Did high stakes poker players collude against Guy Laliberte? Well according to a recent interview in a Canadian newspaper, that’s exactly what happened, and the man is not happy about it.
Was Guy Laliberte cheated out of millions of dollars by the stars of poker?
In a recent interview with Le Journal De Montreal, the Cirque du Soleil founder, and billionaire, Guy Laliberte, complained that he was ripped off whilst playing high stakes online cash games on Full Tilt Poker (FTP) in the days before anyone painted Friday black.
The interview was in French, and so the translation of his intentions does need to be taken into consideration, but a French 2+2 poster by the name of Twooopair posted the nutshell version of events.
He’s definitely talking about collusion. He’s light on details but explains that a couple of FTP players didn’t use ‘real’ money-in a sense where all their buy-ins were virtual – when playing against him.
This access to unlimited funds allowed them to constantly push the action against him. He was basically facing all-in decisions all the time.
Collusion is on his mind when he says “ils se mettaient à deux, trois” meaning 2 to 3 players were playing together to push the action up and force all-ins. Typical squeeze with multi-raises.
Later on the story, after mentioning his new super rare Ferrari, the journalist asked him what was his most craziest expense.
Guy didn’t mention his trip in space but ONLINE poker. Then – a special note for the haters – he says that he doesn’t care about the money he lost but he cares about the fact that he was ” bent over” by a couple of pros and was the one providing the lube.
This is not the first time that allegations have surfaced regarding unsavory practices directed at the brainchild of the BIG ONE for ONE DROP.
Back in 2011, Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow alleged that players were equity chopping the ‘all-in’ pots when competing with Guy, and the 2+2 poster Mike Johnson also posted a reply in the most recent thread that he had ‘heard a number of reference from people who feel Guy may have also been colluded against in live games as well,’ before going on to talk about players colluding to subtly soft play each other and equity chop after the game unless Guy came out the big winner.
Speaking about Laliberte in a recent interview, fellow high stakes poker player, and businessman, Talal Shakerchi said:
Guy {Laliberte} is very underestimated. There is this perception amongst the poker community that he is some sort of ‘donator’, but he is a decent player who knows how to apply the right sort of pressure. He has played long enough against good enough opponent’s to make him a very difficult player to play against.”
I guess one sort of pressure that Laliberte could apply was the substantial size of his bankroll, and it seems that during the halcyon days of the HSP action at FTP, the hired pros may well have been handed virtual money to act as a leveler.
True or false?
What’s your opinion?
