Pitbull big problems

[bcblack182]

Hi, I am chesterboy from 2+2. I have started the following thread there:

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In it we discuss possible superuser cheating by the inside staff of pitbull poker.

Further investigation has revealed that dimensus limited, the owning company of pitbull poker was dissolved March 10, 2009.

They have never held a gaming license.

This information has been fowarded to the UK gaming authorities.
Please see the thread for much greater detail.

 

[bcblack182]

History of pitbull poker:

-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.

There is another interesting person in this story; 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.

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.


Recent 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

-the players have requested their hand histories in a useable format and
pitbull has refused

-as of today, July 24, 2009, players can no longer access any hand histories
online. It remains to be seen if this is temporary or permanent.

Other interesting facts:

-Dimensus Ltd the parent company of pitbull poker was dissolved March 10, 2009, leaving no
apparent owner. PBDave has stated ownership transferred to a company based in Cyprus but no documentation of this has been provided.

-Dimensus has never held a gaming license, but claims to be located in Costa
Rica where one is not necessary. Pitbull has presented itself as a UK company making this an illegal gambling business. The UK gaming commission has already been informed.


Many links to references supporting the claims in this post can be found at

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[Senfgnu]

Server in Panama, HQ in Costa Rica but "has presented itself as a UK company"

This alone is probably enough to put them on the rogue list...

 

[Watdog]

Hi bcblack182 / chesterboy

Nice to see you in these forums too. I followed your thread in 2p2; kudos to you for all that patience you had, tolerating all that trolling, flame, etc before it came to light that you were after something serious.
This forum seems to be the right place for this thread (and for you).
Keep fighting the good fight.

 

[The Dude]

Just checking this out. We have a rep here; I'll PM him to see what's up.
https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/members/

 

[pbdave]

Hello everyone,

It was brought to my attention the posts you have made here at CM regarding the supposed scandal at our poker room.

I'd like you to know that we are doing everything that is necessary to provide the original poster, Chesterboy, with his HH.

Please refer to the following threads to find the latest about the situation:

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Feel free to reach me with any questions.

Regards,

Dave Brenes
Network Manager
Pitbull Poker
Pitbull Casino
Pitbull Partners

 

[lots0]

@pbdave,
You have ignored the most important questions about the cheating and not being licensed.

Totally unacceptable IMO.

What has Pit Bull Poker done to make sure there is no cheating going on?

What is Pit Bull doing about getting properly licensed?

Is Pit Bull Poker a scam outfit that should be blacklisted by every decent gambling portal?

Sounds like it to me.

 

[WonderingSpirit]

Hello everyone,



I'd like you to know that we are doing everything that is necessary to provide the original poster, Chesterboy, with his HH.

He requested his HH in december 2008. How much more time are you estimating, 1 or 2 years? He requsted a HH, not wine that needs aging.

Your site has so many different disputes that your credibility are dropping fast to below 0.

Some of the rumors:

Slow pay
No pay
Closing account and taking money of people that are rude in chat?
Rigged casino
Rigged pokersite
Pokersite full of bugs

Quoted from a comment on gambling911.com:

All of the cheating allegations were before july 10th. All the hand history requests were for hands before july 10th. After the allegations turned up on the 2+2 forums, all the hand historys prior to july 10th were taken off line for 2-3 days. No one had access to them. Why? Pitbull wont say why. They have now magically reappeared. But have they been altered with? Who knows. But why were they taken off in the first place. 6 months ago, one of the players(who felt he was cheated) requested some hand historys , he was told no problem. 1 month later, he emailed them again and was told it is on its way. This went on for 6 months and he has now been informed that its way to much work for them to do all this

Some vids found on youtube.com about pitbull.

 

[pevangel]

all i can say is its ridiculous whats going on, i just read some of whats in the forum wow.


pevangel

 

[pbdave]

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

 

[jetset]

Dave Brenes, can you clarify the relationship between Dimensus and Pitbull - are the allegations of a divestment (sale?) by Dimensus true? Or the rumours that Dimensus has "dissolved"? Exactly which company now owns Pitbull?

"Good intentions" are one thing; honourable actions are quite another, and there has to be some smoke from the considerable fires on these message boards which the Pitbull issue has generated.

 

[pbdave]

jetset,

Dimensus Limited is a company previously registered on UK which later we moved to Cyprus. You can visit

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Which is the company search page from

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a credit info company based out of Cyprus.

If you type in the words Dimensus Limited on the search field you will find it under Registration No. C182747.

We are doing what's necessary to honor our player's request now, there was a clear misunderstanding and we are responding to the player and to the community in order to clarify this matter the best way possible.

Thank you

 

[bcblack182]

Here is my conclusion on the matter:

Also there is some interesting discussion on 2+2 continuing regarding the encryption etc...I recommend reading there as I don't really understand all that stuff.

xpost from 2+2



Hi Everybody.
This is probably going to be my final post on this subject. This has become a major time drain for me and I feel I have done all I can do. I have a family and a life and now that pitbull is taking appropriate action I don't feel the need to continue in my efforts. Here is a summary of what I have learned and why I did certain things.
-Initially I was stonewalled by pitbull regarding histories. I decided to go public with accusations and also to undertake research regarding ownership of pitbull to increase public pressure to take action. This is why I went to such great lengths to uncover details of pitbull ownership etc...
Based on everything I have learned, some of which I am unable to publicly post, I believe the following:
-Pitbull has the capability to give hand histories but it is a tedious process
-I believe they are now making sincere efforts to update their system to an acceptable standard
-I am still convinced 100% that their was cheating on the site where my opponents could see my cards. I do not know if this was the work of the company insiders or the work of hackers.
-I do not believe pitbull properly encrypts game data. I believe the account of a fellow prop that claims he could see his opponents cards during a hand. Some programmers that have reviewed the pitbull software for me do not believe it to be secure. This includes someone I can't identify that works in a high level position for a major (top 3) US technology firm as a programmer.
-It is clear that at the very least pitbull is guilty of not having the best programming in the world, so I don't think the possibility of hackers can be ruled out.
-I am 99.9% certain I have identified the person claiming to be Randall Vargas that posted the sweatshop accusations. His story is almost certainly false. His personal information has been given to pitbull if they wish to take legal action against him.
-Pitbull is processing cashouts in a timely manner.

That is all I think. In summary I think there was cheating and it was either hackers or insiders. I do not trust the security of the software. I am not technically savy enough to investigate it any further. I am basing my opinion on the feedback I have gotten from experts on the subject. Pitbull is working on getting my hand histories for me. I do not 100% trust anything they produce for several reasons, such as hand histories I have viewed being innacurate regarding stakes etc... I publicly give them permission to give these hands to anyone they want with my hole cards revealed, for unbiased analysis. I am starting a new career soon that will leave me without access to the internet for extended periods of time so I may not be here to give them to the public or to analyze them. There has been strange activity regarding histories being gone for a few days, and then back, and then my account deactivated. There are a few other players besides myselfs who's hands need to be analyzed for this matter to be settled. They are Rapala and Pigbot. I leave it to pitbull and the poker community to settle this matter from here on. I have a lot to do to prepare for my career change and quite frankly don't have the time. I believe I have given all the information necessary for the poker community to judge things for themselves.
In closing I would like to inform Dave Brenes and Kevin Baronowski that I hold no ill feelings towards you and I wish you the best. I hope that you can properly revamp your system and have a succesful future on your site.
Sincerly,
Bryan Black

PS if anyone wants to mess with the hand grabber script here is the link. The author game me permission to distribute as long as he remains anonymous.
Link:

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zip pw: PitbullPokerHHG2009

 

[lots0]

Dave thanks for answering my questions.

But I do agree with jetset. All these complaints... mean something.

Most of us here been around a while and we all know that a small number of complaints is normal in this business even for the most honest casino groups.

However, When a group starts generating a lot of complaints from many different sources, we have all learned, There is usually some shady stuff or gross incompetence going on.

***
The thing about the hand histories... Brings back memories of the Absolute Poker cheating scandal.

For those of you that don't know, Absolute Poker got caught red handed cheating because of a HH emailed to a player (managers at Absolute had secret player accounts where they could see the other players hole cards and won/stole millions). I can't help but think this Absolute incident is on the minds of the management at pit bull.

Anyway Dave, I hope I am wrong about you guys... But just to be safe (the players come first) I am going to put up a warning to players about you guys on my site today, my site is not associated with Casinomeister.

 

[pbdave]

Hi lots0,

I think there is a factor where we cannot be compared to other sites which are bigger. Our regular player is here for entertainment only, so this gives a wide range of playing behaviors clashing with those from consumed players dedicating a lot of their time to play and make significant money from it.

The OP at 2+2 is one of such experienced players. We will provide him with the HH for him to review so he confirm we did not incurred in any of the illegal actions described by him and the group of players.

We understand the urgency to clarify and rectify the situation, and we will work non-stop to settle this matter and show the community we are legit and in good standing. Hopefully by then you will remove the warning from your site.

Cheers!

 

[Watdog]

The conversation on 2p2 regarding the encryption of the PBP client is getting very interesting.

 

[jetset]

jetset,

Dimensus Limited is a company previously registered on UK which later we moved to Cyprus. You can visit

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

Which is the company search page from

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

a credit info company based out of Cyprus.

If you type in the words Dimensus Limited on the search field you will find it under Registration No. C182747.

We are doing what's necessary to honor our player's request now, there was a clear misunderstanding and we are responding to the player and to the community in order to clarify this matter the best way possible.

Thank you

Thanks for that, Dave although there is not really a lot more useful information to be gleaned from the new registration in Cyprus.

Have there been any management or director changes at Dimensus following its relocation to Cyprus?

I take it that the necessary address changes (to Michalakopoulou 12 etc) will be made on your websites?

Kudos to bcblack182, whom I think has provided a balanced summary of his own conclusions in this matter at post #13 above.

It still leaves a nagging feeling that all is not quite right here, somehow, and Pitbull-Dimensus have a hill to climb in bolstering credibility in this operation imo.

 

[pbdave]

Hi jetset,

Yes, guess we have forgotten to update content on our site from time to time while we focused on other things. We will update the content to reflect the proper information.

We know we are to walk a long path to establish our credibility and believe we are working harder than ever to prove it to the community. We expect to soon make important announcements to demonstrate our commitment to fairness, integrity and trust.

Thanks!

 

[jetset]

And my question regarding management and/or directorate changes at Dimensus since the change of location?

 

[pbdave]

jetset,

Sorry I missed that one. No there has not been a change on management or directors.

Cheers!

 

[jetset]

So, in effect we're talking the same company - new location.

 

[bcblack182]

Same location (Costa Rica), new shell company.

 

[jetset]

I was talkiing about Dimensus's former UK address, now changed to Cyprus.

 

[bcblack182]

This is relevant info for a site like casinomeister I think.

from the 2+2 thread:

Also, these blatantly false statement remains on their website:

"All of the communications between the PitbullPoker servers in Costa Rica and the client program running on your computer are encrypted using the internationally accepted industry standard SSLv3/TLSv1 encryption algorithm."

and

"The Agreement and any matters relating hereto shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with the laws of the United Kingdom." (where they have no license or registered company)

and the same statements appear on this skin site:
Link Removed ( Old/Invalid)

 

[jolub]

I filed a complaint againist Pit Bull here at Casinomeister. It was denied because I used the word "bitch" to descript the "lady", Jordan Nixon, who stole my money. Nothing was said about that fact, only that I called her a bitch. Here is her title and email address.

Jordan Nixon, Pit Bull Operations Manager. Heres her email address: Jordan@PitbullPoker

 

[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

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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.