The World’s Most Notorious Chip Dumpers in Poker: Where Are They Now?
In light of Tuesday’s news that the Equity Poker Network has put an abrupt stop to an online chip dumping scheme, Gambling911.com has decided to take a more in depth look at some of the world’s most notorious chip dumpers of our time.
For those who don’t know what chip dumping is: It’s defined as “a form of collusion that happens during tournaments, especially in the early rounds. Two or more players decide to go all-in early. The winner gets a large amount of chips, which increases the player's chance of cashing. The winnings are then split among the colluders.”
In other words, it’s a very bad thing that rightfully should piss off other poker players.
Target number one had to be Portuguese prodigy-turned-scammer Jose “Girah” Macedo?
He was caught up in a widely publicized chip dumping scandal some years ago involving fellow poker player Haseeb Qureshi, the later of whom admitted to the dastardly deed.
Qureshi mentored Macedo.
Qureshi, who would eventually become ostracized by the poker community, at least has tried to make some amends for his wrongful behavior. He’s retired from the game and has donated $75,000 of his poker winnings to charity, or so he claims.
I just want to start from scratch. Poker was a rough life while I was in it. But now that I’ve been away for a while, I realize just how kind it was to me. I’m trying to move forward in my life, and just do what I can to help people. Poker gave me more than I ever needed, so it feels like the right thing to do to pay it forward.
Jose Macedo and chip dumping almost became synonymous with one another back in 2012. Since being shunned by the poker world, Macedo has come back in a big way. He’s now cleaning toilets!
"We have started by cleaning bathrooms and bedrooms on the university campus. In only three months, we have managed to clean over 1,000 rooms," Macedo disclosed this past spring. The company was founded with two fellow students.
Then there’s Nick "gbmantis" Niergarth, one of the original accused chip dumpers.
From GamblersLifestyle.com:
One way in which gbmantis cheated would be to take over a friend's account who records show has always been a small limit player usually playing $2 or $5 tournaments. All of a sudden, this small timer is winning $100 rebuy tournaments and entering other large buy-in tournaments. After scoring big, the small time would transfer his money and go back to playing smaller buy-in tournaments again but now because he earned a commission from the big score of over $200,000 gbmantis won on his account can now afford to play $24 tournaments regularly. One of these accounts belongs to YourTimeIsUp (YTIU, aka stealthmunk) Justin Schwartz one of gbmantis roommates.
That was then, this is now.
It would appear Niergarth has turned over a new leaf since he’s a regular player online and went on to win the PokerStars Sunday Millions last year.
Everybody loves Niergarth.
Perhaps one day they will feel the same way about Macedo and Qureshi.
Don’t count on it though.
- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com
