Mars denies rumors that he cheated his way to a $3M win in a home game
Ye Shen, aka Tony Mars, rejects all accusations of cheating players at a private poker game out of $3 million. The allegations were brought by poker pros Nikhil “Nik Airball” Arcot and Wesley “Wes Side” Fei this past weekend on X (formerly Twitter).
The Hustler Casino Live regulars say that Shen brought a trick deck of cards to the friendly private game in Yorba Linda, CA, for almost a year, which allegedly allowed him to see through the cards when using special contact lenses.
“I’m writing this statement to set the record straight on some false accusations that personally damaged my reputation,” said Shen in a written statement to PokerNews. “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.”
Shen said in his PokerNews statement, “I didn’t bring any cards anywhere.” To back his assertion, he wrote, “Since we are playing at Yorba, there was no need for me to bring cards because they have multiple decks there at the game.”
He continued, “When I arrived at the game, there was (sic) 6-7 people already sitting at the table. So there is no way that I could have switched or brought cards since everyone was there.”
Shen also claimed that the actual cheater confessed to him three weeks later. The player, whose name is Sun, had already returned to China. After receiving the confession, Shen said, “I went directly to the owner of the house and explained everything,” adding that “two other people other than me can confirm this.”
He also said that Fei blamed him because he “is broke, desperate, and tries to not pay the money he owes me.”
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