Now that the Christmas and New Year period is over, we thought it would be good to look back on some of the amusing stories that closed out 2023 and started 2024. The past fortnight has seen its fair share of enjoyable instances pop up, proving that whatever the season, there’s amusement to be found. Join us for some more enthralling Freaky Fortnight entertainment.

Doug Polk Mocks Run It Once ZeeJustin Signing

If you want to draw attention to yourself as an organization within the Poker scene, then just associate yourself with Justin Bonomo. The famous Virginian player, who goes by the username of “ZeeJustin,” has found himself quite unpopular with fans and players alike in recent times. Bonomo has always been eager to push his political views forward, but 2023 saw him elevate this beyond the usual and into another realm.

He has felt it necessary to comment on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in a big way. Upsetting people on X (formerly Twitter) seems to have been his modus operandi. While sometimes commenting on both sides in the conflict being in the wrong, his pro-Palestine and anti-Israel stance has been seen by many as antisemitic.

It was just prior to Christmas that Phil Galfond’s Run It Once platform hired Bonomo as a professional. This very much divided the poker community with some being outraged at the decision to utilize Bonomo this way. Galfond had to create a post on X himself, speaking of the decision to sign the politically charged player. He spoke of Run It Once being a poker training company, meaning that it isn’t their job to decide whose political views are correct or not. Fair enough.

Yet you can always rely on Doug Polk to take a bad situation and inject some fun into it. He couldn’t resist poking a little fun at the signing, knowing full well that at least half of the poker world would get some entertainment out of it. He created a 30-second video mocking Bonomo and, in the process, making fun of Run It Once and Galfond. His video came with the caption, “Stop Bullying Justin”.

After seeing Polk’s post, Galfond wasn’t very impressed, clearly believing another training site owner (Polk is a cofounder of Upswing Poker) would act in a better way. Yet Polk wasn’t the only one who had targeted Galfond and his training company. Many others within the community were left seething at the player’s signing to such a prestigious role. Galfond does have four out of the top five live tournament earners in his stable of professionals; yet, Polk has none of the top 10.

This makes little difference to some though who have openly criticized Galfond for picking up Bonomo. A few have come to his defense though, once again stating that his political views are irrelevant when it comes to learning about poker.

What do you think? Would you feel happy being tutored by Bonomo?

GGPoker Left Red-Faced Following Cheating Scandal by Superuser

The start of 2024 didn’t kick off so well for GGPoker. Just prior to the New Year, a superuser was able to score over $60,000 by accessing illicit information on the poker site’s platform. The full story has already been reported at ProfessionalRakeback, highlighting how everything occurred.

Now, GGPoker has been forced to apologize for the scenario, which saw the player with username “Moneytaker69” banned from the site. The poker room also said that the “unfair winnings” the player had taken – standing at $29,795 – would be redistributed to the players who had been cheated out of it.

The weird occurrence left GGPoker embarrassed, and the company commented on how it had left some players worrying about the integrity of the game. Their trust in GGPoker has also likely waned. In fact, it was left to the poker community to highlight the Cheating scandal in the first place, which GGPoker commended them for in a post.

It’s never going to be ideal for a poker platform to be blighted by a player or group of players cheating. This instance isn’t the first time it has happened, either. Various cheating episodes have been reported on at ProfessionalRakeback, including the Hustler Casino Live cheating scandal that occurred via live streaming.

Many of the instances reported on at our site surround professional or at least high-profile players though. The cheating episode at GGPoker seemingly featured your regular everyday poker gamers. For a scammer to get away with over $60,000 of other players’ money is definitely a knock that GGPoker could have done without.

Nevada Gaming Commission Adds Mississippi Illusionist to Black Book

It seems as though cheating has been a big thing for several locations recently. Just before Christmas, the Nevada Gaming Commission opted to add an illusionist from Mississippi to the “black book” for the state’s casinos. After learning that 17 Nevada properties trespassed him, the Commission displayed a unanimous decision in adding Shaun Joseph Benward to its list of people excluded from its casinos.

The reason behind this decision stemmed from the illusionist’s “fairly extensive” history when it comes to casinos. The Commission said this wasn’t only in Nevada but across the United States of America. According to the reasoning, Benward is “known for engaging” in schemes that end up defrauding casinos via games of roulette. It said he distracts dealers alongside an accomplice, placing late bets, and winning.

Four states already have the illusionist on their “black books” – Pennsylvania, Delaware, Michigan, and Missouri. In the first of those states, Benward has been excluded since October 2015.

Benward describes himself as a magician and illusionist (although if he’s already on the blacklist in several states, he can’t be that great with his illusions, right?!). He has also been arrested for fraud, theft and other crimes in Delaware, Iowa, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Ohio, and Indiana. Prior to him being added to the Nevada list of excluded persons, the most recent addition was 65-year-old Leonard Hairston. His inclusion on the blacklist came about in November of 2022. He had been arrested 34 times for casino crimes in the past 32 years.

We just find it quite odd that an illusionist and magician should be so bad at cheating. After all, isn’t magic and illusion all about sleight of hand and pretty much conning people into believing tricks?

UK Soap Opera Fans Calling for Dismissal of Star Following Gambling Addiction Storyline

Gambling addiction is a real issue that affects many people around the world. From casino gamblers to poker players and beyond, there is a small percentage of the mass community that suffers from an addiction. Fortunately, today there is a lot more assistance in place for tackling problem gambling than ever before.

It’s also not uncommon for television shows to try and bring more attention to serious issues by incorporating storylines surrounding them. In the United Kingdom, the country’s longest running Soap Opera, “Coronation Street,” has done exactly that, utilizing gambling addiction as a focal point for a character. An episode of the soap opera, which aired on Friday, Dec. 29, saw character Ed have a meltdown and confess to chasing his gambling losses resulting in him hitting a financial spiral.

While that could very well echo a real-life situation, it seems that some fans cannot separate real-world from fictional-world. Various people have jumped onto their social media accounts to comment on Ed’s “horrific” behavior, and one even called for script writers to have the character killed off.

There was even a fan of the show who spoke of the storyline surrounding addiction being boring. We at ProfessionalRakeback are big believers in promoting responsible gambling, whether in real life or via scripted storylines on TV. If you can’t separate truth from fiction where soap opera storylines are concerned though, then we suggest not watching. Have you ever been so enraged by a story arc in a TV show that you have been forced to turn to social media to vent?