I& #39;m late to the party and this is a bit off my brand, but here& #39;s a thread I think poker players might find very interesting. Especially @Joeingram1 .

I don& #39;t think this connection has been mentioned before.

Thread:

Back in 2005-06, I was involved with a product called the Ultimate Blackjack Tour (UBT). It was an innovative, elimination-style Blackjack tournament. They filmed two seasons which aired on CBS at some odd hours.

I had a relatively minor investment in the project. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💸" title="Money with wings" aria-label="Emoji: Money with wings">

It was a collection of BJ players and poker players (most were also investors) that made up the first season. They held some play-in tournaments out at Lake Las Vegas.

The winners of those play-in tournaments made up the final tables that would be broadcast on CBS. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📺" title="Television" aria-label="Emoji: Television">

Each televised tournament featured an internet qualifier. That was the real money-making component of all this. An online real-money site where people could play UBT.

This was just before the UIGEA was passed. Internet gaming still looked relatively easy.

UIGEA killed UBT.

For Season One, they didn& #39;t have the internet site up yet, so one of the producers hand-picked the "winning internet qualifier" for each of the televised tournaments. They were all close friends of his.

Imagine my surprise when I noticed that the internet qualifier for Episode 109 on the DVD (which I believe aired on 9/16/06) was Mike Postle.

For the non-poker players who made it this far, he& #39;s the alleged suspect of the biggest poker cheating case in years.https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧐" title="Face with monocle" aria-label="Emoji: Face with monocle">

Ok, so big deal. The guy made it onto a televised BJ tournament 14 yrs ago.

The big deal is who his producer friend was that got him on the show:

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👉" title="Right pointing backhand index" aria-label="Emoji: Right pointing backhand index">Russ Hamiltonhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👈" title="Left pointing backhand index" aria-label="Emoji: Left pointing backhand index">

The inventor of Elimination Blackjack and the mastermind of poker& #39;s previous biggest cheating case. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤨" title="Face with raised eyebrow" aria-label="Emoji: Face with raised eyebrow">