Does anybody knows about this guy named Russ Georgiev?

He posts quite a lot of comments on the rec.gambling.poker newsgroup and pretends to be a professional poker player and an ex poker cheat. Through his posts he retells quite a lot of different old stories about the Gardena in the 70s and 80s which he compares as some kind of cheaters paradise. He also makes some direct accusations about how some top old famous professional poker players - like Doyle Bronson - used to cheat the high stakes games...

Through his posts he seems quite controversial, so I just wonder if anybody here knows a little bit more of the reality of this guy and his claims? Maybe Ron Conley or Jason England could bring us some lights?

Well he is not wrong. Try googling Poker Mafia.

Although it remains up in the air as to the validity of ALL of his posts on r.g.p. (all 10,000 of them), it becomes apparent quite quickly that Georgiev is likely at least partially nuts.

Guys who are nuts can be difficult to assess.

Over the years, I think that long time r.g.p. users (I've been a daily visitor for almost a decade) have come to accept that some of what Georgiev claims is probably true, but those same folks get tired of his endless and insane ramblings about it.

Ultimately, if Doyle cheated back in "the day"......so what?.......lots of guys did.

Doyle is the grand-old-man of poker and has seen it all from the Texas road games all the way up to the TV games we have today, to expect that he's never been involved in cheating might be a bit too sugar-coated.

Some will tell you that if you (as a newcomer) go to the Bellagio tonight, and sit between Doyle and Daniel they'll whipsaw you to pieces.......is that cheating?

Yes. Georgiev is dead right about the lot of them. Never mind about back in the day but today. Doyle is not the grand-old-man of poker he is the Daddy.

I have played a lot of cards with Russ back in the Garden days. He's a good square player when thing go his way, get him stuck and he may fall apart. Russ is very knowledgeable about collusion but as for mechanical moves he's knowledge is basic at best.

As for the Las Vegas games with Doyle please bear in mind he never played in those games. He heard the same rumours we all did, but without first hand knowledge it's hard to get it right. On some of the other scams Russ reports I do have first hand knowledge and his information is a mixture of fact and fiction.

Russ is somewhat lacking in social skills in that he has the ability to get normally sane people to want to go after him with a ball bat. He has no old friends, all those bridges were burned. I personally hope he finds some kind of peace in his life.

Thanks all for your replies.

I understand that all the posts from Russ Georgiev should be taken with a pinch of salt. Anyway it's still quite entertaining to read some of his "back old days" stories