Joe Sebok Signs With Ultimate Bet; Caped Crusader Looks to Bring Law and Order to Online Poker

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA


Joe Sebok at the 2006 WSOP
A couple of weeks ago Joe Sebok visited Costa Rica. My local sources in San Jose (I know a guy at the airport) told me that Boy Wonder was close to signing a deal with Ultimate Bet. I kinda hoped that rumor wasn't true considering that Joe is one of the nicest guys in poker and he didn't want to his name and media company, Poker Road, to be associated with a site that was the main crime scene for one the biggest cheating scandals in poker.

Turns out that Joe Sebok/UB union rumor is a reality. Read Joe's announcement about signing with UB as a sponsored player and as a media consultant...

I honestly feel comfortable working with the UB leadership as it stands today, and I believe resolutely that there is a commitment to security and integrity within the organization. I will still work vigilantly to make sure that all of the facts continue to come out regarding the past scandal as well, so I don't see my position there as simply moving forward. I also have some retroactive work as well. The bottom line is that the situations that had us all so upset with UltimateBet happened in the past and I believe are no longer going on in the present. With myself on board, we will work to ensure that they also have no chance of occurring in the future.

Joe also clearly states his agenda in an interview with Poker News...

I wanted to get three things accomplished: get the cheating account handles out in the open, open up the access for players to get all their hand histories, and get the actual physical names of the cheaters, besides Russ Hamilton, out in the open. We succeeded in getting two-thirds of that list done and that was enough for me to come on board and continue to work for #3 on that list.

I admire Joe's noble pursuit -- getting on the inside of the cabal to expose those ruthless individuals who were responsible for robbing players out of millions of dollars.

It's sad that the two biggest pros associated with the site, Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth, were not giving us those types of assurances and putting themselves out on a limb in order to get those names out in the public.

I congratulated Joe via Twitter and said, "Please get us those names." He sent me back a reply...

"already on it, my friend. believe me when i say this..."

Will Joe Sebok get to the bottom of this? I hope. But one thing is for sure -- I believe that he's going to try to do everything in his power to achieve his goals.


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