Pitbull big problems

[jolub]

WonderingSpirit,

You are getting your facts wrong, chesterboy did not requested his HH on December 2008, he requested them a little over a week or so. At the time as it still is, we did not have a report built in the system to support such request, that is why we are doing everything we can to build it.

About the things you listed... well you like you said they are nothing but rumours. We have been sending payouts people every week, we don't close an account and take money away from players just because they are rude at chats. There is a procedure and only if the player has incurred in violations of our terms and conditions that merit account closure we proceed to do so. Funds are only retained when fraud or collusion is spotted. Rigged software? We have an iTech Labs certificate that says otherwise.

As for the questions made by lots0, we have a Security department that is 24/7 checking on suspicios game play, possible CC fraud, etc to prevent cheating. We won't allow any funny stuff going on at our tables, anyone can report any player, and hand number and we will be glad to review it with you. And as for getting licensed, we know how important it is, although it is expensive, we expect to obtain one in the near future.

I know there is a lot of stuff about us splashed on a lot of threads, but if you look closely and stop being biased by all the comments you will see that we've always had good intentions, we are committed to do extra efforts to comply with our customers' needs and that we want to show everyone we have no dirty stuff.

Finally, The hand history feature did not dissapeared and reappeared "magically". During the weekend we started working on the hand history request trying to find the best way to get a report we don't have built in and it affected the performance of the server. Something I preivously mentioned when I said "it is an overwhelming process for the server". Right now we have found a way to pull the raw data and we are now converting it into text format to make it available to the OP. In a couple of weeks or so we will also install an update that will allow the export of HH by our each player from their accounts automatically, so everyone can have their HH when they want, in the format everyone needs and no future misunderstandings occur.

Regards,

Dave Brenes
Network Manager
Pitbull Poker
Pitbull Casino
Pitbull Partners

Mr. Brenes,

Will you please return the $35.00 Jorday Nixon, Pit Bull Operations Manager, stole from me? She kept my money because I wanted a withdrawal of the money I deposit plus the money I won. I requested a withdrawal because I couldn't stand playing on your buggy site. She kept my winnings.

 

[pbdave]

jolub,

Can you email me to dave @ pitbullgaming.com your registered username and email address so I can review your case. I'll be glad to help you.

Regards,

Dave Brenes
Network Manager
Pitbull Poker
Pitbull Casino
Pitbull Partners

 

[catrina m]

I am very glad I don't play at pitbull.

I read several threads on 2+2 and it seems unreal at this situation. Why would they delete all hand history's?

 

[bcblack182]

Update:

They have stopped responding to us, and haven't delivered hand histories. They told pokernewsdaily they had completed revamp of the hand history system and would all hands would be available by last week. Last week came and went and now they simply won't talk to anyone.

We noticed they claim on their website to be affiliated with the Interactive Gaming Council, but they aren't on the list of members.

They have now told a player that he can only cash out 1k a week. This is a new policy and most likely means they are nearly out of money after all these cashouts, and have been using player deposits as operating funds.

The appear now to be planning to ignore all of this and no longer will talk to us. I assume they are hoping eventually players will forget and return to their site.

Old Stuff:

-lied about gaming license
-operating illegally in Panama
-Unencrypted hole card data, which they lie about on their website.

Surely all of this is enough to add them to the rogue list.

 

[maxd]

I filed a complaint againist Pit Bull here at Casinomeister. It was denied because I used the word "bitch" to descript the "lady" ....

Oh really? When was this? The only PAB I have on record for you was one against Jon Wood Poker dated July '08.

Please indicate when exactly it was that you filed this PAB against PitBull. Tossing a PAB because you were having a verbal civility problem doesn't sound like our MO at all.

 

[bcblack182]

new summary:

Pitbull Poker Background:

-sometime around 2000 Federico Schiavio, a high level IT employee of Binions, registered the domain wsop.com
-he began developing custom poker software to launch a poker site on this domain
-March 23, 2004 Harrahs begins legal action against Mr. Schiavio over the wsop.com domain
-April 19, 2004 Dimensus Ltd is formed. This is the parent company of pitbull poker.com.
-WSOP.com under Mr. Shiavio announces an arrangement with pitbull poker.
They begin using the wsop.com website to push pitbull poker.
It appears pitbull uses the custom software written by Mr. Schiavio
originally for the wsop.com poker site he was planning.





Kevin Baronowsky:

He is the registrant of the following domains:

pherx.com a pherehormone selling site
pitbullpokr.com(no typo) which redirects to pitbullpoker.com
xardplayer.com(no typo) also redirects to pitbullpoker.com

dsscanuck is a screen name it appears he used on a forum that discusses illegally accessing satellite television. In a discussion on that forum it seems

that he was busted by a government agency for selling illegal equipment and turned informant against his customers.

There are court records available online showing that Kevin Baronowsky appeared in court for this.

dsscanuck.com is now a blank website that holds banners for pherx.com and eczemaderm.com.

eczemaderm.com is a site that sells a steroid cream product and happens to be hosted on the pherx.com servers.

What puts all this together is that wsop.com was also hosted on the pherx.com servers.

It appears that Kevin B is the owner of pitbull. This has been confirmed by several former employees.

-March 10, 2009 Dimensus Ltd was dissolved, leaving no legal owner of pitbull. When this was made public Pitbull revealed a new company based in Cyprus

that they claim is the current owner.



Gaming License:

-Pitbull Poker used to say on their website that they are licensed and registered in the UK.
-They have never held a gaming license, but have lied about this for a while. All of their affiliates still think they hold a UK gaming license.
-They host their servers in Panama, which means they are legally required to hold a Panama gaming license. They do not.
-In reality, for all practical purposes they are under Costa Rica jusrisdiction, which does not require a gaming license and provides no oversight or

legal recourse for any wrongdoing committed by Pitbull.



Encryption:

Pitbull poker claims on their website to encrpyt communications between server and client. This is a lie. Hole card data is sent unencrypted. Pitbull

Poker has claimed that it is still secure, for vague reasons. As a technically savvy poster on 2+2 said:

"What Dave is referring to when he talks about their secret protocol, is a simple scheme where each card is sent as two hex values. The rank is sent as

a simple number, and then the suit is represented by one of four numeric values, which can be mapped from only a few hands. So they consider hex values

and suit mapping to be a secret protocol that only their wizard programmers can figure out. Any kid hacker would see through it in 10 seconds, and none

of it is encrypted at all. I can view my cards by sniffing my own connection from any computer in my home network, and if I were on a network node where

their traffic passed through (such as at their ISP), I'd be able to see all players' cards."


Cheating Allegations:

-there have been a number of seperate allegations that pitbull poker is cheating its own customers through the ability to see hole cards.

A summary of the playing style:

"When playing on pitbull, mostly at 2/5 NL I believe I have faced superusers. Their play has the following characteristics:

-Play tons of hands out of position and outplay everybody.
-Donk bets with perfect accuracy. By this I mean that they will lead for 20% of pot when I have air, every time I have air. When I have a real hand they

will check/fold. If I make a play at the donk bet they will call, and donk bet again on the turn for a small amount again, usually the same as on the

flop.
If I have a draw they will do this too, but if I hit the draw they will check/fold.
-They dodge my real hands with perfect accuracy. The same players that never give me any action when I have top pair seem to have no trouble calling me

with ace high when I have nothing. I know that this is a normal play and something I do too, but the problem here is that they are never wrong."



Security Department:

Dave Brenes, Pitbull Poker's online spokesman has repeatedly mentioned the Pitbull Poker security department. He claims they have investigated this

matter and found no wrongdoing. However he has ignored repeated questions about this security department such as the following:

-Who is in it?
-What is their background?
-who else have they worked for?

In previous communications with players Dave Brenes has appeared to handle all matters that would normally be handled by a security department and it

appears that they don't actually have a security department.



Hand Histories:

Until recently, pitbull has not had the capability to view more than 1 hand history at a time. This obviously makes it impossible to conduct and sort

of investigation or to make sure that there is no cheating on the site. This seems to go along well with the theory that they don't actually have a

security department.

Since these accusations have been made public, they have reworked their system so that it delivers hand histories in a useable format.
Unfortunately the system only stores hands for 90 days.

Players have requested these following hand histories for analysis:

1. All hands played by Rapala at 10/20 LHE, in which he claims he was never once called by a worse hand in 4 handed games. These hands are no longer

in the system as they were played too long ago. The player in question asked for these hands over a period of several months. Dave Brenes originally

told him it would be no problem and he would get them to him shortly. He put him off for a while and eventually told him it simply wasn't possible.

Here is a summary of the email correspondence, as written by Rapala:

"14th dec me: first email asking for pitbull to investigate certain players I suspected of suspicious play

16th dec: pitbull support: support replies there is no collusion

16th dec: me: I respond saying I dont think collusion, but more like they can see my cards. Can he send me their hand histories

17th dec: dave brenes: assures me players cannot hack their servers. Cannot give me their hands but can give me mine

17th dec: me. Great pls send me my hands

18th dec: ok which dates?

18 dec: me - I reply with relevant dates

18 dec: dave: - sorry we it will take a few days

22 dec: dave sorry the tech crew are on holiday, wont be able to get hands until 5 jan

10 jan: me I dont have my hands, pls send asap

12 jan: dave sorry more tech issues, new system means it will take a few more days

9 Feb: - me: been a month, where are the hands?

12 Mar: me I email pitbull support asking whats happening

17 mar dave: replies that db manager was unable to make room for the request and now has heavy task load blah blah blah

29 April: me Im still waiting

27 May: me I write final snotty email saying I found his silence very damning

He doesnt respond.."


The following is an email sent by Dave Brenes to this player on March 17th:



"Hi Brent,



My deepest apologies but the DB Manager was never able to make room for your request since there was always something happening that prevented him to do

it. The request is made, however we lost the DB manager and another programmer in less than a week, thus our organizational structure and the task load

has been forced to be redistributed altering the course of requests and pending projects. I will give my absolute dedication to follow up on your

request but I need to deal with an unexpected issue that is putting to wait all my tasks related to the IT department. I hope to give you more answer

during the week. Cheers!



Regards,



Dave Brenes

Network Manager

Pitbull Gaming"


This email becomes rather humerous when you realize it was sent only 7 days after Dimensus, the owning company of Pitbull was dissolved!





2. We are also seeking the hands that were played by Pigbot at 2/5 NL and above. He is a winning high stakes player on many sites over a long period

of time and is convinced he was cheated in HU games.

These hands are more than 90 days old so are no longer in the system.


3. Hands played by fluffychester at .50/1 NL and higher. Some of these hands are still within the 90 day timeframe but the player has been IP banned

and can't access his account. It is interesting to note that a script had been written to retrieve bulk hand histories. The day this player tried to

use it, the hand history server became accesible. By the time the server came back online several days later the player was banned.

Pitbull Poker have sent this player the last 1000 hands he played. Unfortunately these hands were played after the player realized he was being cheated

and was avoiding the cheaters. This means they are useless.

Pitbull has demonstrated they have the ability to give these hand histories, and are simply choosing to withhold the relevant ones.



It is also interesting to note that prior to all these accusations, hand histories remained available for more than 90 days. Some hands stayed in the

system for 7 months. Only now that they are accused of cheating have the old hands been deleted.

Originally the hand histories were in a format that could only be accessed 1 hand at a time and it took nearly a minute to retrieve each hand. They

were in graphical format so couldn't be easily converted into a useable format.

Now that they have been made accesible in a text format they have deleted all old hands.



Software Issues:

-Players have had their cards dealt facedown many times.
-Several players claim to have been able to see their opponents hole cards during a hand.
-Blinds are often assigned incorrectly. It is not uncommon to be the big or small blind several hands in a row in a non HU game.
-Player notes written for one player become notes for a different player.
-Player notes dissapear.
-In PL games, the PL betting cap is incorrectly calculated.


Summary of lies told by pitbull poker:

1. Claimed to have a UK gaming license. They told this to their affiliates who put this info on their websites. Pitbull says they never claimed to

have a UK license.

2. Dave Brenes has told players in the past that hand histories can easily by given to them in bulk. He later said this is not possible. One of these

is a lie but we aren't sure which one.

3. Claim to encrypt data. This is a blatant lie.

4. Claim to be a member of the Interactive Gaming Council. They are not.

5. They told pokernewsdaily.com that Dave Brenes was on vacation to get him out of a scheduled interview. This was proven to be a lie thanks to a

messenger conversation he had with a former employee who took screenshots of the conversation.




Former Employees:

The following was written by an apparent former employee of pitbull:

I worked doing contract-based design for Pitbull for about a year and a half from my home in Canada. I got involved with the company through another

(reliable one) I had worked with previously. Long story short a few months ago Kevin (owner and my main contact) just stopped talking to me out of the

blue and ended up screwing me out of thousands of dollars that owed me and kept saying he would pay.

After that happened I got in contact with another ex-employee who I worked with (living in CR) who Kevin had told me quit. Originally I was looking to

her just to see if she could provide me with a phone number I could reach Kevin at. It was then that she informed me that she had not quit, but that

Kevin had fired her and few programmers, screwed them out of a bunch of money and moved offices/changed numbers. Apparently, this guy owes a lot of

people money.

After talking to her further, and following the threads on this (2+2) forum, I asked her about Pitbulls software. She said that everyone working from

CR knew that Pitbull Pokers CS could see everyones hole cards and there was cheating going on. Currently I am trying to get her and the programmers to

come forward with this information.

The person that wrote this has given me info in the past that proved that they worked for pitbull at some point.



Other people have come foward that claim to work in the gaming industry in Costa Rica. They say that it is common knowledge in Costa Rica that Pitbull

cheats their customers. They are working on gathering testimony from former employees to help prove this story. It is unproven at this point.


They are no longer responding publicly on forums, and they refuse to answer any difficult questions. It appears there is little that can be done as

they are under no effective jurisdiction.

 

[bcblack182]

Dave came back for 1 more post on 2+2:


"hey guys!

I'm Dave Brenes... I am only returning for one last post... several weeks ago Kevin Baronowski took away the login to 2+2 from me and since then I stopped following up on the threads as per his request. Tonight one of the people at Pitbull called me in at 3am... Kevin and Jordan were trying to take out the computers and leave without saying anything!!!

I'm effectively not working for Pitbull obviously, but I just wanted to tell you that Pitbull is over... we will make sure things come out clear. I was led to believe many things from the inside and seems it kicked me back in the butt. From where I see it now, Kevin is capable of anything, and I doubt he will pay players or employees by now.

Kevin and Jordan were taken by the local police thanks to the quick reaction of fellow co-workers who were suspecting foul play and arrived at the office after hours to find them taking out computers and equipment from the offices. I must say my computer was taken before they could arrive so it is lost pretty much.

I want you to know that while I was at Pitbull I only did my job and follow the instructions given, and I was not fully aware of the real situation, however I would say Kevin is really a scammer.

Thank you all and I hope you have a good night

Dave "

 

[jetset]

Wow - this Baronowski guy sounds like a real piece of work.

Hopefully this information on his activities will become part of Google record to warn those smart enough to search in the future before dealing with him.

 

[bcblack182]

xpost from 2+2:


It is unclear right now if this is true or not. I have contacted local media in Costa Rica and hopefully they will investigate.

Also I think it is now time to reveal some more details. Here is a post I have written this morning and been going back and forth on whether or not I should publish. I don't want to give away all this info to Kevin and company but I feel at this point I won't have a chance to go any further with it. No sense being sneaky anymore when it appears the rats have all abandoned the sinking ship.


"Well I wasn't sure if I should post this or not and decided at this point I might as well. Here is my reasoning:

1. If the arrest story is true, it doesn't matter anymore anyways.
2. If they are on to me and this is all a diversion/excuse while they clear records and change accounts it doesn't matter anymore either because I won't be able to continue the investigation.

Anyways, I have been continuing the investigation in private for a while now.

Here is some information we have been able to gather:

-They were continuing to use the cheating accounts to boost traffic to keep the site alive. They were doing their best to break even so as to attract as little attention as possible.

-Every account has an account number that is used to ID players. When they change their screen names the account number stays the same.

Here are the account numbers with superusing ability:

10050, 184515, 184518, 184525, 184522, 184530, 184566, 10014, 194526, 194532, 194536, 194538, 194546, 194549, 320796, 320799, 320802, 320806, 320809, 320811, 320813, 320815, 320818, 320820, 320822, 320823, 320826, 320829, 320834, 361163, 361172, 361185, 361192, 361197, 361203, 361229, 361240, 361482, 361493, 361603, 362558, 362565, 362580, 362587, 362598, 363896, 366448, 366455, 367438, 367521, 367559, 367578, 367615, 367649,
431132, 431139, 431140, 431149, 431156, 431164, 431193, 431214, 431219, 431225

There may be more, but these are all known acct id's we have.

-We have the ability to obtain account numbers from screen names. I think that they realized we were doing this and that his why they took the servers down.

Here are the cheating screen names we identified before they pulled the servers:

Phoenixx=320818
windmaster=367578
academy=362558

These screen names were in use very recently. All other screen names suspected of cheating have had their account numbers removed before we were able to query them.

I had just taken steps last night to query a large number of screen names, and hours later the servers were taken down. "


I've heard from a reliable source that the story is true, Kevin was arrested and that post was indeed made by Dave Brenes.

Kevin has most likely already been released and the police involvement was probably due to some money he owes to various people in Costa Rica, and has nothing to do with the cheating.

He is probably done with pitbull and will attempt to reopen under a new name. So be wary of any new site with crap flash software lol.

 

[maxd]

The shut-down of Pitbull is now official, see https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/threads/pitbull-poker-closed-its-official.33903/

 

[jetset]

Update

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

PND managed to track down the former manager of this outfit, Dave Brenes, in order to carry out an update on a situation that left many players screwed by the owners of this p.o.s. dead online poker website.

Unfortunately, it does not appear as if much progress has been made in bringing owner Kevin Baronowski to book.

But good on them for keeping the issue alive whilst players remain unpaid.

 

[jolub]

PB stole many players money long before it went under.