Two of the poker community’s most talked about professional players have found themselves in yet more trouble this week. The man of the moment on the poker forums is Jose Macedo after his alleged scamming, and Chino Rheem has long been popular in threads where players have told of him cheating them out of their money.
Macedo hit the headlines again this week after Lock Poker, his former sponsors announced that they were set to start legal action against the young Portuguese “prodigy.” Following Macedo’s scams, Eric Lynch of Lock Poker said “What happened goes against the very core of our player based philosophy and we intend on exercising our legal rights in the most severe degree.”
As yet, there is little known about how the legal action will proceed and Lynch explained “We are currently unable to make a substantial comment at this time. We realise that ongoing silence can lead to people jumping to conclusions.” While little is known yet, Lynch assured the poker community that “We will keep you updated as things progress.”
At the other end of the spectrum is Chino Rheem, who, after a long time looking for a way to find his feet must have finally thought he had done that with his $1 million win in the Epic Poker League’s (EPL) first main event. However, now it has been reported that Rheem has been put on probation from the EPL for failing to pay debts owed to other players.
The EPL’s committee included tournament Director Matt Savage and pros such as Chad Brown, Joseph Hachem and league commissioner Annie Duke. The league sets out specific rules as to how players should conduct themselves and behave in a way that reflects the League’s high standards.
Rheem has allegedly fallen below those standards and the press release states that it will remain that way until Rheem has “satisfied his pre-league formation financial obligation” although many may question how much sway the committee should have with deciding who is and is not good enough to play in this league whilst being brothers with one of the biggest ‘villains’ in the poker world currently in the form of Full Tilt Poker co-owner Howard Lederer.
John
- hailing from Watford, UK John became hooked on the game of poker ever since his uncle taught him the rules of 7-card stud during a home game at the young age of 15. He caught the online bug three short years later after turning 18 and began regularly playing Texas Hold'em SNGs.
