Brian Townsend, Cole South and Brian Hastings have been accused of colluding to cheat Isildur1 out of millions of dollars. The allegations began surfacing soon after Brian Hastings won $4.2 million in one day while playing Isildur1 online at Full Tilt.
According to an interview with ESPN.com, the three players worked together to analyze and find weaknesses in Isildur1′s game.
“Honestly, I give most of the credit to Brian Townsend here. I mean, Brian is honestly the hardest worker I know in poker,” Hastings told ESPN.
“He analyzed a database of heads-up hands that Isildur1 had played and constructed ranges of what Isildur1 was doing in certain spots. The three of us discussed a ton of hands and the reports that Brian made, so I’m very thankful to him and to Cole as well.”
According to Full Tilt’s terms and conditions, sharing hands and information on opposing players is illegal.
“Full Tilt Poker defines an unfair advantage as a user accessing or compiling information on other players beyond that which the user has personally observed through his or her own game play” (from item #8 of the Full Tilt T&C).
Townsend has said he will take complete responsibility for the infraction, and explained in his blog exactly what the infraction consisted of.
“I had about 20k hands of play on Isildur and I acquired another 30k hands” wrote Townsend.
“Of the three I was the sole one to break the T&C of Full Tilt. The three of us never shared hands where mucked hands were shown besides a few hands I posted on weaktight.org, and in fact all the information I received could be taken from watching the game.”
Townsend combined his own showdown hand histories with another 30,000 hands from South and Hastings to run reports on Isildur1′s game. They then had a detailed strategic discussion which led directly to Hastings having the succesful session he had.
“At that level, to be successful, you really have to take advantage of the little things,” Hastings told ESPN. “They can help make the difference. That’s why [analysis and discussion] is so important.”
The breach of Full Tilt’s Terms and Conditions is considered a relatively small infraction. It is believed that a majority of serious online players are assumed to commit daily using software or websites to acquire or view hand histories from hands they were not specifically a part of.
As a result, Full Tilt has decided to suspend Townsend’s Red Pro status on their site for a period of 30 days. It is assumed that during this suspension Townsend will no longer receive any of the benefits or rewards from being a Red Pro, potentially costing the online pro thousands of dollars.
Townsend does deny all allegations of colluding, ghosting and multi-accounting.
“Cole, Hastings and I live about 3000 miles from each other,” he wrote. “I have never played on Brian H’s or Cole S’s account.
“I analyzed the database I put together, and the three of us chatted about my analysis, and optimal strategy against Isildur,” he wrote. “Any discussion we had occurred away from the table when we were not playing a session.”
Townsend was suspended previously by Full Tilt in 2008 for six months after he admitted to moving down in stakes and playing under a secondary username – “Stellarnebula”.
It is against the site’s terms and conditions to have more than one active account at any time.
At the time this article was written, Townsend ($1.5 mil), South ($210k) and Hastings ($3.8 mil) have taken a combined total of over $5.6 million from Isildur1.
As a result, Isildur1 currently sits with over $2.6 million in losses on the year, and appears to have either lost his bankroll or his spirit. The Swede’s last session came Sunday, resulting in a $25k loss from games as low as $10/$20 Pot-Limit Omaha.
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