PokerWorks

Within the past week, a story has come to light regarding Chris Vaughn, Managing Editor for Bluff Magazine, having been disqualified from his Full Tilt Poker $1 Million Guarantee tournament win on October 21st. Details as they were available were reported here.

According to a 2+2 forum post by Soren Kongsgaard, who took second place to Chris in that tournament, Chris – playing as “BluffMagCV” – was disqualified and Soren was awarded the first place prize. The reason for the move by Full Tilt was allegedly that Chris logged off of his account during the later stages of the tournament, and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, who was eliminated from the tournament earlier, logged on as “BluffMagCV” and played for him.

Chris has not spoken about the allegations since they were publicized, but Sorel Mizzi posted on the 2+2 forums on the night of November 29th. He began by stating that the forum comments are allowing him to see the nature of those that claim to be friends. He then addressed the issue in broad terms: “I really don’t know where to start, there are so many things people think they know but in reality they have no clue of.”

Sorel then spoke to an issue that was brought up regarding assistance he provided to a friend in an online poker satellite tournament more than a year ago. Then he addressed the current Full Tilt Poker cheating allegations:

“As far as the situation with FTP goes I hope that everyone can understand the intense scrutiny that I am under and be respectful and patient at this time. I currently am in the process of finalizing a formal interview with a major media outlet to explain the situation that has been discussed. Please understand that it would be impossible to address everyone’s questions/comments by responding to each one individually. Obviously, I am doing this interview so that I can hopefully answer all of your collective questions and concerns. I am hopeful the interview will take place this weekend, but it will certainly be as soon as possible. I promise to be fully open and honest about the situation.”

Regarding Chris Vaughn’s employment at Bluff Magazine, there have been comments on forums and blogs that are of the opinion that Chris should be fired. Though Bluff has made no official statement on the issue, Publisher and Co-President of Bluff Media Eric Morris posted on the forum section of the magazine’s website. He began by stating that he posted the previous day but someone deleted his post. On the issue of Chris, he wrote the following:

“I have been asked to comment on what has transpired with our employee Chris Vaughn and have stated that what an employee does during his or her own free time is none of our business. We do not have to agree with employees behavior, but punishing an employee for something they have done out side of the office is beyond our rights. We can only ask that they make better choices for themselves and hope they learn from what has occurred.”

Eric continued, “I can state, that I personally do not condone cheating or multi accounting and understand why so many people are in an uproar.”

He then launches into the remainder of his post entitled “What is Cheating?” and requests other forum members to write their thoughts about what constitutes cheating in poker.

For now, the media awaits Sorel’s interview and his promised honesty. Whether Chris Vaughn will grant a similar interview is unknown, but any updates will be brought to you here.