GPL Chief Alex Dreyfus Slow-Plays Cash Trade with Fedor Holz, Hendrik Latz

Early Saturday, September 3rd, high profile poker players Hendrik “ValueH” Latz and Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz released statements accusing Global Poker League chief Alex Dreyfus of delaying payment on two separate cash trades for a period of nearly three months.

The accusations were confirmed as true and apologized for by The Hendon Mob and Global Poker Index head two hours later. In his apology post, Dreyfus stated that he and the GPL have “had a tough summer and a lot of things didn’t work out as planned.”

Who is Alex Dreyfus and What is the Global Poker League?

Dreyfus is the current managing executive of the Global Poker Index (live tournament rankings), The Hendon Mob (live tournament results database), European Poker Awards and American Poker Awards. The Global Poker League, which had a disappointing inaugural season, is also headed by poker’s most well-known entrepreneur.

The 38-year old original founder of Winamax is most famous for his mantra to “sportify” poker through the GPL and its showcase arena, The Cube. His vision has been to transform the Global Poker League into a premier, live and virtual circuit tour akin to the UFC, PGA, MLB, and so on.

WTF!? What Happened?

Roughly three months ago, Dreyfus approached high stakes poker player Hendrik Latz and requested a $20,000 USD trade from the well-known German player — in exchange for an equivalent Euro bank transfer amount to be sent the same day. Latz personally handed over the cash to Dreyfus in Las Vegas, and continued his summer poker grind without giving the matter more thought.

However, five weeks later, Latz and fellow poker pro “BBVisbadforme” discovered when doing internal accounting that the bank transfer was never received. They reached out to Dreyfus, who explained that the GPL had been “struggling” and that he would not be able to complete his end of the trade until the end of August — offering to pay interest along with the original amount.

Upon discussing the most appropriate course of action with his colleagues, Latz was made aware that a similar scenario was playing out with $20 million live tournament winner Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz — who was approached by Dreyfus for a $10,000 trade on June 3rd. Holz completed his end of the transfer with Dreyfus and received a message back that the Mediarex Sports & Entertainment CEO would send an equivalent amount “next week.”

Nearly two months later, Holz received an unexpected notification from Dreyfus apologizing for lack of payment — which up to that point Holz assumed had already been made. Dreyfus likewise requested a delay, then on August 27th the two pros learned of their respective situation and applied further pressure by demanding immediate payment.

After agreeing to send the funds on August 31st, Dreyfus transferred separate payments in full (along with 5% interest) to Holz and Latz, but was notified Thursday, September 1st that the story would be made public on the TwoPlusTwo NVG boards.

Upswing Poker Pros Have Questions

Shortly after Latz posted the thread informing the community of Dreyfus’ late payment on a declared-trade, both Doug Polk and Ryan Fee submitted direct questions for Dreyfus in the official 2+2 thread.

Doug Polk: Did [the affected players] agree on interest or did you decide that for them?

Ryan Fee: Did you know that you weren’t going to send the same day when you made the agreement?

As of Saturday afternoon Pacific Time, those two questions have gone unanswered by Dreyfus, who posted that he is “not intending to add any comment publicly on this” aside from his sole response and that the “matter is settled” in his view.

Team Upswing’s favorite straight-talker Jason Mo also entered the thread — suggesting Dreyfus could have received preferable rates on a personal loan from the 2015 APPT Seoul winner as opposed to the 5% vigorish paid on a declared-trade agreement.

TwoPlusTwo is Not For Sale

In a surprising revelation, TwoPlusTwo Publishing owner Mason Malmuth confirmed that Dreyfus has previously inquired about purchasing the TwoPlusTwo website, which is a separate entity from the Publishing business.

Malmuth’s selection of forum options is telling, as it comes in direct reply to Old Hand member jasbral.

Upswing Editorial?

Serious questions are being brought up in the TwoPlusTwo thread, yet Dreyfus should be afforded a reasonable amount of time to address those community concerns as they arise. Only a few hours have passed since the thread was created at the time this article is being published Saturday afternoon Pacific time.

With that in mind, the aim of this article is to inform our readers of this current event in an efficient, concise manner that reflects that spirit of open communication shown by Hendrik Latz, Fedor Holz, and BBVisbadforme.

We will update our readers when more information is made available.

(If you’re interested in improving your poker game, check out the Upswing Lab! Doug Polk and Ryan Fee collaborated on this A to Z training course and the great reviews keep rolling in! Check out our Upswing Lab testimonials page here)