It sure didn’t take long for the most controversial player that supports the world’s most controversial online poker site to come out and stir the pot of controversy. Anyone who has followed the goings on poker-centric news outlets knows that the embattled UB.com has found itself in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.
First, it was announced that their longest tenured and most well known sponsored pros, Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth were leaving the site. Then . the superuser cheating scandal reopened once again as Travis Makar, one of the alleged co-conspirators appeared, more than once, on DonkDown radio where he was interviewed by Todd Wittles and Bryan Micon.
Then, they pulled off a major coup by signing one of the most high profile players to be victimized in the scandal, Prahlad Friedman, who just a few months earlier went on record saying he would never sign with a poker site. Well, he wasted no time in getting his name in the news. In a very serious accusation, Friedman stated that Isaac Haxton and Justin Bonomo are guilty of sharing accounts, a charge that if proven true, could earn the pros some serious sanctions.
Late last week, Friedman got things rolling with a tweet in which he accused the two players of playing as each other against Friedman in an attempt to trick him. Basically, he was saying that Haxton played under Bonomo’s name and Bonomo played as Haxton. He said
“Isaac Haxton and Justin Bonomo share and switch accounts often. Was playing a random guy and looked up his stats. Identical to Hax….Haxton knows I don’t want to play him head up. So scummy….They have been doing this to me for years. No more.”
In a later tweet, Friedman used a screen name as evidence. He said
“ ‘XXTRMSK8RX’ is for sure Haxton and the dramatic style change is indicative of when I played ‘zeejustin’ on Full Tilt.. Same exact thing happened.”
At first, neither of the accused made any attempt to defend themselves or refute the charges.
Haxton on the other hand was more candid and much less politically correct than Bonomo when reached for comment yesterday. Haxton responded to the allegations on Tuesday:
“In 2009, I had played [Friedman] on my UB account, ‘dasharkman11.’ He knew this was my account. He swapped me UB money for FTP so that we could continue playing after I busted him on FTP. I beat him for a lot and he quit that account. Shortly thereafter, I stopped seeing him on the Cereus Network. So, after he signed as a UB pro and started waiting at 50/100 tables on a regular basis, I played him on my AP account, which he didn’t know was me.”
Haxton continued,
“Was this a nice thing to do? No. Would I do this to a friend, or even a friendly acquaintance? No. Does this break any rules? Absolutely not. Prahlad is not my friend. I will do whatever the rules of the site he is sponsored by and plays on allow [in order] to take his money. Given his general reputation, his behavior in relation to this specific incident, and the level of integrity displayed by his decision to sign with UB, I do not doubt he would go at least as far himself to take mine.”
As of yet, Friedman has not had time to respond to Haxton’s admissions. With such outspoken personalities involved, it’s likely this is only the beginning.
