Lock Poker Drops Pro Jose Macedo
Monday August 8,2011 : Online poker playing community surprised by revelations
Jose "Girah" Macedo has been dropped by Lock Poker and Poker Strategy.com following revelations of a cheating scandal that came to light over the weekend.
Macedo admitted in a statement on the respected online poker forum 2+2 that he had been involved in a scam involving other high-stakes poker players on the iPoker and Merge networks.
"A while ago, I did something stupid. A friend of mine, who I introduced to poker, made a suggestion to me which was, I'm not going to sugar coat it, cheating.
"I had introduced this friend to poker and he was losing money, badly. He asked to play some of my poker friends and said why don't you sweat them and we'll see their hands. I don't know why I agreed. I don't know why I did it. I guess it was a mixture of guilt and stupidity for getting him involved in something which seemed to be bad for him."
The "Portuguese Poker Prodigy" – as Macedo is known – reportedly built up trust and respect amongst online players eventually convincing them to allow him to "sweat" their online sessions via Skype, effectively giving him access to their hole cards which he then relayed to the players' opponent.
The scam involves $30 000 in total which Macedo has promised to return plus compensation.
An official statement released from Lock Poker said:
"All of us at Lock are horrified and incredibly disappointed by Jose's actions. Within 10 minutes of finding out about the fraudulent behavior his LockPRO contract was terminated and his account was banned permanently, said Jennifer Larson Owner/CEO.
"At Lock our philosophy is based on building a deep relationship with our players and at the core of this is trust, legitimacy and loyalty. Jose has defrauded the players, the art of poker and the basic human relationship. LockPRO is a strong team of great people and will continue to find like minded, trust worthy, passionate players who will make us proud to be in this industry."
Macedo recently joined Poker Strategys coaching staff providing coaching video content. The company has said in an official statement "Given the current situation, we will end our cooperation with him with immediate effect".
Fellow players have reacted with surprise as to why a promising player would choose to risk his whole career on a seemingly small amount.
