WSOP.com has upheld the ban of the account of a player accused of cheating by pro Jeremy Ausmus after he was beaten by him heads-up in the $7,777 high-roller bracelet event in October.
Ausmus, who has five WSOP bracelets, gave a delayed update via Twitter yesterday with kudos to WSOP.com “for looking into it and doing something about it,” but the man he’s accused, Jared “jstrizza” Strauss, says it’s all nonsense.
They won't even tell me why they made this decision, except it an email "business decision". I called for weeks and nobody would call me back. I beat you straight you and your allegations are wrong. Loosing with dignity is a better quality you should work on in 2023
— Give me back my Freedoms. Ty have a nice day (@Jstrizza) January 5, 2023
Ausmus’ entire statement:
“Wsop states their policy is to not disclose any of the findings of their investigations so I’m not sure what they found. But to ban an account they surely found something very concrete whether it was a tool or teamveiwer etc. I’ve never heard of them doing such a thing.
No extra money nor bracelet was awarded to anyone else. Strizza claims he received them. I’ve been told it’s a much bigger deal to take money from players because of gaming etc so possibly that’s why he was paid, I don’t really know much about this area.
A deceitful top player playing other accounts or taking them over when deep and/or using RTA are massive threats to online poker and it’s too easy to do. Hence why I said anything in the first place. Bravo to @WSOPcom for looking into it and doing something about it.”
Why Ausmus decided to bring this issue up now is unknown. Did it take this long for WSOP.com to send him the email with the information? CardsChat reached out to both Ausmus and Strauss.
We also contacted WSOP.com for clarification, but they usually keep mum on their decision making, especially when it comes to cheating accusations.
Sour grapes or something more?
The $7,777 high roller event started Oct. 11, and it took less than 24 hours for Ausmus to take to Twitter and give Strauss a sarcastic congratulations, pointing out that many of Strauss’s previous cashes came in small buy-in tourneys at South Point Casino, a room known for its cheap hot dogs and low-stakes games.
The $181K Strauss win in the Lucky Sevens event was his largest tournament cash by a mile.
Came up short in 2nd in the @WSOP $7777. Grats to Jared Strauss who I’d never heard of. He def played the best at the ft. I look forward to battling him in the live high rollers as it’s obv that’s where he belongs despite most his live results being in $60 south point birds.
— Jeremy Ausmus (@jeremyausmus) October 12, 2022
Ausmus failed to mention that Strauss does have a short history of cashing in larger buy-in tournaments, most of them online since 2019. He said the near-perfect play of Strauss at the final table made him suspicious, but was still uncertain something nefarious like real-time assistance (RTA) or having another player play for him took place.
Want to be clear I’m not saying with certainty the guy who won was being ghosted or rta’ing. Just saying there are some cheaters out there and the biggest lead is solver-esque sharp play + limited results. People playing in these events def keep an eye out for these things now
— Jeremy Ausmus (@jeremyausmus) October 12, 2022
Ausmus, who is a regular on the high roller tournament circuit and has more than $13 million in winnings, contacted WSOP.com with his suspicions, and by Oct. 13, Strauss’ account was suspended.
Strauss took to Twitter on Oct. 29 with a long thread defending himself and confirming that his account was locked.
Hi Twitter world so a lot of you people heard of my name by now, I’m Jared Strauss and I have some things to say! I recently won event #24 the $7,777 High Roller in the @WSOP online bracelet series. You may not of heard of me before this because I don't often play a lot of in
— Give me back my Freedoms. Ty have a nice day (@Jstrizza) October 29, 2022
Here’s his entire statement verbatim:
Hi Twitter world so a lot of you people heard of my name by now, I’m Jared Strauss and I have some things to say! I recently won event #24 the $7,777 High Roller in the @WSOPonline bracelet series.
You may not of heard of me before this because I don’t often play a lot of in person HR events, I have played a handful of this exact online high roller though and some others over 3K BuyIn LvL, so it’s not my first rodeo, and yes also wsop online final table not to far back, let’s get that clear first of all!
I got beat up this past summer during WSOP and took a step back to work on my game. I’ve watched countless hours of poker for months as well as getting personal 1 on 1 private coaching. I felt it was time to get back in when WSOP had their what now seems to be an annual online bracelet series.
After making a deep run in the GG series Main Event and having other cashes I felt super confident and continued to the wsop.com series.
I reached what most poker players strive and dream for and that is conquering and winning the coveted gold bracelet trophy, on top of that is was my birthday, I couldn’t ask for a better gift than that win! It was the most surreal and elated feeling I’ve had in my entire life.
Than what’s happens!!! I wake up the next morning to see @JeremyAusmus alluding that I must’ve of cheated, used RTA or that my account was ghosted (none the less by people I’ve never even spoken a word too).
Because why, he’s never heard of me!?!? Firstly, I’m not a big social media guy so that left me completely overwhelmed, for I’ve never dealt with a situation or allegation like that before, which instilled anger, frustration and defamation to my name.
I had a time set to be interviewed by @Normanchad in two days and was super pumped for it, with everything that was transpiring on twitter I felt like I needed to see where this was going to play out to as I didn’t receive my bracelet or my funds from the win yet.
The next day I played event #25 a $2,000 BuyIn and continued my heater finishing in 13th. However, the next afternoon I logged in to play event #26 the $3,200 six max, which I was super stoked for only to see my account was locked and suspended.
I immediately called WSOP to find out what the hell was going on and they didn’t tell me anything or give me a reason to as why it was banned.
I received a phone call the very next morning from WSOP and they asked me a ton of questions including hand history.
I answered and recollected most of what was asked and gave the best answers I could however many days it was after the win, keep in mind I played a ton of hands multi-tabling and playing other tourneys different days.
I waited over a week and they have now determined to permanently ban my account without reason, other than the pressure of the high roller community not knowing who I am influencing @WSOP business decision in this matter.
This is complete utter BS! I played my heart out that tournament, I had Dan Smith give me all his chips to me holding a boat in the early stages of the tourney and from that point on I got blessed with the deck holding with Aces in huge pots every time I got them dealt to me which was more than a handful of times, owning people with AK which I got more times than I could count, Etc. and from the beginning after getting a hold of the chip lead I never looked back, almost going wire to wire, with a little set back in the final table.
Not to mention @JeremyAusmus bluffing away his chips also to me heads up.
ANOTHER thing I would love to clear up, I’ve spent countless hours at various local casinos playing some table games or poker. South Point was one of them, for those giving me shit for playing at the Point, let’s firstly look at the time stamps of when most of those tourneys took place!
It was basically peak Covid when most casinos weren’t running any tournaments, I lived basically within walking distance to the Point and would go there with my local friends just to kick it and have something to do, playing at those stakes is just pure fun, so anyone whose mocked my poker career because I played there glad you had a kick by doing so, I hope you chuckled or at-least smiled while thinking about it.
All in all, although the experience was more than I dreamt of while actually doing it IRL, this twitter poker realm the next day really put a damper on my name and it wasn’t enjoyable nor were the next coming days fun seeing the like of people defaming my name.
On the plus side I saw a lot of positive comments where people saw it from my POV and sent over good vibes my way!
For that I say TYVM it was much needed for me during that time. The reason it took me so long to come out with a statement is because firstly I wanted to see where twitter world was taking this whole situation and more importantly I wanted to wait to receive my much warranted gold bracelet and attain the money that came with it!!!
Watch out poker world I’m here for the long haul and coming for every first place.
Not the first time?
So was the final table of an WSOP.com online bracelet event compromised? Did WSOP.com’s investigators actually find hard evidence that Strauss used RTA or had another player take over and play for him? How did they come to the conclusion that Strauss’ account deserved to be suspended and why wasn’t the bracelet win nullified?
Or did the WSOP.com bend to the pressure of a well-known and successful regular and made a “business decision” with no real evidence of cheating?
And why didn’t the WSOP go public for clarification?
Right now, the official results at WSOP.com still say Strauss is the the bracelet winner of the $7,777 event. Ausmus said he heard Strauss got paid and did receive a bracelet, but CardsChat hasn’t been able to confirm that yet.
Also, was this the first time a WSOP bracelet event was compromised by a cheater? WSOP bracelet winner and professional Dylan Linde says it isn’t:
Similar experience for me this year. Found out the player who won the $3200 bracelet fall ‘21 event turned themselves (and other account user) in for cheating this event. Was told they can’t discuss any actions. No money or bracelet awarded to those effected
— Dylan Linde (@DylanLinde) January 5, 2023
The winner of that event is Jacob Neff, who won $318K and a bracelet. We also reached out to Neff and left a voicemail. His WSOP results page still lists him as a bracelet winner. The victory is his last result entered by the Hendon Mob. According to Sharkscope, it was Neff’s only tournament he played under the name “incel4life.”
Yesterday’s Tweet caused some pros to ask if big buy-in bracelet events even should be held online. Ausmus, who won two of his bracelets online — the most recent coming this summer — Tweeted he doesn’t think so.
Agree, bracelet events online should not exist
— Jeremy Ausmus (@jeremyausmus) January 5, 2023
Without transparency from WSOP.com, these questions will continue to remain legitimate. If anyone from WSOP.com is reading this, we sure could use some answers.
If you have experienced cheating or suspected it occurred during a WSOP.com bracelet or ring event, Please contact us.
