Fourteen-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth (pictured) has historically been pretty reticent when it comes to discussing the dark side of UB, the site that formerly sponsored him. From a cheating scandal reportedly masterminded by Russ Hamilton to insolvency that left many players high and dry, UB’s embattled past is well-documented.

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In an ongoing AMA on Reddit, Hellmuth opened up about the cheating scandal, which took place from 2005 to 2007. Prompted by PocketFives Community Manager Kevin KevmathMathers, Hellmuth said of the incident, “I was proud to have had a big role in forcing an investigation at UB, which led to $25 million being returned to the players. People said I should have left the site, and that would have been easy to do as I was wanted by Full Tilt. But I saw another pro get haunted for years because the site he repped did not pay the players back. Staying was the right move, and I was happy when the players were paid back.”

Some on Reddit and Twitter thought Hellmuth was talking about the state of the site post-Black Friday and were confused as to who was paid back $25 million, but “The Poker Brat” meant the cheating scandal. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which licensed Ultimate Bet, said Hamilton was the cheating group’s ringleader. In 2013, a recorded UB meeting involving Hamilton was released.

On Reddit, Hellmuth said he was “happy when evidence emerged a few years later that made it clear thatI wasn’t aware of what was happening. The poker world stuck by, but the evidence was nice and completely shut up the haters.”

Hellmuth has not answered other questions on Reddit regarding when UB players could be paid back following Black Friday, if at all. Mathers also asked about recovering players’ money, Greg Pierson, and Hamilton (pictured), but Hellmuth did not address them. We count three specific references to Hamilton in the AMA.

To that end, Mathers told us, “My takeaway is that his version of history is much different than what others have said on Twitter after reading his response. He also apparently read my question as being about the superuser scandal (where players were not made whole) and not Black Friday (which was the intent of my question). He also ignored the questions about Russ Hamilton and Greg Pierson.”

On Twitter, players took issue with Hellmuth claiming he had a “big role in forcing an investigation at UB.” However, David Paredes, who was interviewed in a 2008 “60 Minutes” story about the cheating scandal, commented on Twitter, “no1 at UB responded until Mike [Fosco] and I literally sat at @phil_hellmuth table on UB and asked him 2 look into it.”

Check out the Reddit AMA here.

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