Isaac Tucker accused of iNinja Poker Tour Scam

Several pro players on Team iNinja have publicly accused their boss, Isaac ‘RunGood’ Tucker of unethical and deceptive behavior, claiming that he owes many of them large sums of money and has been running a ‘Ponzi scheme’ to support his tour’s events.

The allegations, made yesterday by Aaron Johnson, Kou Vang and Vlad Revniaga state that:

"Over the past few months, we (us former iNinja pros and others close to Issac) have uncovered a mountain of evidence which undeniably show that Isaac has conducted himself unethically, unscrupulously, and deceptively.”

iNinja Poker

Tucker founded the iNinja Poker brand in 2014, as a ‘Minnesota-based poker league designed to award WSOP seats to players who otherwise might not play those events,’ which was expanded the following year into the iNinja Poker Tour, ‘catering to recreational players’, and specializing in ‘affordable buy-in, massive field tournaments.

The serious misgivings of his team pro’s, however, have cast a serious shadow over the tour, due to stage its next event in Horseshoe Council Bluffs, with a $100,000 guarantee.

Company funds?

The joint statement by Johnson, Vang and Revniaga accuse Tucker of “treating iNinja/company funds like his own piggy bank” and “repeated egregious breaches of contracts/agreements” among other problems. They also include a detailed blow-by-blow account – including SMS and e-mail exchanges – of Tucker’s “history of excuse-making and fabricating stories.”

The trio begin their long and (if true) unsavoury tale by stating:

"When we started representing iNinja Poker, we were optimistic and passionate, the brand was unique and appealing. The only thing we were unsure about was iNinja founder Isaac Tucker (IssacRunGood). We didn’t know much about him and there weren’t any obvious indicators of potential character flaws. That has changed...in a big way.”

What follows is a long-list of ‘charges’ including of non - or late-payments, borrowing money from players, selling off bits of the company, delays and ever-more exotic excuses.

Jail Time

When cancelling an important meeting with his disgruntled team of pros, he claimed to have been in a car accident, a detailed message stating:

"He went to jail, I went to hospital’ when in actual fact he had been arrested for various driving offences, which was followed by a further arrest in August of this year on charges of ‘felony theft’, which 'rightfully sent us into panic mode'.”

They explained what happened next:

"As soon as Isaac was released, we demanded he hand over the heads-up money immediately so refunds could be issued. What he told us was downright farcical. He basically explained that he’s very careful with money and had the funds in a storage unit, but he could not access the storage unit because the St. Paul Police Department didn’t give him all of his belongings (“storage unit key” included) when he was released… Yep. That’s what he told us. We’re used to poker players peddling fairy tales, but that one was pretty good.”

2+2 exchange

An exchange on the 2+2 poker forum between Tucker and various posters about his ‘felony theft’ arrest at his Canterbury Park iNinja event ensued, Tucker claiming that:

"I was one of multiple people that were part of or under investigation, the only reason the police came to Canterbury Park is because the home address they were given was incorrect.”

The claims being made by his team pros, however, have cast a huge cloud over his denials, alleging that funding his life/the company from seemingly unpayable loans and fool’s gold shares of the company (it’s unclear how many people own “shares” and what percent of the company Isaac has sold; we feel these shares were/are essentially worthless).

Earlier in the summer, according to Tucker’s unhappy team members:

"It was abundantly clear at this point that Isaac was purposely deceiving us. He was clearly broke, in debt, and lying profusely about it all. Interestingly, despite having no money and claiming to be super busy, Isaac had scheduled another (he had put one together earlier in the year) 32 person, $325 heads-up tournament (privately held) to take place around this same time. We were incredibly concerned about the safety of these funds. We had a very strong suspicion that Isaac was going to use those funds for personal use.”

Run and run good?

The sorry saga will no doubt continue, and it’s not good for the image of the game, but the aggrieved players state that:

"It’s incredibly unfortunate that we’ve reached this point. So many good, contributing members of the poker community have supported Isaac and iNinja. We gave Isaac every chance to change his ways and make things right.”

They added, however, that:

"Ultimately we made the determination that this could no longer remain a private matter. Isaac’s untrustworthiness and shadiness had to be exposed. Risking him borrowing more money or trying to sell more pieces of his company is not a chance we’re willing to take. To his credit, we do believe Isaac’s intentions in creating iNinja were innocent and pure. Like many who resort to lying and manipulating, he probably got in over his head and tried to unbury himself through unethical means. That, however, cannot be tolerated in the poker community.”

An apology

Unlike many other pros who have been part of shady tales and scams in the past, the iNinja pros expressed a heartfelt apology.

"We want to apologize to the poker community for not uncovering Isaac’s shadiness sooner and for putting our names and reputations behind him/the brand. Over the last two years we encouraged many players to support the tour and to trust Isaac. In hindsight this was obviously a significant mistake. If anyone else has had the misfortune of dealing with Issac, feel free to contact one of us with details. Thanks.”

PokerTube have reached out to Isaac Tucker for comment on these claims and will update if, as and when he replies. So far the only public response from Tucker has been on Twitter, but it's removed.

The full version of the allegations can be read here.