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Jared Tendler, a licensed mental health counselor, recently analyzed the so-called “poker prodigy” turned poker cheat Jose ‘Girah’ Macedo. His findings: Macedoexhibits Cunning charm, pathological lying, callousness towards others, manipulation, superiority complex, among other traits common of socio- or psychopaths. And those are his good characteristics.
Lock Poker discharged the Portuguese player from its roster over the weekend after learning he had cheated a number of high stakes poker players out of $30,000.
Providing his analysis to PokerStrategy.com, Mr. Tendler wrote:
Cheating is an inevitable part of sports, whether it is steroids, points shaving, taking dives, faking disabilities, bribing officials, or attacking figure skaters. Most sports cheaters wouldn’t actually be considered criminals for their on the field actions, but if you think about the money stolen though contracts, endorsement deals, and missed opportunities for their opponents, they should be considered that way.
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Girah is a cheater of a different sort. He didn’t just cheat; he scammed, defrauded, or stole (depending on which verb you prefer) money from players he conspired against. He used his stature in the poker community and a manufactured persona as a down-to-earth "prodigy" to develop trusting relationships with his victims. It was this relationship, that he tried desperately to leverage (see the chat logs) as the scam started to break down, by astute people who trusted their guts enough to figure out whether it was true or not.
Looking closer at his only statement, along with the chat logs that were posted, is evidence of a person so arrogant, conceited, or full of himself, he believed his confession would satisfy a poker community already fed up with this kind of bullshit.
Macedo attempted to illicit sympathy on the TwoPlusTwo.com posting forums, without much luck.
Tendler suggests the poker player was far from sincere in his statements.
Furthermore, "explanations don’t cut it in situations like this and often come across as excuses". If he was sincere – try. Try us. If the explanation is real and shows an understanding for the impact of his actions, we can begin to make sense of it. But, when it follows a lie and includes no mention of the plight of the people he harmed, it comes across as a last ditch effort to save face and make us feel bad for him.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
