And they did in this alleged scam involving Erik Sagstrom. Back in 2003, it’s claimed that Erik and five other poker players were invited to play in an ultra-high stakes game by another well-known Swedish player. The game would include a billionaire American fish, which was the hook that got the players interested in the private game.

According to reports that have surfaced on the internet, the game was due to take place in the Swedish player’s family hotel, where a room had been rigged with cameras, audio and video equipment and a marked deck, which members of the team would use to communicate which cards were in play.

The scam fell apart when the players were unwilling to leave a game they were playing in at a local cardroom. The players who were stuck wanted to carry on playing, so they suggested the American was brought to them, only to be told the game could only happen at the hotel. This raised the group’s suspicions and the game fell through.

That would have been that but news of the scam hit the internet when infighting caused one of the alleged cheats to post on the popular rec.gambling. poker newsgroup. The information in his post was later confirmed in an online interview with Sagstrom, who believed he was the group’s main target.