After pulling off the potential bluff of the summer at the 2024 World Series of Poker, Antonio Galiana quickly became an internet poker darling following his heads-up triumph over poker vlogger Johan Guilbert in Event #34: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em
Galiana pipped the Game of Gold star to the WSOP bracelet and the $439,395 first-place prize — a win that was highlighted by Galiana’s five-bet bluff shove with just seven-high.
However, as the confetti settled and the bright lights of the Thunderdome at Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas dimmed, serious accusations surfaced. Galiana allegedly orchestrated a complex scam involving a fake website and fabricated poker results, stealing nearly $100,000 from a poker stable.
Elaborate Alleged Scheme
In a Two Plus Two post from October 2018 that resurfaced after Galiana’s bracelet victory, Jason Philpott, co-founder of the Spin & Go staking group Team651, explained that Galiana had been part of the stable that “offer(s) EV deals to players; essentially the player is paid a certain % of their EV in all games played.”
Philpott, who uses the screen name “fightingcoward”, alleged that Galiana and another Spanish player named Raul De Vega Sanchez “stole and defrauded us (Team651) of $94,180.70 over the course of the last 12 months, using a scam designed to fake Spin & Go hand histories and audits on Pokerstars.com and exploit an EV deal that was in place for both named players.”
Additionally, Philpott said they believed that a third account, “JackandJazz777,” which belonged to Juan Jesus Del Pino Campos, was “a multi-account set up by Raul and Galiana.” They do not believe Campos was involved in the scam.
Philpott explained that Team651 offers players “EV deals” where “essentially the play is paid a certain % of their EV in all games played.” At the end of each month, the team’s manager reviews each player’s results and calculates their EV.
“Raul was adamant that our deal be kept private due to Spanish law about gambling, and all three of them requested that the EV report be compiled on their PC as to keep complete control of their hand history,” Philpott wrote in the 2018 post. “Our manager would teamview into their computer, watch them download the (fake) link from PokerStars, and compile the EV report in Pt4 (PokerTracker 4).”
The team eventually grew suspicious after “checking with our highest volume players and them saying they’d never seen them on the tables” and discovering the audits they were sending “were entirely fake.”
“They had been tampered with to appear legitimate, and the names/results were changed in order to look like they had been played by these three players at the higher stakes.”
“The players had used a spoof URL (changing ‘rationalwebservices’ to rationalswebservices) and created a website perfectly imitating the audit site for Pokerstars. Raul, Galiana, and Juan all had uploaded fake audits to our audit software to defraud us of the $94,180.70 over the course of the last year.”
Team651 also contacted a “well-known Spanish player” who previously ran a team of Spanish Spin players and “immediately realized that both Raul and Antonio, who had been part of his team, had done the same scam on him.”
Galiana Responds to Accusations
PokerNews contacted Galiana for comment on the allegations. He said:
“I am in contact with my lawyer for defamation and harassment. And I have been advised not to speak for now.”
Philpott of Team651 told PokerNews he was surprised when he saw Galiana’s viral bluff and bracelet victory.
“My first reaction was Galiana is a common name in Spain. No way that’s the guy who scammed us!” said Philpott. “But then digging in, I realized it was the same person.”
As to whether he will try to get the money back after Galiana’s six-figure score, Philpott said he “has no way of reaching out to him as I’m blocked” and that “the last I heard from him, he threatened me.” Philpott shared a screenshot of the exchange.
Disclaimer: This is an ongoing story and investigation, and PokerNews will provide updates as more information emerges.
Editor & Live Reporter
Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum’s proudest poker achievement is winning the only tournament he has ever played in Las Vegas, the prestigious $60 Flamingo evening event.