2010 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year Sorel Mizzi was back in the news over the weekend. And to nobody’s surprise, it centered on yet another cheating scandal.
Just days after Mizzi’s Full Tilt Poker account was reinstated after a two-and-a-half year ban, a thread popped up on TwoPlusTwo that accused him of cheating November Niner John Racener out of thousands of dollars at Chinese Poker during the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in January. Shaun Deeb posted the details of the incident on behalf of Racener, who gave Deeb permission to relay the story to the poker community. The incident has since turned into a “he-said, he-said” tale of the dark side of gambling.
Here’s an excerpt from Deeb’s post: “So Sorel and John during PCA were doing lots of gambling towards the end of the trip Sorel says let’s play Chinese and says we should also play with a joker. They also did some weird scoring when whoever won most pts/hands every 10 hands the winner gets $5k, Sorel had tried to bump up the stakes a few times as well to might higher. So, they are rotating the deal and the dealer gets the 14th card in 1 of their hands.”
The post continued, “Racener has played a ton of live poker, so he tends to know procedure and what to look for. He notices Sorel’s shuffling is leaving the 2 bottom cards in place they haven’t moved from the deck. As he starts to deal, he notices the first card he deals himself is the bottom card of the deck. He keeps watching Sorel and once he’s done dealing, John says he’s going take the hand with 14 cards in it Sorel goes into a tantrum saying it’s his hand his deal.”
“John says I know what you were doing picks up the 14 card pile and shows the bottom card, which is the joker. He tells Sorel he’s not paying him whatever amount he’s down $5-$20k and that he’s a scumbag etc.”
Mizzi, who’s had a long history of cheating allegations, posted his side of the story later in which he denied the accusations. He also refuted Racener’s claim that Mizzi blamed the incident on prescription drugs stemming from a recent death in his family.
“The allegations in this thread are so absurd, far-fetched and severe that the magnitude of the lies almost makes me at a complete loss of words,” Mizzi wrote. “What makes me even more speechless is how many of you jump to conclusions in a situation where it’s one person’s word vs. my own. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised when it comes to me vs. anyone else in the community it’s the other person who gets the immediate credit for telling the truth and people who play against me or I do biz with obv know this.”
Racener remained quiet until he spoke with QuadJacks.com on Monday. In this interview , Racener accused Mizzi of trying to get him drunk at a club before doing some high-stakes gambling back at his hotel room. Said Racener, “Since this episode, (Mizzi) cryingly begged me over phone calls and text messaging not to say anything… I just had no interest in hiding this. For him to continue doing it to other people is just unfair.”
The 2010 WSOP Main Event runner-up then backed off some of his original comments in an official statement: “Though I stand by my original claims of cheating on Sorel’s part, I feel that it was extremely irresponsible to make statements regarding Sorel’s mental state at the time and immediately following the incident. After much thought, I realize now that taking such matters to a public forum is dangerous and can be detrimental to the person that is being talked about. I also should not have allowed the matter to be addressed by a third party in a public forum. I look forward to putting this incident far behind me. This matter is being dealt with between Sorel and I, and I consider the topic to be closed.”
The episode appears to be squashed for now, but Poker News Daily will provide further updates if and when more on this story develops.
LOL this is a joke, racener is a tool with 3 duis and a complete joke of a human being, id believe Miz over Racener any day… either way probably more to the story then whats being told