60 Minutes Poker
| Todd Witteles | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Dan Druff |
| Residence | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| World Series of Poker | |
| Bracelet(s) | 1 |
| Money finish(es) | 30[1] |
| Highest ITM Main Event finish | 88, 2010 |
Todd Witteles is an American professional poker player.
Poker career[edit]
Teaching kids a 'poker face' Player Feedback. Use the form below to send us your comments. If you are experiencing problems, please describe them. Player Help All Access Help. The 60 Minutes team discovers that Dr. B's chess lessons are about more than kings and queens. They're about winning graciously - and learning from. Online Poker 60 Minutes can enjoy more than 500 casino games online, including slots with variants of classic 3-reel as well as modern 5-reel video slots, most of them packed with Online Poker 60 Minutes in-game bonus features.
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Witteles is primarily a cash game player. After four years in poker, he finally entered his first tournament at the 2005 World Series of Poker, where he played the $1500 Limit Texas hold 'em event. He finished in third place out of a field of 1,049 entrants, cashing nearly $116,000. As a gimmick, Witteles used a small Head & Shoulders bottle to protect his cards while playing, in reference to his online moniker 'Dan Druff.'
During the same World Series of Poker, Witteles played the $3,000 Limit Hold 'em event finishing first, earning a World Series of Poker gold bracelet and $347,385. Witteles set a World Series of Poker record, as no other player in history has finished better in their first two events.[2] He was also named CardPlayer Magazine's 2005 World Series of Poker Player of the Year.[3]
Witteles made two other final tables at the World Series. The first was in 2006, at $1500 No Limit Holdem, where he finished 4th. In 2013, he finished 5th in the $5000 Limit Holdem event. In addition, Todd barely missed WSOP final tables three other times, finishing in 10th place twice and 12th. He had two deep runs at the Main Event, finishing in 88th-place (out of 7,319 entrants) in 2010, and 128th place in 2019 (out of 8,596 entrants). Overall he has cashed 30 times at the World Series, and has cashed at least once there every year since 2005, despite playing relatively few events.
With over $553,000 in cashes at WSOP Limit Hold 'em events, Witteles ranks 12th all time on the WSOP Limit Hold 'em money list.[4]
As of 2018, his total live tournament winnings exceed $974,000.[5] His 30 cashes at the WSOP account for almost $825,000 of those winnings.[1]
Appearances in media[edit]
Witteles was a victim of the Absolute Poker/Ultimatebet 'Superuser' cheating scandal. He and several other online players took part in uncovering and proving the cheating. This attracted enough media attention to where it became the subject of a story on the TV news program '60 Minutes', where Witteles was featured. The episode aired on November 30, 2008.[6] Witteles appeared on the front page of The Washington Post about the same matter.[7] On December 16, 2009, he appeared on CNBC to discuss the cheating. In the CNBC special, Witteles claimed that legalization and regulation of online poker was necessary in order to prevent future cheating scandals. He also appeared on a Blu-ray Extra attached to the movie Runner Runner, entitled House Of Cards: The Inside Story of Online Poker.[8]
In March 2008, Witteles was selected among eight other top online poker players to participate in ESPN's 'Online Poker Think Tank.'[9] In 2009, he was a guest broadcaster on ESPN360 for the final table of a World Series of Poker event.
Personal[edit]
Witteles has a son named Benjamin, born 2010.
In August 2018, Todd was afflicted by a chemical disorder in his brain which caused sudden and severe anxiety, depression, and anhedonia simultaneously, also resulting in an involuntary 32-pound weight loss in a matter of weeks. By early 2019, he was able to return mostly back to normal, and was able to play in the 2019 World Series of Poker.[10]
Notes[edit]
- ^ abWSOP.com profile
- ^World Series of Poker 2005 Event #36 Tournament ReportArchived February 4, 2013, at Archive.today
- ^Card Player Magazine's 2005 World Series of Poker Recap
- ^World Series of Poker All Time Limit Hold 'em Money List
- ^Hendon Mob Poker Database: Todd Witteles
- ^60 Minutes Preview for November 30th
- ^Washington Post Story about Online Poker Cheating Scandal
- ^Blu-Ray Review:Runner Runner
- ^ESPN Online Poker Think Tank, Week 1
- ^Todd “Dan Druff” Witteles on Right Track in Life and 2019 WSOP Main Event
In addition to the buzz around the seizure of 141 internet gambling domains by the Governor of Kentucky, an upcoming story by CBS’ “60 Minutes” has also been the center of discussion at the CAP Euro Barcelona event. Poker News Daily has learned that the story by “60 Minutes” should air on Sunday, October 26th, just days before the general elections in the United States. The program will likely cover the user scandals at Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, which have made headlines across the poker world in recent months.
The story by the longstanding news magazine will focus on the scandals that have rocked Ultimate Bet and may include the POTRIPPER issues at its sister site, Absolute Poker. In addition, the rumor around the industry is that “60 Minutes” is teaming up with a major newspaper for the story, which may be just weeks from airing. In its last update on the NioNio scandal that rocked the online poker site, Ultimate Bet listed additional user names that were involved: Crackcorn55, WhakMe, GrabBag123, gravitation, Bgroup, H_Curtis, Twenty 1, WacoManiac, Broke_In_L_A, ShaqTack, BlueBerry101, HolyMucker, 55WasHere, Xnomas, dannyboy55, Indy05, and SlimPikins2.
60 Minutes Poker Story
The cheating on Ultimate Bet began back in 2005, one year before its current ownership group, Tokwiro, purchased the site. Also in June, Ultimate Bet was scheduled to begin the refund process for players who were affected by the abuse. The transgressions surrounded the exploitation of an auditing tool which enabled its users to view the hole cards of every player at an online poker table.
In May, Ultimate Bet’s parent company released a statement that included the following: “We would like to thank our customers for their patience, loyalty, and support, as well as for their understanding that we are doing everything we can to correct this situation. The staff and management of Ultimate Bet are fully committed to providing a safe and secure environment for our players and we want to assure customers of our unwavering resolve to monitor site security with every resource at our disposal.”
Since then, one of the accounts in question was linked to a Las Vegas owned home of Russ Hamilton, one of the former owners of the site. However, no admission has been given publicly by Hamilton. Over the summer, Team PokerStars Pro member Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok traveled to Hamilton’s residence. Greenstein came away from the interview feeling as if, by the time the truth was known, Hamilton would not be one of those indicted.
A $75 million claim filed against a software manufacturer was the subject of an article by MSNBC with the title “Poker site cheating plot a high-stakes whodunit.” The article, which was published last week, seemed to trump any momentum “60 Minutes” would have had, although the television station’s program is likely to be more visible.
The latest move in the Ultimate Bet investigation was the Kahnawake Gaming Commission naming Frank Catania, a former gaming regulator in the state of New Jersey, to lead a formal inquiry into the matter. His website, CataniaConsulting.com, states that he “serves as one of three independent directors of eCOGRA. He served as the first president of the International Masters of Gaming Law, a non-profit association dedicated to the education and advancement of gaming law, vice chair and chair, respectively, of the International Association of Gaming Regulators and past chairman of the Forum of American Casino Regulators.”
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