Darren "DooshCom" Woods Jailed for Multi-Million Dollar Online Poker Fraud

Darrem "DooshCom" Woods looking wistful prior to sentencing

Way back in late 2011 a thread on 2+2 posted by highstakes Limit Hold'em veteran jarma-dharma (who posts at 2+2 as feruell) accused the 888.com sponsored high stakes limit pro Darren "Dooschcom" Woods of cheating considerably sums of money via multi-accounting and collusion. A little over three years later and Woods has been found guilty of fraud in a UK court and sentenced to 15 months and prison and ordered to pay back £1m (around $1.5m) within six months, or face a further 6 years in jail.

Woods, who initially pleaded innocent to the charges brought against him before changing his plea to guilty late last year, had been creating multiple accounts at different poker sites online (including his sponsor site 888.com). He was then posing as two different players in the same game this "colluding" with himself and giving himself a huge edge over his opponents.

However, as good at poker and as smart as Woods obviously was (he has a WSOP bracelet from 2011's $2.5k LHE event), he vastly underestimated the observational powers of his opponents who were able to conclude that they were being fleeced by Woods. A handful of LHE pros started to compare hand histories and evidence before concluding the Woods was either colluding with other players, or, more likely, was multi-accounting at the same table.

The 2+2 thread attracted a lot of attention, with some heavy hitters such as Ike Haxton, Dan Cates, and Cole South all suggesting that there was nowhere near enough available evidence to make such a claim. However, as more and more details and statistics emerged, the opinion swung very much against Woods - who offered numeorus incredulous, rambling "denials" in the face of some pretty damning evidence.

It seemed that the trail had gone cold for a year or two until it was reported that the Humber Police were ready to go to trial, with Woods accused of fraudulently setting up multiple accounts and cheating players online out of huge sums of money.

After changing his plea from innocent to guilty on 9 of the charges brought against him back in October last year, Woods was eventually sentenced this week to 15 months in prison, and ordered to pay back £1m within 6 months. This was the agreed sum by the courts, although it is suspected that Woods actually made far more from the scams.

You can read more about the courts decision, and the charges Woods faced here

In an earlier article, Woods claims to have been a "victim" of the scandal, seemingly justifying his actions by offering up the excuse that others had done it before him and not been punished.

Poor Darren eh?