In a surprising turn of events, Bluff Magazine Managing Editor Chris Vaughn aka “BluffMagCV” recently admitted in a face-to-face interview that he lied about his Full Tilt $1 Million Guaranteed win back in Novemeber. As many internet news outlets and forums have already reported, Chris Vaughn “sold” his account to online poker phenom Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi while the event was nearing the final 3 tables. After a lengthy instant messenger conversation, the two worked out a deal where Sorel would instead play out the entire tournament in exchange for a percentage of the final prize.
Unfortunately for both Vaughn and Mizzi, Full Tilt Poker was tracking IP’s during Vaughn’s eventual win. The security team traced back the connection to Sorel Mizzi’s computer, and both players were banned from Full Tilt and the $197k win was confiscated from his account. All players in the tournament got bumped up another pay level, with 2nd place finisher Soren Kongsgaard being crowned the true winner.
In an exclusive interview conducted by John Caldwell of PokerNews, both Sorel and Chris expressed regret for the 
decisions they made during the final stages of the tournament. Originally, Vaughn had openly admitted he only let Mizzi play because of a bad internet connection that was causing him to miss hands and lag. However, Vaughn set the record straight during this interview. “The reason I sold the account had nothing to do with my connection,†Vaughn admitted. “The reason I initially contacted him probably more so had to do with connection, but selling the account was completely a financial decision and was in no way anything else.â€Â
During the sit-down with Caldwell, Chris Vaughn also admitted to lying about the incident when he was interviewed on a poker radio show with Scott Huff and Harabalous Voulgaris. During the show, he was asked whether the accusations of “ghosting” were true when he played in the Full Tilt tournament. His answer? “As far as having someone take over, that’s ridiculous.â€Â
As far as where this situation goes from here is unknown. Both players have come clean for the time being, but it is unsure whether the poker community will just forgive and forget. This incident is one of many that have come to light as of late. The winner of the 2007 PokerStars WCOOP Main Event also was stripped of his win and huge payday because it was discovered multi-accounting was also involved.
Bluff Magazine told 4flush reporters ““Bluff Media in no way, shape, or form condones the actions of Chris Vaughn. We were extremely unhappy, and disappointed. However we feel that Chris has always acted in a professional manner at BLUFF in the past, and we have no plans for terminating his employment with the company. He has been given a warning, and is on probation. We hope that we can all move past this, and learn from it.”
Vaughn still refuses comment.
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He-he. Very-very interesting! Editor of respected poker magazine lies.