The World Series of Poker has suspended a professional online poker player over the alleged use of cheating software. While many believe there is sufficient evidence against him, the man reassured his followers that he will be proven innocent.
Ruscitti Is Being Investigated over Possible Violations
The player in question is none other than the up-and-coming Kevin Ruscitti who won the recent WSOP online bracelet. The tournament in question took place this weekend and faced off against Cherish Andrews for the WSOP Online Michigan’s Player of the Year title.
Ruscitti’s success, however, attracted multiple allegations of cheating, with a number of professional poker players from Michigan accusing him of using real-time assistance (RTA) software. The accusations were backed with alleged evidence, causing WSOP Online to suspend Ruscitti from its site and launch an investigation into the matter.
Ruscitti denied the claims and said that he believes he will be proven innocent.
GTOWizard Detected Suspicious Activity
According to Ryan Hiller, a professional poker player from Michigan, Ruscitti not only leveraged RTA software during tournaments but bragged about it to his peers. This prompted Hiller to use GTOWizard to run fair play checks on Ruscitti’s hands to confirm whether he was cheating or not.
Hiller and other professional players from Michigan claimed that the tool detected suspicious activity on multiple occasions. They also insisted that they have known this for a while but have kept silent in order to gather sufficient evidence to make sure Ruscitti was banned.
When the time came, the anti-Ruscitti group revealed the evidence they had gathered. Poker pro Mario Arribas, for example, posted public accusations on X, revealing where GTOWizard had detected possible fair play violations.
A few days after that, Ruscitti’s WSOP account was suspended amid the investigation. Andrews whom Ruscitti beat recently, responded to the situation, saying that, if his opponent was proven guilty of cheating, the money he won should be confiscated and distributed.
Ruscitti Is Certain He Will Be Proven Innocent
Ruscitti remained unfazed by the allegations, insisting on his innocence. In his own post, he accused his rivals of not being able to accept that he is “just a good player.”
Ruscitti also noted that he has been playing poker for 12 hours a day for the past 4 years and had compiled reliable notes. As a result, he claimed that he didn’t need any RTA software to win.
The player said that he is certain he will be proven innocent and back to competing online.
There does seem to be hope for Ruscitti as Matt Berkey, another poker pro, noted that the GTOWizard checks might be faulty and are therefore insufficient to confirm that the player was indeed cheating.
