The UltimateBlecch mess gets uglier and uglier

I was going to do a long, complicated post about the last several days' worth of revelations about UltimateBet, but it's just too much. Instead, I'll just point you to this Pokerati post, which, combined with the comments readers have submitted about it there, will take you to where you can read about it in as much depth and detail as you care to. You might want to put on plenty of scum repellant before wading through it.

I listened to Annie Duke's interview from July 10 on PokerRoad Radio, available here. A bunch of random reactions to it:

She says that Eric "Rizen" Lynch's main concern that caused him to terminate his relationship with UB was the impending national exposure from "60 Minutes."

Most of what she said was basically a repeat of what she had said in the PokerNews interview on which I commented extensively a couple of weeks ago. She doesn't come any closer to addressing the concerns I wrote about there.

She added some technical detail about how the cheating was accomplished that went beyond what I had heard before, though that may simply be because I hadn't read deeply enough in the right places. She insists that it was not a superuser account. Rather, it was software installed on the culprit's server that allowed him to pluck the hole-card information from the data stream. I guess the distinction is that it was not a specific account with special privileges, but rather software that was separate from the UB system and could therefore be used by anybody, regardless of what account they were using on UB. Doesn't seem like a particularly important distinction to me.

In her PokerNews interview, she was careful to say that she didn't know if it was one person or more, but throughout this interview she refers to the culprit in the singular, repeatedly and without ambiguity.

She mentioned that James Campbell is one of the new pro members of the UB team. I had missed this announcement. You can read the press release here, if you want to, though I'm not sure why you would. It laughably claims that Campbell is one of the most "revered" online players. What rot. I think I've heard of him before, but I'm not completely sure. Anybody care to admit that they "revere" him? Anybody? Anybody?

She also mentioned that a couple more pros' signing will be announced in about two weeks, and then a couple more some unspecified time after that.

She says that the insider (or former insider) that has over the last several days leaked information detailing additional corrupt accounts and some big industry names linked to those accounts (see the Pokerati link to get to all the details) is somebody who has tried to blackmail UB. This is apparently an attempt to discredit him. And of course, if that accusation is true, it speaks badly of the character of the mole. But ironically, it might add credibility to his information (although the evidence that his information is good is already quite strong), a point that Duke fails to mention. After all, one usually doesn't attempt to blackmail with false, readily disprovable information. The blackmail allegation also tends to make me think that there is yet more mudslinging to come, with the recent public leaks just the first shot across the bow, perhaps in another attempt to get UB to pay the hush money in order to keep the rest of what this Deep Throat knows quiet.

There was more, but not too important, and I feel too slimy about the whole thing to keep writing.

Blecch.