One day after being accused of cheating a California home game out of millions, Tony Mars issued a statement to PokerNews denying the allegations.
Wesley Fei and Nikhil “Nik Airball” Arcot, both Hustler Casino Live regulars, claim that Mars, who also plays on HCL, brought a special UV-marked deck that allowed him to decipher face-down cards.
The alleged scandal occurred in a game at a private residence in Yorba Linda, California, a community in Orange County.
Mars Defends Reputation, Rips Wesley
In a lengthy statement, Mars fought back against the allegations, denying any wrongdoing and took some shots at Wesley’s character in the process.
“I’m writing this statement to set the record straight on some false accusations that personally damaged my reputation,” Mars wrote. “I have won and lost huge amounts numerous times in my poker career, but I have never cheated in a game, and I have always paid when I lost.”
Mars then took aim at Wesley’s personal finances and poker struggles. He said his now former friend is “on a major downswing” in poker after having lost $1.5 million in a private game heads-up poker battle, “a couple hundred thousand in Vegas,” and millions more. According to the accused poker cheater, Wesley is “close to broke.”
During the Las Vegas Grand Prix last month, Wesley gave PokerNews a tour of his $400,000 Caesars Palace suite. Mars claims that suite and other luxuries Wesley flaunts aren’t really his.
“He constantly posts pictures of himself on social media with super luxury cars, mansions, and 400k suites at Caesars Palace. None of these assets are his, they all belong to our mutual friend, and Wesley lies to everyone to portray a certain image,” says Mars.
Finding Marked Cards
One thing Wesley and Mars agree on is that marked cards were spotted in a high-stakes Southern California private game they both regularly played in. But they’re on different pages as to how the special deck ended up in the game.
According to Wesley and Nik Airball, who tweeted out brief info about the alleged cheating scandal, Mars and a few other players brought the deck. They even confronted him about it in Las Vegas during the Formula 1 race and received repeated denials.
In the statement submitted to PokerNews, he again denied cheating the game and wrote, “I didn’t bring any cards anywhere.” The most important part of the statement reads as follows:
“Regarding the dealers, these are baseless accusations, moreover I’m not in charge of hiring any staff,” Mars continues.
As for why Wesley, who was his friend, would accuse him of cheating, Mars ponders that, “Wesley is broke, desperate, and tries to not pay the money he owes me.”
“He’s trying to poison the mind of anybody that will listen,” Mars concluded his statement. “All of these are confirmed facts, and not baseless accusations.”
PokerNews will continue to monitor the story and offer updates as they happen.
*Image from Hustler Casino Live Stream.