared and hundreds of thousands of dollars in player funds had vanished.

An individual who goes by the moniker “JC Hawk,” who has fought to uncover this story, owned one of the major affiliates for Pitbull Poker. He had contact with site’s Network Manager, Dave Brenes, and Pitbull Poker owner Kevin Baronowski during his business relationship with them. JC Hawk estimates that he is owed over $100,000 from his affiliate site NLPT.tv on top of the cash investments he made.

In October, JC Hawk brought his case before the Costa Rican government and since then has worked with officials to resolve his dispute with Pitbull Poker ownership. He stated that the government had been great to work with and showed a genuine interest in helping him resolve the matter. With both the U.S. Embassy and Costa Rican government working with JC Hawk, he hoped to prosecute the guilty and recover what assets he could.

Poker News Daily received an update from JC Hawk in the last week that stated, “They are still working on it (CR) but Kevin Baronowsky has gone back to hide in Canada and Dave Brenes is hiding like the coward he is. We are now hunting Mr. Baronowsky and will find him, he needs to answer a few questions face to face. This will be done soon. His party days with my money are over.”

It’s admirable that JC Hawk continues to pursue justice in the light of being shafted over $100,000 in affiliate dues. So many of the players on Pitbull, even ones that have lost tens of thousands of dollars, have simply said good game and moved on with their lives. There’s something to be said for the tenacity behind Hawk’s actions and his unwavering confidence that something can be done.

In the past six weeks on the TwoPlusTwo forums, the fire behind the entire Pitbull Poker scandal has died down to a large degree. The long threads diving into the debate of whether there were actually superusers playing on the site seem to have gone by the wayside. Other players, like chesterboy, who was the original person behind the allegations, have moved on in life never to be heard from again. There was even a thread created in the rumors section of TwoPlusTwo asking to close the Pitbull-related threads because the entire controversy had died. Many responded by agreeing that the situation was pretty much over, but felt that the threads should remain open for those who wish to discuss the matter.

At this point, it seems the story of Pitbull Poker is finally being put to rest. There has been no comment from Brenes, who has on multiple occasions vehemently denied being part of the ownership group. There’s no trace of Baronowski or anyone else that has represented Pitbull Poker.

In the end, we may never really know the intricacies of what really went on behind the scenes at Pitbull Poker or ever know what happened to the missing funds. Were they burned up trying to keep the site afloat amid overhead and marketing costs? Were they simply stashed away and hidden in offshore accounts? With any luck, we know JC Hawk will not rest until these questions are answered. As any news breaks in the case, we will be sure to report it here at Poker News Daily.

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Poker lexicon:

ROYAL FLUSH - An ace-high straight flush, the best possible hand in regular poker.
MILES OF BAD ROAD - Three of a kind. Prefixed with a number, 3*<N>, to indicate 3 <N>s. Thus "24 miles of bad road" is 3 eights, etc. (This obviously doesn't work for face cards.)
HIGH-LOW SPLIT - Forms of poker in which the pot is split between the best hand and best lowball hand.
SHORT-STACKED - Playing with a only a small amount of money, thus limiting one's risk and reward.
PAT - Holding or being dealt a pat hand. "I'm pat" would mean "I don't want to draw any cards.
FOURTH STREET - In stud poker, the fourth card dealt to each player. Sometimes used to refer to the fourth community card dealt in Hold'em, although the more common term for this is TURN (q.v.).

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