When you play poker at a brick & mortar casino, it is a simple and straightforward process. Yet when you enter the world of online poker, there are a different set of rules that come into play.

1. Stefano Ampollini Poker Player
2. Stefano Ampollini Poker Table
3. Stefano Ampollini Poker Game
4. Stefano Ampollini Poker Games

In 2011, Stefano Ampollini had a brilliant idea of how to cheat using card marking. Thanks to a set of infrared contact lenses and two casino employees, Ampollini was able to pull off one of the most impressive card marking schemes ever, which took place in France.

Parmesan, a 56-year-old man whose real name is Stefano Ampollini, then used infrared contact lenses purchased online for 2,000 euros from a Chinese company to read his competitors' hands. Like many other card sharps, the men's downfall was their success. Issues like this have stopped former online poker players from revisiting and playing at the Lock Poker website. However, one such high profile poker player who prefers to be anonymous recently confirmed that he had a Skype conversation with a senior official from Lock Poker who offered him the privilege of a preferred cash out policy, provided.

The terms and conditions that govern when and how an online poker player can withdraw his winnings, is most likely to have an amount or time stipulation attached to the withdrawal process. This often proves to be a deterrent, especially given the negative publicity online poker has received in the U.S over the last couple of years.

Full Tilt Poker had a similar setup when it came to player withdrawals and that is the reason why a number of online poker players still have their winnings locked away and have had to wait for a lengthy period of time to start a claim reimbursement process.

Lock Poker is another online poker company who has had its fair share of cash out problems and hence has an F grade in the PAS US Online Poker Payment Processing Report. Issues like this have stopped former online poker players from revisiting and playing at the Lock Poker website.

However, one such high profile poker player who prefers to be anonymous recently confirmed that he had a Skype conversation with a senior official from Lock Poker who offered him the privilege of a preferred cash out policy, provided he could rake in more than $10,000 per month.

This anonymous poker player released a Skype conversation and published the same on ProfessionalRakeback.com. The Skype conversation is said to have taken place with Lock Poker’s Shane Bridges. The anonymous poker player told Shane

I really don’t know how it works, but if u sat here and told me i would get 1-2 month [cashouts] if i raked 6k next month … im snap putting 5k-10k on lock.

In response to this, Shane Bridges is alleged to have replied by saying

Ive been told that with your VIP status and playing history with our site if you can hit 10K a month I can guarantee a monthly payout for you.

However when contacted to confirm if there is indeed a privileged policy extended by Lock Poker to its VIP players, Shane Bridges refused to confirm the same.

The damage that Lock Poker has suffered during the last 12 months has caused enormous concern in the online poker community and unless and until further information is officially provided by Lock Poker, the online poker community will continue to play elsewhere.

According to one of England’s top newspapers, three men have been sentenced to prison time for their roles in a 2011 cheating scandal in Cannes, France. In administering their sentence, the French courts also revealed how the men pulled off their scam that has been called “the first of its kind in Europe.”

The London Daily Telegraph’s Henry Samueldocumented the sentencing of Stefano Ampollini for his actions at the Les Princes casino in Cannes during that August 2011 visit. Using infrared contact lenses that Ampollini bought from an online company in China (for €2000), Ampollini and his cohorts – Gianfranco Tirrito and Rocco Grassanno – were able to convince two employees of the casino to insert a specially marked deck (one that had invisible ink that was only visible with the contacts) into a Stud game at the casino. Using said deck, Ampollini was able to take down €70,000 in that game and, when he returned alone two months later, another €21,000.

Ampollini’s actions, however, had alerted the Les Princes security team that something might be amiss. “Casino security found his behavior rather strange as he won very easily,” Marc Concas, the attorney for the Groupe Lucien Barriere, which owns the Les Princes, is quoted by Samuel. “Furthermore, he was able to fold twice with an excellent hand, suggesting that he knew the croupier’s cards.”

Stefano Ampollini Poker Player

Stefano Ampollini Poker Table

Further investigation revealed the plot between the trio of Italians through telephone surveillance of their discussions. Obtaining cards from their accomplices inside the Les Princes, the marking was done on the cards and, once properly repackaged, put back into usage in the casino. When the Italians returned, their accomplices were ready to put those marked cards on the table for the plot to reach fulfillment.

Stefano Ampollini Poker Game

Ampollini admitted in court that the plot could have gone even farther had it not been sniffed out by authorities. Ampollini confirmed that he had given several pairs of the special contact lenses to “friends” that he would not name, giving rise to speculation that other situations – not as extreme as Ampollini’s over €90,000 score – could have taken place but just weren’t caught.

While presiding Judge Marc Joando was impressed with the level of sophistication of the scheme, that didn’t stop him from hammering those involved. Ampollini was sentenced to two years in prison and a €100,000 fine; Tirrito earned a three year sentence and a €100,000 fine (due to the court’s belief that he was the “mastermind” behind the actions), and Grassanno earned a 2½ year prison term and a €50,000 fine.

Stefano Ampollini Poker Games

Samuel quotes Concas as saying that “this is the first time this sort of technique has been seen in Europe,” but it is hard to believe that is the case (it may be the first time someone got caught at it). A simple YouTube search brought up over 46,000 results for card marking techniques, including those that the Italian crew used in the Les Princes casino. Either through using special sunglasses or the contact lenses that were used in the Cannes case, it is obviously easy to perform the marking technique and put it into usage; the tough part, which the Italians were able to circumvent through the cooperation of casino employees, is getting them into the game without issue.

The case at the Les Princes casino isn’t the only one that has befallen the French gaming industry. In 2010, German poker player Ali Tekintamgac was disqualified from a tournament in Cannes on the Partouche Poker Tour for using co-conspirators that masqueraded as “tournament reporters” that would feed him information on what his opponents’ cards were. In 2009, the PPT was once again targeted for cheating between Jean-Paul Pasqualini and Cederic Rossi, who allegedly used hand signals to indicate their cards to each other in finishing 1-2 in the tournament. In those cases, however, no criminal action was taken.