29 Mar 2024, 07:48

PARTOUCHE POKER TOUR 2009 : collusion cheat suspected between Jean-Paul PASQUALINI (winner) and Cédric ROSSI (runner up)

Gamble321.com

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68 Posts

the : 04/02/2013

Do you think this is possible to cheat and collude at the final table of a € 3,889,740 prize pool poker tourny?

With a field of 521 participants, the second edition of the Partouche Poker Tour 2009 had generated a total prize pool of € 3,889,740 of which $ 1 million was reserved for the winner.
While the tournament had attracted international players (Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Mizrachi ...), both French pros Jean-Paul Pasqualini (http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=75064) and Cedric Rossi (http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=99035) had managed to reach the final table which included :
Michael Tureniec: 3041000
Cedric Rossi: 2793000
Gianni Giaroni: 2318000
Michel January: 1997000
Hassan Fares: 1595000
Mika Puumalainen: 1296000
Jean-Paul Pasqualini: 1185000
Wesley Pantling: 895,000
Henri Kettunen: 528,000

Finally, Pasqualini and Rossi finished 1st and 2nd in the tournament. While many rumors about a possible cheating on the part of both players circulated, this €1 million win still allowed Pasqualini to get a sponsorship deal with Team Partouche and more recently with Team Unibet Poker.
After the end of the final table, several players (including Gianni Giaroni and Michael Tureniec) had reported strange feelings about these 2 players, especially when reviewing specific hands such as the hand below (Pasqualini, shortstack, holds AK and folds vs Rossi's AA).

Courtesy : poker-academie.com

However, a video launched recently on internet puts the subject on the table. This video seems to indicate that both players have cheated using different gestural codes to collude and secretly announce their hand to the other one. Coincidence or not, we can indeed see in the video that both players touch different parts of their body depending on the cards they hold.
Here are the gestural codes that were used:
head: I have an ace
front: I have a king
the eye: I have a queen
the nose I have a jack
mouth: I have a ten
neck: I have an 8 or 9
arm: I have a small pair
 
Watch the video by yourself : click here

This video was recently posted by Nourdine Bouya on the 28th of january 2013: This is a montage of 4 minutes of the final table of the PPT 2009, which lasted 18 hours.
Nourdine Bouya is a french poker player who wrote a book recently.
After the 1st articles about this story (in french in pokerenligne.com), Pasqualini answered to the critics (in french in cardplayer.fr), claiming that it was a video editing made by Bouya to launch a buzz and promote his book.
Pasqualini also claims that Partouche Group (which was the organizer of the tournament, but also Pasqualini's sponsor) had investigated, but didn't find anything.

So now, anyone can make his own judgement.
By now, it seems that no official institution is investigating about this case, which is a pretty weird situation.
In other sports, the organizers of such a competition use to be linked to a federation, or an institution which ensures the transparency of the event. But in Poker, it seems that nobody is responsible for anything when such scandals come out.
This article is not about judging anyone, and we still believe in the presumption of innocence, but investigations have to be made in such cases so that poker may get rid of the bad image this game still suffers of.

Gamble321.com

member

68 Posts

the : 04/02/2013

Pasqualini said one can't resume 18 hours of play in a 8 minutes vid. 
So, here is a 32 minutes version : http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=NWVOgYNd1Vs
Feel free to comment.
PS : We want to let people know about this new video, but we have not watched the 32mn vid entirely.