Allegations of cheating surfaced this week against two high-stakes pros who are some of the biggest names in poker. All-time live tournament money winning leader Bryn Kenney was accused of cheating online by one of his former staked players.
Poker pro Alex Foxen also accused Ali Imsirovic of cheating at the recent Super High Roller Bowl. He’s also alleged to have colluded online as well.
Neither player has commented so far, but the allegations brought plenty of discussion among players this week.
Collusion, multi-accounting, and a poker cult
Poker pro Martin Zamani made the allegations against Kenney on Thursday via Twitter and on Doug Polk’s podcast. Kenney staked Zamani in online events along with several other players.
Zamani described a scheme to collude, use multiple accounts, and utilizing RTA (real time assistance) software. All are considered cheating and violations of various sites’ terms of service.
Zamani outlined a scheme to collude and accumulate as much money as possible as a group as part of his accusations.
“The idea is to always do what’s best for the team,” Zamani recalled on the Polk podcast.
Screen captures from Telegram conversations can back up his allegations, Zamani said.
“Brynn knew he was cheating,” Zamani said. “It wasn’t like it was a secret.”
Even more bizarre events are alleged by Zamani. He said Kenney attempted to run his stable as a cult, making his players even see a “shaman.” Some players were subjected to having frog poison put in their bodies and became violently sick.
As noted above, Kenney has yet to comment on Zamani’s claims. Click here for a complete account of the entire story at USPoker.
Accusations also made against Ali Imsirovic
One of the hottest poker players in live poker over the last few years, Imsirovic has become a regular in high roller events. However, Foxen accused the poker pro of cheating last weekend.
The controversy arose after the Super High Roller Bowl recently. Foxen made note of a hand where it appeared Imsirovic may have intentionally looked at the hand of the player to his left, Paul Phua.
Foxen alleged the move gave Imsirovic an advantage playing from the button only against Phua on the small blind and Michael Addamo on the big blind. Phua folded his hand and Foxen alleged that knowledge of the folded hand helped Imsirovic win the pot.
“Ali is known as a cheater to almost all in the high roller community, however without much ironclad proof, most stay silent,” he Tweeted. “After watching this hand on the SHRB live stream, enough is enough.”
The SHRB hand received a mixed reaction among poker players. Video shows Imsirovic glance down and to the left, but it could be unclear if he meant to look at Phua’s hand.
However, Foxen went on with other accusations as well. He said GGPoker banned Imsirovic for using RTA. He also accused Imsirovic of collusion and multi-accounting.
Poker black-list can't come soon enough.
Ali is banned from GG for Multi-accounting and RTA. I have witnessed numerous chip dumps to horses, and many suspicious changes in play from people known to be his horses when deep in online MTTs.— Alex Foxen (@WAFoxen) April 18, 2022
Imsirovic hasn’t commented on the accusations but was back in action on Wednesday in the PokerGO $25,000 Heads-Up Showdown. He lost in the first round while Foxen also played in the event and advanced to the second round.
Click here for the complete story from USPoker on the allegations against Imsirovic.
Taking caution after online allegations
The allegations against Imsirovic and Kenney have some players cautious of playing at some of the highest stakes online.
“The number of high stakes players I’ve talked with about RTA/colluding/multi-accounting in the last 24 hours has been absolutely mind blowing,” Polk noted on Twitter on Friday.
“All I can say for now is that I would be extremely wary of playing high stakes poker online in today’s environment.”