Bluff Mag Editor Fired for Poker Cheating

Chris Vaughn ad editor of a popular poker magazine, was in the spot light after winning hundreds of thousands of dollars and was found cheating.

For many years Chris Vaughn was known as a senior editor of Bluff Magazine, now he is known as a cheater. On October 21st 2007, Chris Vaughn under screen name ‘BluffMagCV’ took first place in the $1 Million Guarantee on Full Tilt Poker. There was nothing abnormal about this, except that one week later he won the PokerStars Sunday Million under screen name ‘SlippyJacks’. Coincidence, definitely, the forums started sparking with speculation.

Rumors were flying on major poker forums that include, TwoPlusTwo.com and PocketFives.com, that Chris Vaughn may be involved with account selling. Account selling is where a player sells his account in a late stage of a tournament too a professional player who is much more experienced. It was rumored that Sorel Mizzi, screen name: ‘Imper1um’, may have been involved in the account selling. Mizzi is a friend of Vaughn’s as well.

With all the commotion online, Full Tilt caught wind of these events and decided to launch an investigation. Within a few weeks the word was out that Vaughn’s Full Tilt account ‘BluffMagCV’ has been banned and funds were confiscated. Soren Kongsgaard was the second place finisher on the Full Tilt tournament when Vaughn won, he posted in a forum that he has been moved up to the winners spot. Oddly enough, Kongsgaard was disconnected from the internet during heads up play. He ended up being blinded out.

With Mizzis and Vaughns name threatened by the hundreds of posts being made on forums, they decided to make a public statement on PokerNews.com. A lengthly interview emerged about account selling in general and about there scandal. The full interview can be read here.

According the Vaughn, he had no premeditated intention of selling the account when he contacted Mizzi. Vaughn and Mizzi instant message each other all the time and Vaughn wanted Mizzi to cover him in the tournament so Vaughn could drive to work and finish the tournament from there. “you know we were on instant messenger and I sent him a message and, it pretty quickly led to a discussion about selling the account rather than just letting him play for a few minutes.” Said Vaughn.

When asked if this is the first time Mizzi had bought an account here is how he responded, “I’m not a cheater; I’m not a multi-accounter. I acted fast without malice and didn’t intend to hurt Chris and myself, opponents, or the entire poker community. This is something that was a one-time – it was a one-time thing and I clearly didn’t give it much thought, which is exactly why I got caught, because… of actually logging into his account which would be traced. But, I want to make it clear that this is something that was an isolated incident and it’s not something that I’ve done in the past.”

Later in the interview Pokernews asked if Mizzi would like to state an apology, here it is: Well, first of all I’d like to come out with an apology, because I know that what I did was wrong. The more I think about it, the more I believe what I did was wrong and it’s something that I want the poker community to know that I would never do again. And my primary focus, like I said, was to be a contender for the online player of the year and because of all these things that have happened, my resource from Full Tilt has been cut off and I can no longer play on there, so I think I’m more inclined to focus on the live tournament arena and sort of move more away from online as the year ends. Hopefully people can forgive me for what I’ve done and I can move forward with my life and not be known as someone who cheats or someone who multi-accounts, rather, known for my achievements online and my achievements live. That’s kind of what I’m hoping from the situation.”

Bluff Magazine sent PokerNews.com a statement regarding Chris Vaughn and their situation.

“Bluff Media in no way, shape, or form condones the actions of Chris Vaughn. We were extremely unhappy, and disappointed. However we feel that Chris has always acted in a professional manner at BLUFF in the past, and we have no plans for terminating his employment with the company. He has been given a warning, and is on probation. We hope that we can all move past this, and learn from it.”

Although, months later Bluff Magazine changed there thoughts midway through December on continuing to employ Chris Vaughn. Here is the statement Bluff Magazine has made:

Bluff Media, publisher of Bluff Magazine, has made the decision to terminate Chris Vaughn as Managing Editor. In light of Chris’ involvement, recently admitted facts and the feedback obtained from industry professionals, it became apparent that the credibility required to perform the job functions of Managing Editor of Bluff Magazine at our company’s level of standards have become severely diminished. While we regret having to make this decision, we believe that it is the best alternative for all parties involved, including Chris, Bluff Media and the poker playing community at large. We wish Chris the best of luck.

This has been one wild ride for Chris Vaughn and I’m sure it hasn’t been a nice one either. Vaughn is a 24 year old journalist and was most likely under paid by Bluff Magazine anyways. He was tempted by a large payout and took the easy way out, without thinking of the possible consequences. Hopefully he will be able to learn from these mistakes and continue to be a journalist. Mizzi on the other hand is a professional poker player and made a huge mistake and he should definitely of known better. He will feel the long term effects from the actions he took on October 21st 2007.