We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – you can’t escape the fun, entertaining and odd stories that crop up in the world of Poker and gambling. There’s always something taking place that stands out as being a little alternative to what is considered the norm. And we’re always here to shed some light on these stories.
That’s why we’re back with another edition of Freaky Fortnight – to bring you the weird and the wonderful from the gambling scene. So let’s dive right in with some of the past fortnight’s freakiest occurrences.
Woman Sets Up Dog Training Scam to Spend Money on Poker
It’s not so often that poker players can say they are the ones being duped. After all, if you’ve got a knack for the game, you can outwit any of your opponents. Yet that’s not the case for poker pro Bart Hanson. The last time he was mentioned at ProfessionalRakeback was for his analysis of various hands in the Mike Postle/Veronica Brill saga at the Stones Gambling Hall.
Hanson recently shared a story about nightmare he experienced within the past month, involving a woman who allegedly neglected his dog during training. He and his wife acquired a French bulldog and named him Charlie while living in Austin, Texas, a few years prior to moving to the Boston area. The family opted to get Charlie some training, and Hanson hired a woman named “Lily,” who he found through the Thumbtack app.
Lily charged him $1,500 upfront for the training, which would also see Charlie boarded in Connecticut before being returned two weeks later. Another $750 was due upon the return of Charlie to Hanson.
A few daily text updates were sent to Hanson and his family about Charlie’s progress, along with some photos. At this point, nothing stood out as odd. Yet when the time came for the bulldog to return home, “Lily” said that he had gone missing.
In a video on his YouTube channel, the poker pro said that his wife tried to get information from the supposed dog trainer, but she was “very, very vague on the details.” Instead, she kept saying she didn’t know how Charlie had disappeared but that her car had broken down on the side of the road, it was dark, and that she thinks the dog may have “jumped out the window” of her Tesla.
Hanson would continue trying to contact “Lily” once he was back from a business trip to Los Angeles as the story didn’t seem to make sense. The police were contacted, and the poker player told them that he believed he may have been the victim of a scam to steal Charlie because French bulldogs fetch a big price. The supposed trainer later called Hanson, giving him a rambling story about her apparent breakdown in Royalston, Massachusetts. Hanson said that she did call the police to give her story to them although, again, the details of the supposed breakdown remained vague.
Once the police started investigating, they found the trainer's actual name to be Josephine Ragland. This woman had a history of accepting dogs for training and then not returning them to their owners.
Police questioned her, and she admitted that she had spent most of her time in a casino over the two-week period. Charlie had collapsed while she was away gambling, and police found the dog’s body in the woods near Ragland’s parent’s house in Connecticut. Heat stroke was determined to be the cause of death for the bulldog. Four other dogs were found at Ragland’s home, still alive, and they were immediately returned to their owners.
Authorities believe that the woman neglected the dogs and had no intention of training them. The funds from her faux business were instead used for playing poker cash games and craps at the Mohegan Sun casino. Hanson found the whole scenario ironic, considering Ragland said she played craps for profit, and anyone who knows gambling knows that you cannot play the game for profit.
Ragland now faces criminal charges of larceny and obstruction of justice, says CBS News Boston. Hanson is happy that the ordeal is now finally over even though poor Charlie suffered throughout it all. “As I told my wife, I now look at Charlie as a hero, and I really hope his death is not in vain,” he commented.
Christopher Battenfield Cheats During WSOP Online?
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) online tournament series is always a thrilling poker event to be a part of every year. It creates big winners, and everyone tends to have a good time. Yet that may not be the case when it comes to Christopher Battenfield. It could be said that the world of poker is never too far away from a cheating scandal, whether legitimate or contrived, and WSOP Online looks like it is poised for another episode of this.
Battenfield has been accused of cheating during the event, after five of the spots he played showed up on a new fair play tool by GTO Wizard. This company operates an online solver tool and recently launched a fair play tool, which allows players to check if a specific hand had been solved simultaneous to when it was played.
During the recent WSOP Online Bracelet event #17 (NLHE 6-Max, $2,000 buyin) held on Oct. 1, pro player Mike Holtz, (who set a record at this year’s WSOP for cashing in 25 bracelet events), played against Battenfield. Holtz would discover that no fewer than five of the hands Battenfield played in the event matched up to hands solved by the GTO Wizard at the exact same time.
Battenfield had won a WSOP Circuit ring on Aug. 24, defeating Jeff Platt in heads-up competition – something that Holtz spectated. It was then that he became suspicious of his opponent’s gameplay.
Following the Oct. 1 tourney, relevant information was forwarded on to WSOP.com, and Holtz then proceeded to note that Battenfield’s account was not active the day after. Mike encouraged players to do more checking on the hands they played as well to assist in catching cheaters. Holtz posted a tweet via his official account highlighting the situation and displaying pictures of the hands that Battenfield played that matched hands solved with GTO Wizard.
Terrible preflop play and perfect postflop moves are one of the few giveaways that a GTO solver is being used. That’s exactly what Holtz witnessed with Battenfield, he said. He also said that strange gameplay came into focus when ICM was a factor.
Holtz was thanked for the news by Jeff Platt, who showed his gratitude to the poker pro, GTO Wizard, and WSOP.com for the swift action taken. Nothing has been determined yet upon whether Platt was cheated out of his win by Battenfield. Yet Jeff seems quite happy to let it all pass by, stating that he wants to go and earn his ring, TOC seat, or payout.
Downstate New York Casino License Questions Provide Amusement
New York already has three casinos planned downstate, and any of them could become one of the highest-grossing commercial properties in the USA. New York City, Westchester County, and Long Island will likely see millions of gamblers visit their land-based casinos every year, and that spells lots of money for the NY economy. As a result, the state has many reasons to ensure that these casino proposals come to fruition.
The Empire State is taking an approach that incorporates many steps and agencies with each one having a specific purpose. In recognition of another deadline in the downstate casino license process, the second round of questions were due on Friday, Oct. 6. Many were hoping that this would be the final round of such questions. And from these queries, you can find amusement coming to the forefront, especially when you look back at the first wave of submissions to the Gaming Facility Location Board (GFLB) from the public.
Some of them are real gems. This one reads as though the person asking runs their own NY mob. Have a look:
Q. 162: What is meant by “relevant financial interest” in the definition of “Close Associate”?
This same kind of mindset seems to be the impetus behind another question:
Q. 90: Will there be an opportunity for confidential and off-the-record dialogue between an Applicant and the CAC [Community Advisory Committee]?
Another one that brings a little bit of amusement to the forefront is question 395 from the first round. It appears as though the person or entity asking it wants to be able to pay more than the set $500 million license fee:
Q. 395: Will the GFLB allow for discrete license fees by successful Applicants?
To which the GFLB responded:
A. 395: Yes, an applicant may bid a higher licensing fee above the $500 million minimum.
Now, it may not be that bribery is on the cards for this person or entity, but it does seem like they would have no issue in swinging a huge bag of money in the direction of the GFLB to acquire a license over others. Naturally, we’re sure the GFLB would be quite happy to accept a higher payment for the license as well!
Even the board’s answers provided cause for a smirk, thanks to their underlying tone. No doubt the person or people responding to the questions were having a grand old time giving out “necessary” information. While it is important to note that the board did take a long time to respond to the first round of questions, here is an example of the GFLB’s sense of humor:
Q. 570: In previous RFP’s, the Commission took between two and four weeks to respond to questions. Does the Commission believe it will take a similar amount of time in this process?
The response from the GFLB?
A. 570: Obviously, no.
The board isn’t under any time restraints to answer questions from round two either. So again, it could take weeks or months to provide a proper response to the queries asked. However, once those answers do come to light, casino companies and developers can submit license applications if they wish.
Georgia Football Fans Aren’t Buying into the Drake Curse…Or Are They?
It seems as though Canadian rapper Drake gets more mentions at ProfessionalRakeback than poker players themselves! We only reported in the last edition of Freaky Fortnight that he had been the butt of a joke by a top MMA gym. So active is Drake within the gambling world that the “Drake Curse” has become a term coined within the industry. It all centers on the number of losses he has experienced whilst betting on sports, and in September, American Top Team asked him not to bet on any of the gym’s fighters, hinting that he may be bad luck for them.
Yet it seems as though not everyone is particularly fazed by the so-called Drake Curse. Recently, the rapper was seen wearing a Georgia Bulldogs jacket during his son’s birthday party. A large portion of sports fans believe that Drake associating himself with any sports team is a curse. He has, in the past, been spotted wearing merchandise from the Kentucky Wildcats baseball team, the Toronto Raptors basketball team, and the Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey team. He is notorious for cheering on teams that are doing well.
He placed a wager on the Alabama Crimson Tide just before the 2019 national championship game where they faced Clemson. Yet it seems as though that didn’t work out as the Crimson Tide had expected. Drake also wagered on the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals, only for them to lose to the Cleveland Cavaliers. So numerous are these instances of Drake betting on a team and losing that the FanDuel brand has a list of them, which it notes as the “Drake Curse” list.
At the moment, that list has 10 occasions where Drake wagered on teams or players doing well and ended up “cursing” them. Is it likely to grow as time goes by? Not if you ask some Georgia Bulldogs football fans.
Several X (formerly Twitter) posts seem to suggest that certain Georgia football fans are happy to see him wearing Bulldogs merchandise. The ESPN College Football X account asked if fans believed in the Drake Curse, and some of them responded that they definitively did not. Others were quite happy to see that the rapper has taken up supporting the Georgia team.
Yet there were still those who weren’t too happy with the news. One posted on X that it was funny to see Drake rock the Georgia jacket less than one week after the Kentucky Wildcats “got a 50 ball put on em.” Another commented on how “all Georgia fans” never want him to wear merchandise supporting the state’s teams again.
Of course, the Drake Curse isn’t a reality. Drake is frequently in attendance in his courtside seats at Toronto Raptors games, and they won the 2019 NBA championship when this was the case. Georgia football has also won two straight national championships with the Bulldogs being the favorites to win another title this year.
