After having written enough material for a small book oh his role in the Jose “Girah” Macedo fiasco currently unraveling on the online poker forums, Hasseb “DogisHead” Qureshi is getting more and more respect for being forthright –as each subsequent apology/explanation seems more sincere than the last—but there are also still many unanswered questions and loose ends to be tied up.
Most of the unanswered questions and loose ends seem to revolve around the BLUFF Pro Challenge:
- Why was a $100k stake needed for $5/$10 games?
- The explanation that Lock Poker would not accept a player-to-player transfer, but would allow a new account to deposit $100k in a single deposit makes little sense; thus the necessity for a chip-dump (which could jeopardize Jose’s sponsorship deal as well as the stake money.
- How often did jungleman12 play on Macedo’s account?
- Why did this chip-dump of $100k in stake money just happen coincide with the end of the BLUFF Pro Challenge and immediately after Black Friday? After a few months of waiting --what they described as “being lazy about getting him the stake money”-- what harm could a couple extra days do, especially if it eliminates the need to chip-dump? Are we also to believe that it’s merely a coincidence that jungleman12 –who could no longer play at PokerStars or Full Tilt-- started playing on this account soon thereafter?
- How is it possible that Jose’s backers were unaware of the promotion on his sponsored site? And why was no measure taken to purposely lose the challenge when it came to light –after “accidentally” winning the contest in an unscrupulous way?
My opinion on this matter is that the two did not have a staking agreement with Macedo, but after Black Friday the trio made the agreement that jungleman would be allowed to play on Macedo’s account –which is beneficial for all parties involved.
Macedo would be seen playing high-stakes (instead of the mid-stakes he had been playing): jungleman and Qureshi could play online, and jungleman could hide his identity behind a “supposed” rising star on a 100% rakeback account: The better Macedo does the better Qureshi does per the terms of their deal.
I actually believe that Qureshi and jungleman were unaware of the BLUFF Pro Challenge –because I do not thin k they were backing Macedo at this point. Jose hiding this part seems to fit in nicely with his MO, and once the other two caught wind of it they knew there idea of playing on Macedo’s account was far more likely to be discovered now that it was that much more publicized. This is why I tend to believe them that they didn’t know about the challenge, and that it was Macedo’s idea to chip-dump instead of fund the account via some other means.
Basically this would make all of the above pieces of the puzzle fit together nicely.
Other questions that still remain include:
- Why has nobody checked Jose’s stats for their authenticity? This is even more troubling when you consider they supposedly shipped him $100k of stake money.
- When did Qureshi begin to suspect that Girah’s stats were falsified? Are we to believe that he didn’t notice anything strange about this supposed “prodigy” struggling in mid-stakes games?
- Are we to believe that Qureshi invested all this time and energy and received nothing in return? In his most recent statement, Qureshi states [bold mine]: “I have never received any money from Jose for any of the above services he asked me to provide.” However, this leaves the door open for him receiving funds for other activities.
My opinion on these points is that we are either dealing with two very reckless backers in DogisHead and Jungleman12, who were taken advantage of by a conniving young player, or the duo at first believed him, but as their doubts grew they began to ponder more disreputable ideas on how to “use” Macedo’s stardom for all of their benefits –it’s fairly obvious that Cates is all about the bottom line after reading his posts in the long 2+2 thread on the subject.
Although the scandal seems to be coming to a head, the likelihood of ever knowing precisely what happened, and why, seems a longshot. This is even more so the case when you factor in how many times Qureshi and Cates have lied about seemingly small transgressions over and over again, and have only been forthright when the facts are incontrovertible.
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