Two Hustler Casino Live regulars — Nikhil “Nik Airball” Arcot and Wesley Fei — have accused their peer, a player who goes by the name “Mars,” of cheating a Southern California private game out of millions of dollars.
“Wes Side” Wesley shared details of the alleged scandal with PokerNews, including text screenshots. Before getting into the meat of the scandal, Mars allegedly brought his own special deck to a private game in Yorba Linda, California that he could see through, presumably with the help of special contact lenses. He supposedly won approximately $3 million in the game over the course of about a year.
Nik Airball shared brief details of the cheating scandal on Twitter.
It should be noted that the allegations do not involve Hustler Casino Live as the games in question were private games played at a private residence, not on stream.
High-Stakes Poker Player Explains Cheating Scandal
Wesley told PokerNews he wants to do his part to ban cheaters from poker as he wants to clean up the game and ensure private games are legit and fair. He said the games played are mostly $25/$50 and $50/$100 blinds between recreational players and a few known HCL regs such as Nik Airball. How does a player win so much money in a game at those stakes?
“Cheating,” Wesley answered.
On Nov. 15, inside Wesley’s $400,000 Caesars Palace suite during the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the poker player invited Mars over to discuss the allegations. He attempted to get an admission of guilt but Mars repeatedly denied any wrongdoing before leaving the casino.
The cryptocurrency investor said that the Yorba Linda game he played in combined with another game in Southern California hosted by Zeo, another Hustler Casino Live player.
According to Wesley, Mars offered to bring his own deck and suggested others bring a dealer to the game, which runs 2-3 times per week. Wesley, who said he’s lost about $1 million in the game, claims that Mars himself won about $1.6 million, “and the player he brought — two guys — one guy called Peter and an Australian guy called Bruce and three others. So, his group is up $3.1 million.”
Wesley said the seven-figure profits have taken place over the course of the past seven months or so, since March. The last time Mars played in the game, he explained, was at some point in October.
“We asked Mars, ‘why did you ask to bring the deck?'” Wesley said. “After a game we found a cheating deck. The deck is a very good cheating deck that you can’t find. But we went to a very dark room and we used a blue light and then you can see the numbers on the back of the deck.”
The high-stakes poker player shared some screenshots of a text conversation with Mars, in which Mars does confirm he’d bring the deck to the game.
Mars Denies Allegations
According to Wesley, Mars has continued to deny cheating but admitted the deck was marked after being confronted with the evidence.
“Mars said, ‘maybe you’re losing and you don’t want to pay so you’re changing the deck,'” said of an interaction with Mars. “If we are cheating, how can we lose?”
Wesley is insistent that the deck used in the game is a “special deck” that cannot be purchased at a random store and that Mars brought it into the game.
“We never use this kind of deck,” he continued. “It’s a new deck, and Mars admits this deck is never our game’s deck. It’s a special deck and he admitted the deck has a problem, but he don’t know who brings the deck. The text message showed, ‘I can bring the deck to you.'”
Mars had not publicly admitted or denied the allegations at this point. Wesley didn’t hold back on his thoughts about whether or not Mars cheated.
“It’s confirmed he cheated,” he claims.