Russ Hamilton (born 1948 or 1949) is an American poker player. He was the

1994 World Series of Poker The 1994 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was a series of poker tournaments held at Binion's Horseshoe. Preliminary events Main Event There were 268 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter the tournament. Since this was the 25th ann ...

main event champion, defeating Hugh Vincent in heads-up play to win $1 million in first-prize money as well as his body weight in silver. Following his World Series win, Hamilton served as a consultant for

Ultimate Bet Cereus Poker Network was an online poker network comprising Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. The site is now insolvent and not processing player withdrawals. Cereus is owned by a private company, Blanca Games. Blanca Games bought all Network asse ...

, an online poker server. In 2008, the

Kahnawake Gaming Commission The Kahnawake Gaming Commission is a gaming regulatory body that licenses and regulates a large number of online casinos, online poker rooms and online sportsbook sites, as well as three land-based poker rooms that are situated within the Mohawk Ter ...

found Hamilton largely responsible for cheating players on Ultimate Bet out of $6.1 million through software that allowed access to opponents' hole cards. In 2009, Kahnawake increased the $6.1 million estimate to $22,100,000. Hamilton initially attended college in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

and pursued a degree in electrical engineering, before a conversation with a professor led him to decide that playing

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

for a living would be more profitable. After playing in underground games in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, he moved to Las Vegas at the age of 36. He joined a tournament blackjack team and enjoyed a successful run; however, when tournaments started barring blackjack pros, he turned back to poker. In 1994, he won the

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker pla ...

main event

bracelet A bracelet is an article of jewellery that is worn around the wrist. Bracelets may serve different uses, such as being worn as an ornament. When worn as ornaments, bracelets may have a wikt:supportive, supportive function to hold other items of ...

. He also invented

Elimination Blackjack Elimination Blackjack is a tournament format of blackjack invented by Russ Hamilton, that was played on the Ultimate Blackjack Tour and in various casinos. It combines the game of blackjack with elements of No Limit Texas Hold'Em. Unlike Texas Hol ...

, a tournament

Blackjack Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...

derivative that was used as the format for the televised

Ultimate Blackjack Tour The ''Ultimate Blackjack Tour'' was a televised series of Elimination Blackjack tournaments that aired in syndication. It debuted on September 16, 2006. The show consists of a series of televised Elimination Blackjack tournaments. The winner of ea ...

. Hamilton's last major cash came in the 2009

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the fi ...

PCA Main Event. As of 2014, his total live tournament winnings exceed $1,525,000. His eight cashes at the WSOP account for $1,261,940 of those winnings.

UltimateBet fraud

Since winning his World Series bracelet, Hamilton has served as a gaming industry expert, including as a consultant for the

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

cardroom UltimateBet, where he was involved in recruiting some prominent poker players, including

Phil Hellmuth Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player who has won a record sixteen World Series of Poker bracelets. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the Main Even ...

, to promote the site. He has won World Championships in several types of casino games and founded the

in 2005. On September 29, 2008, the

stated it had found clear and convincing evidence that, between the approximate dates of May 2004 and January 2008, Russ Hamilton was the main person responsible for, and benefiting from, multiple sophisticated cheating incidents at UltimateBet. UltimateBet eventually refunded a total of $22,100,000 to the defrauded players. In October 2008, ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

'' aired a report profiling Hamilton and called the fraud the biggest scandal in the history of online gambling. ''60 Minutes'' partnered with the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' in their investigation. In May 2013, recorded audio of discussions with UltimateBet management was released by

Travis Makar Travis may refer to: People and fictional characters *Travis (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Travis (surname), a list of people Places in the United States *Travis, Staten Island, a neighborhood *Travis Air Force Base, a ...

, where Hamilton and other management can be heard discussing the scandal and the plans to cover up known conspirators and participants as well as aiming to reduce the declared or refunded amount of the fraud. This recording included statements of admission from Hamilton such as "I did take this money and I'm not trying to make it right, so we've got to get that out of the way real quick."

World Series of Poker Bracelet

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Russ 1940s births Living people American poker players World Series of Poker bracelet winners World Series of Poker Main Event winners American fraudsters