On Twitter, Reddit, and now, podcasts, everyone's discussing Nick Vertucci, but for all the wrong reasons. This will be a huge turning point for the Hustler Casino, which Nick launched with Ryan Feldman in 2021.
Starting with tweets in early October, we'll go through this scandal part by part.
Julia from Palmdale and Lauren the Dealer
"I am not excited about dancing on the grave of Vertucci here," Matt Berkey said in the opening moments of the Only Friends podcast.
Berkey first discussed Julia McBride, who broke her story about Nick Vertucci on October 6th of this year.
"Essentially, Julia, who you guys may or may not know from the DGAF show and from Max Pain Monday, her Twitter handle is Julia from Palmdale, disclosed that she had this uncouth, uncomfortable exchange with Nick Vertucci, a very creepy, inappropriate, exchange with Nick."
"I'm not here to yuck-yum, you know. It's more so just having some level of discernment. She basically said she had this weird back-and-forth with him like a year ago. It made her feel incredibly uncomfortable to the point where her being around Nick wasn't great, and she didn't know what to do with it.
This most recent occurrence at Hustler Live made her feel more obligated to come forward and basically put this out in the public. The way she [Julia] explained it to me is she's not looking necessarily for any retribution for herself, but more so this is to protect others as well as to stand up for what she feels is a great injustice, which was the firing of Lauren the dealer."
Lauren is (or was) a long-time dealer for Hustler Casino who had unquestionably earned respect. Even with the high stakes and the madness of running 3-way all-ins twice, she always maintained composure.
In fact, she dealt the show's first-ever streamed hand and even enjoyed a champagne toast to mark the occasion. Along with Magic and Jared, Lauren's professionalism as a dealer was obvious and surely had a positive effect on HCL's reputation.
Almost every player who enjoyed her dealing was polite and respectful, but Lauren has faced obstacles. A year ago, a player named Ala said that if she didn't produce the right board for his hand, she'd have to give him a kiss. Lauren laughed it off, but Ala persisted. "If she does the first three cards black, I give her $300. If she does all of it my suit to give me a flush, I give $1,000. If she doesn't do any of it, she's gotta give me a kiss. Deal?"
However, it appears Lauren may have faced far worse treatment at work, and been let go.
Details are very scarce, but according to more tweets from Julia, Lauren reported serious harassment and was fired from Hustler Casino Live. To hear that one of the founding team members was potentially fired for reporting misconduct is beyond disappointing.
Matt Berkey said, "People close to the source say that she had been offering up complaints about Nick and his out-of-line behavior," but little else is known. Lawyers could be handling the situation at this point, which will delay the story from getting out.
To reporters, Julia McBride said Nick had asked her out on previous occasions, which she refused.
"Basically he just started asking me out and whatever immediately, and then I would say no and then he would just keep asking."
Matt Berkey spoke about the strength of speaking out and the chances of even more victims.
"Bringing this all the way back to maybe what prompted this and how courageous Julia actually is, that's not the reality for most women, especially in a male-dominated space. You kind of have to live the world with some apprehension. For better or for worse, there are just a lot of instances where, because physically you're just outmatched by a larger, taller, bigger, stronger, faster man, you have to kind of change the way through which you navigate the world, and that's incredibly unfortunate.
I wouldn't even begin to try to put myself in her shoes and understand what it feels like to not be able to speak my mind because of the fear of physical violence or intimidation tactics. And that's precisely what happened. If anybody's been following this story, the very first update that Julia posted was that last Friday evening, maybe Saturday evening, she said:"
"And that's probably mild compared to the lengths at which somebody like this may go."
The members of the Only Friends podcast called Vertucci's behavior victim blaming, gaslighting, and a tactic. But, as you may have expected, the story gets worse.
Julia and Lauren are not the only victims.
Kitty Kuo Confirms a Shocking Story
Even in the pre-COVID days, one of the Live at The Bike regulars faced even worse conduct from Nick.
Kitty Kuo says that after a stream wrapped up, Vertucci showed her pictures of his genitals. This incident created the term "Pencilgate."
Despite the humor of calling Nick sexually short-stacked to his face, take a moment to consider how brazen his display is.
Many people have noted that a man who's willing to be so direct, beyond our social norms, may have even more victims. So far, we've heard from two players who have above-average financial status and no financial dependency on Hustler Casino or Nick Vertucci. The third victim was spoken for, but never made a statement herself.
Julia from Palmdale has apparently spoken to Hustler Casino HR in the midst of all of this. In a tweet, she urged past and present victims to come forward without fear of repercussions. Ash Kardash also indicated that Nick offered to make her his sugar baby in a recent stream, which isn't illegal, but paints a picture.
"I imagine there's a long list of people we're still not hearing from," Matt Berkey took no pleasure in pointing out.
The Poker Community Reactions
Days after Julia's initial tweets, Nik Airball put his own message of support onto Twitter.
"As many of you know I have been a long-time supporter of HCL and my good friend Ryan Feldman.
No players have chosen to speak out at this time out of fear of losing seats or being banned but I personally feel this must be publicly addressed.
I am appalled by the behavior of Nick Vertucci and deeply troubled by the additional allegations that continue to come out. His gross misconduct towards Julia, Lauren, and other women is inexcusable.
Ryan has poured everything into building HCL into what it is today. He has always conducted himself and his business with the upmost integrity. Ryan has strived to create a fun and safe space for players, staff, and fans to enjoy poker, which is why Nick's actions are so disappointing. I firmly believe Nick needs to step away from HCL. Until that time comes I can no longer support the show in any way.
I have advised my friends on staff to speak truthfully to HR and do the right thing. Anyone who loses their job due to speaking out can come to me and I will sort them out a new job.
I trust Ryan and HCL will do the right thing and stand in support of the victims, not the perpetrator."
However, some find it difficult to believe that HCL management had no knowledge of Nick Vertucci's behavior. His reputation hasn't exactly been spotless, even before this scandal. Users dug up posts revealing that before poker, he was a real estate guru-type. Vertucci sold courses on real estate transactions and promised clients mountains of gold. The cost of four days of classes at the Nick Vertucci Real Estate Academy reached $35k.
PokerSpacesNews also dug up a clip of Nick appearing to casually tell Kelly Minkin that sexual harassment claims are nothing new.
Veronica Brill, co-host of Nick's podcast, claimed that Nick had manipulated and lied on several occasions, but never showed the true extent of his actions.
"‘I thought he was just a creepy dude, I see them all the time"
Earlier in the week, Veronica confronted Nick in messages, which she then made public.
Garrett Adelstein also popped up to share his thoughts on Twitter:
"It’s been pretty amazing hearing several brave women come forward and seeing Karma quickly take shape. By doing so, they have protected countless others from future harassment or worse.
Many are asking me if I’ll play on HCL now that they have supposedly “cleaned house” by removing Vertucci. The answer to that is a resounding hell no.
The house is far from clean. There should now be a microscope on those who knew about Nick’s behavior and did nothing or worse.
This is J4 repeating itself all over again in my opinion: People in positions of unchecked power doing and saying whatever they need to do to protect their business interests."
The Queens of Poker held a podcast soon after the scandal broke and named Nick the "Harvey Weinstein of poker." AJ Rudolph (VP of the Women's Poker Association) made important points about Julia Mcbride, addressing comments that she was too nice facing Nick's advances.
"I feel like, from my perspective, if you are too harsh about it, then you get this backlash from the person and they're mad, or they call you a bitch if you don't nicely say 'No thank you, I'm not interested." And then, if its a position like that where he's in a position of power, that changes the dynamic of everything. If it's a co-worker, it could change the dynamic of your workplace and you could fear for your job. There are so many levels to this. I get exactly how she handled it, I have literally done the same thing! You can't fault her for that in any way.
Yes. Could she have been like, 'Stop it you suck,' of course she could've, but most people are not going to do that."
Doug Polk kept things short and sweet:
"On the recent Nick Vertucci story, using a place of power to make unwanted sexual advances on women is horrific. This isn't just being a creepy dude.
Anything less than removing him from the show entirely is completely unacceptable."
"Agree," said Daniel Cates, "and that unfortunately seems light."
Hustler Casino Removes Nick Vertucci
The casino management, Nick's partner Ryan Feldman, and the streaming regulars kept silent in the early days of the scandal. Vertucci quickly deleted all of his social media, including Instagram, where he actively posted images of his happy family life.
Then, on October 10th, Hustler Casino Live broke their silence.
However, many of the replies made it clear that one tweet in the right direction is just a start.
– "Good call. Now make a statement that acknowledges what transpired, what your position is regarding that conduct, and what you would like to say to the female poker players who may come play on your streams in the future?"
– "We need to know what exactly this means. What happens to his ownership? Is he no longer involved day-to-day but still owns half? Makes a difference."
– "How about taking a stance on how you don’t condone anything he has done/said etc. Your PR team is horses***."
It's clear that Hustler Casino Live must take a few more steps to earn the player's trust again. A lot of eyeballs are on Ryan Feldman, Nick's former partner. The community is also curious about behind-the-scenes connections and wants to know if Nick will still profit from HCL. HCL's tweet was a decent starting point, but their PR team has left a void full of questions too.