Girah Update: Haseeb "DogIsHead" Qureshi Blogs About Scandal

Haseeb "DogIsHead" Qureshi, who along with Dan "Jungleman" Cates mentored Portuguese poker prodigy Jose "Girah" Macedo, provides an extensive insight into his relationship with the fallen star in his Cardrunners blog. Find out more here.

In an extensive blog post, Haseeb Qureshi reveals how he first met and worked with Jose, and how he reacted when news of the cheating allegations first came to light. Here is a summary of some of the key revelations:

• Girah came to Qureshi some time last year to seek advice and direction with his poker career. Qureshi was impressed by Girah's work ethic and understanding of the game. Haseeb is adamant that Girah was the real deal, stating: "Any and all conspiracy theories of Jose being completely invented as a puppet account are not only utterly false, but completely f****** ridiculous on many levels".
• As well as giving him poker tips, Qureshi began to work as Girah's unofficial agent. Girah became obsessed with marketing himself positively, and Qureshi agreed to edit some of Girah's blogs and press releases.
• Knowing that Jose "was crushing 6-max with a huge winrate" after receiving details from Girah's Hold'em Manager, Qureshi and Jungleman agreed to stake Girah for the nosebleeds. They strenuously deny having used Jose's account to play poker on.
• Qureshi takes responsibility for Girah being disqualified from the Lock Poker Challenge, describing how he logged on Jose's account to play a couple of sessions of $25/$50 Pot-Limit Omaha following the turmoil of Black Friday. Qureshi also admits that Girah used his "Toshisan" account on iPoker.
• Upon hearing about the cheating allegations, Qureshi notes how Girah told him an elaborate lie about his "rich fish friend". When faced with the strong evidence presented by twoplustwo users, which included dubious hands, Girah finally confessed to cheating using the accounts "Dollarman" and "Sauron1989".
• Qureshi admits he had an emotional attachment to Girah, and that he was initially reluctant for news of the scam to go public because he had Jose's staking money tied up in Lock Poker.
• Like the rest of us, Qureshi has no idea why Girah conducted the scam.

 

Haseeb Qureshi

Daniel Cates echoes many of Qureshi's sentiments in a statement he released earlier. Cates insists that "Haseeb and I have nothing to do with Jose's dumbass actions".

Jungleman was also critical of some of Girah's attempts at self promotion, adding "I didn't like the way Jose seemed to like to build hype for himself: challenging durrrr in the durrrr challenge, taking the isildur challenge, offering to play anyone giving 1bb back at 200/400 - basically suggesting he's better than he was in ways that he could not back up".

You can view Qureshi's entire blog post here.

For a more in-depth view, we suggest to read our column on "The rise and fall of Girah".