Daniel Negreanu Claims $61k Rip-Off: Says PokerStars Account Hacked

Written by:
Thomas Somach
Published on:
Feb/17/2012
Daniel Negreanu Claims $61k Rip-Off:  Says PokerStars Account Hacked

Poker pro Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu claims in his latest blog post that his Poker Stars online betting account was hacked and he was robbed of $61,000!

Writing in his blog at www.cardplayer.com, high school dropout Negreanu, who's won more than $10 million playing live tournament poker, reveals that a "hacker did get into my account" and he stole "$61,000 of my money."

Negreanu, a Canadian, also laments in the blog post: "I am not getting any special treatment," referring to the fact that he has been a highly-paid spokesman for the embattled online poker room, which was temporarily shut down by U.S. authorities last year.

He also says in the blog that if the perpetrator is caught, "castration" would be a suitable punishment!

The egomaniacal and publicity-craving Negreanu is usually at the center of one controversy or another, often self-created.

If he's not donning blackface for racist videos he posts online or using a stilted Asian accent on TV or publicly feuding with fellow pro Annie Duke or calling women "bitches" on Twitter or blogging that his dog hates black people or saying fellow pro Chris "Jesus" Ferguson has the warmth of a snow pea or announcing his divorce on his blog or making fun of the handicapped, then Negreanu is whining once again about getting the wrong end of the stick on some dirty deal done him.

(He once blogged/whined endlessly about a hotel reservation that was screwed up, when he could have rented out any floor of the hotel for what amounts to tip money for him.)

So how did "Kid Poker" become "Kid Joker" for a hacker who fleeced him for 61 large?

Negreanu explains in his blog: "I tried to log into my Hotmail account and it kept saying my password was wrong. I tried a few times and was puzzled and slightly worried. I had dealt with a hacker situation with a friend in the past so I knew that it was likely my e-mail got hacked...

"It dawned on me that if my e-mail was hacked, maybe someone hacked my Poker Stars account. I checked on Twitter to see if there was anything on there about it, and saw one reply mentioning a hand I played against 'takechip' the night before. At that moment I feared the worst. I texted my assistant Patty to see if she could log into my e-mail account, called my agent Brian to find out if there was any activity on my Stars account.

"I got the news back pretty quickly that the hacker did get into my account for a joyride. Something I'll never understand: He didn't dump money to any one specific player, he kind of just sprayed my money around several tables, ultimately losing $61,000 of my money. Not entirely sure why he didn't empty my account, but I'm thankful that he didn't.

"In cases like this, it's clearly spelled out in the Poker Stars user agreement that if your e-mail is hacked, you won't be reimbursed by the company, no matter who you are. Since it's clear that my account was hacked, and it wasn't the fault of Poker Stars in any way, I just have to eat the loss. Since I'd essentially lost a million a few days earlier, the $61,000 didn't really sting all that much. I was just happy to recover my email account from the hacker.

"There is an ongoing investigation, obviously, and I'm hoping they catch the guy. I wish old school Las Vegas rules applied in cases like this, where you could take the guy out to the desert for an afternoon and get some justice, but alas, we don't live in that world any more. I feel an appropriate punishment would be a few swift baseball bat swings to the groin area, and possibly a castration, but that's just me...I am not getting any special treatment whatsoever."

By Tom Somach

Gambling911.com Staff Writer

tomsomach@yahoo.com

Syndicate