Raking the Muck is the Substack from Haley Hintze – a veteran writer of nearly 25 years in the poker and gambling worlds, widely acclaimed for her investigative reporting. That’s not a ticket to getting rich, but some stories still need the telling. On Bluesky @haleyhintze.bsky.social.
Check out some of the latest Raking the Muck poker stories from Haley
- Jordan Cristos and Antagonism’s Diminishing Returns – 23 October 2025 – Cristos will be sentenced next week after pleading guilty to sending threats to the WPT’s CEO, Adam Pliska.
- Newsom signs California online-sweeps ban into law – 16 Ocboer 2025 – Unless a last-gasp legal ploy is mounted by the sweeps industry, California’s new anti-sweeps law goes into effect at the start of 2026.
- Killer of Susie Zhao denied in final appeal attempt – 15 September 2025 – Brutal murderer and torturer Jeffery Bernard Morris will serve life in prison without parole after Michigan Supreme Court declines to hear case
- Louisiana sues Global Poker parent VGW for over $30 million – 8 September 2025 – Virtual Gaming Worlds is one of two offshore sweeps companies targeted by state’s Department of Revenue over unpaid sales taxes
- How NOT to fake a kidnapping, poker-style -26 August 2025 – Michigan’s George Janssen, a four-time WSOP Circuit ring winner, pleads guilty in load-fraud case after faking being kidnapped in a story that was always way too stupid to believe.
- Gilbert’s Gripe: Ex-NBA star Arenas denies being involved in operating illegal poker games at his home – 3 August 2025 – Controversial former pro faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of being one of game’s operators and lying to federal investigators
- Buh-bye, Will Kassouf – 14 July 2025 – In celebration of the Main Event bustout of one of poker’s most despised players, Britain’s Will “Palm Sunday” Kassouf, here are a couple of personal Kassouf anecdotes.
- WSOP to ClubWPT Gold: ‘Hold my beer.’ – 13 July 2025 – Players cry foul over poorly thought out main-event ‘bubble boy’ promo
- The ClubWPT Gold promo tiff: player bans become corporate response by proxy – 9 July 2025 – The fallout from the end of the WSOP’s Millionaire Maker event finds both players banned from the WSOP and all Caesars properties, while the Milly Maker ends with no official winner.
- Cheating scheme uncovered at Houston’s Jokerstars poker club, but incident also raises more questions about room – 2 July 2025 – Three players found to have inserted an altered deck into a cash game then used cell phones to collude and cheat. The details, though, venture into the weird.
- Yo, Adrian – 24 June 2025 – Adrian Peterson can’t help find controversy, whether in football or poker
- The 2025 Poker Hall of Fame: The Doyle Bloc’s last hurrah? – 19 June 2025 – The best ‘rookie class’ in PHOF history will result in a lot of split ballots, though it says here that the old-timer-loving Doyle Bloc will again unite and elect a different finalist
- Connecticut measure banning online sweepstakes sites signed into law – 17 June 2025 – ClubWPT Gold’s Nutmeg State players likely to have accounts closed by September 30, 2025
- Meetings, meetings, everywhere (A/K/A: The Dave Woods Chronicles, Part 1) – 12 June 2025 Having poker.org switch its de facto news editor, from poker’s most elite writer/editor to a ham-fisted middle manager most concerned about traffic stats, marked the day I knew my time was limited.
- The other snafu at the 2025 WSOP – 29 May 2025 – Almost every WSOP kicks off with one or more press releases about the series’ partner(s), but 2025’s first partner PR is a head-scratcher.
- How I once ended up writing for a grey-market online-poker site without even knowing it – 22 May 2025 – Well, at least it wan’t Bovada
- VGW, Ryan Seacrest named in California lawsuit – 5 May 2025 – Suit among dozens against VGW alleging illegal real-money gambling
- Nacho Best Run, Barbero – 25 April 2025 – ACR Poker’s prominent Argentinian brand representative axed after on-stream gaffe about site’s pursuit of RTA cheaters.
- Investing in Expired Poker Chips for Fun and Not Much Profit – 20 April 2025 – The four-decade saga of the old Playboy Casino’s poker chips re-emerges via New Jersey court case
- A good ‘Florida Man’ poker story! – 14 April 2025 – Veteran Orlando-area cash-game pro Ricky Pyne helps recapture man during arrest
- Florida Man Arrested for Laundering Underground Poker-Game Proceeds – 10 April 2025 – Police infiltrate long-running poker operation
- Slammer Time for the Presumptive ‘Pill Ivey’ – 31 March 2025 – Six years in a Spanish prison for Salman Behbehani in drug-smuggling case
- The $50 Million Poker Tournament Win That Never Was – 28 March 2025 – Sturgeon’s Law declares that 90 percent of everything is crap. When it comes to online publishing done primarily for SEO purposes, that bar is likely set way too low.