Russ Georgiev?

[cognito20]

OK, I'm not sure if this is exactly the right forum for this sort of thing (maybe it should be in Beginners or OOT), but here goes: who is this Russ Georgiev guy who keeps posting over on RGP? (No flames please, I'm asking for real: I'm relatively new to poker and I'm genuinely curious) And do any of the claims he makes (about Brunson/Reese et al. being the biggest cheats in the history of poker, his own (inflated?? you tell me) opinion of his playing abilities, his allusions to his own cheating) have any truth about them? He seems to be a rather polarizing figure over there, and I figure that someone over here could give me the real lowdown on this guy, whether there's some method to his madness, or whether it's just madness. Thanks.

--Scott

He is a spammer (he spams his own site to the newsgroup) who uses trolling as a spamming device.

He's been in a few threads which for the life of me I couldn't point to if I had to. Try the "Search" function everyone seems to complain about. Try NVG, B&M to start.

[offTopic]

Hi cognito,

Russ Georgiev is a piece of crap deposited upon RGP by Mike Caro several years ago. Caro, ever the relentless self-promoter, thought he was going to be at the center of a big-time cheating expose and foisted Russ onto the newsgroup.

It turned out that Russ didn't actually have much, if any, substantive evidence of anything going on anywhere within the last 25 years, but posted relentlessly, accusing everyone and their mother of being a cheater.

Caro eventually left the newsgroup, leaving Russ behind. Though by no means solely responsible for the degradation of the group, Caro, IMO, does not receive his fair share of the blame for giving Russ a voice.

This all started in 2001, BTW...thanks Mike.

Best regards,
offTopic

[BluffTHIS!]

The reason RGP degraded is that it became nothing other than a sh*thole of spam. Caro didn't have anything to do with that. Plus it is the lair of those who assert mathematically and strategically unsound poker advice that would get trashed here in an instant. Caro isn't to blame for that either.

[offTopic]

Hi Bluff,

[ QUOTE ]
Though by no means solely responsible for the degradation of the group, Caro, IMO, does not receive his fair share of the blame for giving Russ a voice.


[/ QUOTE ]

Historically yours,
offTopic

[Punker]

He does have some history (numerous big name pros, including Negreanu have admitted to playing with him and acknowledged his skill). Nothing has ever been really proven of his many many wild accustations.

[Tom Bayes]

All I know about Russ G. is from reading RGP, but here's what I've pieced together.

Russ is apparently a guy in his fifties or sixties who has spent his adult life as a poker cheat. He occasionally makes strategy posts to RGP (before SuperSystem II, a post of his was about the only material about triple draw lowball that was around). He has the infuriating habit of "reposting" all of his threads every few months. He accuses virtually every big name in the poker world of being a cheat. He spams his rather worthless "PokerMafia" website constantly.

My take is that there is certainly a grain of truth to his posts in that some of the players he has accused of cheating probably do cheat, but I don't believe all of his wild claims. He strikes me as a bitter old man who regrets wasting his life as a con-man, is jealous of his peers who have become rich and famous from poker while he sits around scamming online poker and spamming RGP in a crummy apartment somewhere, and is possibly mentally ill.

[sternroolz]

[ QUOTE ]

My take is that there is certainly a grain of truth to his posts in that some of the players he has accused of cheating probably do cheat, but I don't believe all of his wild claims. He strikes me as a bitter old man who regrets wasting his life as a con-man, is jealous of his peers who have become rich and famous from poker while he sits around scamming online poker and spamming RGP in a crummy apartment somewhere, and is possibly mentally ill.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is the majority consenses in RGP. Unfortunately there was a minority that claimed Russ knew nothing and was making everything up and that Russ should be ignored and silenced. This had the unfortunate effect of giving Russ fuel as there were some grains of truth to some of what he was saying. Most notable of course is that it is absolutely clear and truthful that Russ cheated. This put the cheating naysayers in an untenable position as it is proof that big poker games were being cheated, although not necessarily by the people that Russ claimed.

So bottom line is #1.) Big poker games have been cheated(duh!), 2.) Russ Georgiev cheated them(duh!), 3.) Some big names may have cheated poker, but most probably did not (duh!)

[BluffTHIS!]

Just out of curiosity offTopic, why do you bemoan the degradation of RGP? What did it have even in its better days that you cannot find here and without all the incorrect advice and "online poker is rigged" stuff?