After pulling off the potential bluff of the summer time on the 2024 World Sequence of Poker, Antonio Galiana rapidly turned an web poker darling following his heads-up overcome poker vlogger Johan Guilbert in Occasion #34: $2,500 Freezeout No-Restrict Maintain’em
Galiana pipped the Recreation of Gold star to the WSOP bracelet and the $439,395 first-place prize — a win that was highlighted by Galiana’s five-bet bluff shove with simply seven-high.
Nonetheless, because the confetti settled and the brilliant lights of the Thunderdome at Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas dimmed, severe accusations surfaced. Galiana allegedly orchestrated a posh rip-off involving a pretend web site and fabricated poker outcomes, stealing practically $100,000 from a poker steady.
Elaborate Alleged Scheme
In a Two Plus Two publish from October 2018 that resurfaced after Galiana’s bracelet victory, Jason Philpott, co-founder of the Spin & Go staking group Team651, defined that Galiana had been a part of the steady that “provide(s) EV offers to gamers; basically the participant is paid a sure % of their EV in all video games performed.”
Philpott, who makes use of the display screen identify “fightingcoward”, alleged that Galiana and one other Spanish participant named Raul De Vega Sanchez “stole and defrauded us (Team651) of $94,180.70 over the course of the final 12 months, utilizing a rip-off designed to pretend Spin & Go hand histories and audits on Pokerstars.com and exploit an EV deal that was in place for each named gamers.”
Moreover, Philpott mentioned they believed {that a} third account, “JackandJazz777,” which belonged to Juan Jesus Del Pino Campos, was “a multi-account arrange by Raul and Galiana.” They don’t consider Campos was concerned within the rip-off.
Philpott defined that Team651 presents gamers “EV offers” the place “basically the play is paid a sure % of their EV in all video games performed.” On the finish of every month, the group’s supervisor critiques every participant’s outcomes and calculates their EV.
“Raul was adamant that our deal be stored non-public because of Spanish legislation about playing, and all three of them requested that the EV report be compiled on their PC as to maintain full management of their hand historical past,” Philpott wrote within the 2018 publish. “Our supervisor would teamview into their laptop, watch them obtain the (pretend) hyperlink from PokerStars, and compile the EV report in Pt4 (PokerTracker 4).”
The group ultimately grew suspicious after “checking with our highest quantity gamers and them saying they’d by no means seen them on the tables” and discovering the audits they had been sending “had been solely pretend.”
“They’d been tampered with to look professional, and the names/outcomes had been modified so as to seem like they’d been performed by these three gamers on the increased stakes.”
“The gamers had used a spoof URL (altering ‘rationalwebservices’ to rationalswebservices) and created an internet site completely imitating the audit website for Pokerstars. Raul, Galiana, and Juan all had uploaded pretend audits to our audit software program to defraud us of the $94,180.70 over the course of the final 12 months.”
Team651 additionally contacted a “well-known Spanish participant” who beforehand ran a group of Spanish Spin gamers and “instantly realized that each Raul and Antonio, who had been a part of his group, had executed the identical rip-off on him.”
Galiana Responds to Accusations
PokerNews contacted Galiana for touch upon the allegations. He mentioned:
“I’m involved with my lawyer for defamation and harassment. And I’ve been suggested to not communicate for now.”
Philpott of Team651 advised PokerNews he was stunned when he noticed Galiana’s viral bluff and bracelet victory.
“My first response was Galiana is a standard identify in Spain. No approach that’s the man who scammed us!” mentioned Philpott. “However then digging in, I spotted it was the identical individual.”
As as to if he’ll attempt to get the cash again after Galiana’s six-figure rating, Philpott mentioned he “has no approach of reaching out to him as I’m blocked” and that “the final I heard from him, he threatened me.” Philpott shared a screenshot of the alternate.
Disclaimer: That is an ongoing story and investigation, and PokerNews will present updates as extra info emerges.
Editor & Reside Reporter
Calum has been part of the PokerNews group since September 2021 after working within the UK power sector. He performed his first hand of poker in 2017 and instantly fell in love with the sport. Calum’s proudest poker achievement is successful the one event he has ever performed in Las Vegas, the distinguished $60 Flamingo night occasion.
