Phil Galfond:
Speaking Up About High-Stakes Thieves
Shakeeb Kazemipur accused of scamming players ~$300,000
I remember "Shak" from Alberta in the WPT events at Playground. With 20/20 hindsight, he was already being accused of
scamming people <= 2014. He was chat banned by PokerStars then
won the Sunday Million for $183,000 on April 2015. He continued his hot streak by
winning LAPT Panama ME for another $180,112 the next month. GPI has him listed with
$675,069 in online earnings + $248,956 in live.
I know a bunch of players from Western Canada, including those who contacted the police to arrest the WPT Fallsview chipleader on February 2015, but I had not heard of any money complaints against Shak as of last year's WPT CSC. To be honest, just like I accepted a personal cheque last week from a friend at WPT Fallsview, if he had asked me for a cash transaction then, I could have been one of his many victims. Players need to spread the word about scammers early and widely, so that more members of the poker community won't be victimized. Ideally, with forum members continuing to play in future WPT and WSOP events, there should be a site that lists players to avoid, instead of scattered in reddit or random webpages.
Here is a starting list of alleged scammers to watch out for, including links I know.
1)
Fed aka Michael Gregory, StarsRegProblems.
2)
Brad Booth: I think I posted before that he already tried to hustle me back during the 2009 WSOP.
3)
Eli Elezra, Alexander Kuzmin & Artem Litvinov just outed by Shaun Deeb!
4)
Dwyte Pilgrim
5)
Chino Rheem
6)
Erick Lindgren
7)
Ben Warrington aka KidCardiff6
8)
Nick Rainey: was subpoenaed and will be deposed under oath this month.
9) Shakeeb Kazemipur aka Shak, njåguar, Shakzilla on 2+2.
10) Samuel Touil