Complaint Review: Michael Lester - Las Vegas Nevada

Really Miss Arianna Courte? (Or is it 'Miranda'?) Quite comical that you even took the time and found the need to write this. That is why I titled my response Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned. How about we tell the truth now?? You claim we met at a business app huh??? How about more like It was a DATING APP named TINDER.

You set up a date with me for sushi. In our conversations you mentioned you loved sports and were into race car driving etc. You then mentioned you had other businesses and had money to invest and asked me if I could make you more money with my Sports Handicapping with $5000. I said I am not sure if its even worth it to me and I questioned if I want to do that again with a partner but we agreed we could discuss it at dinner. I did not pray on you or come after you for money in any way.

Then I got sick and had to cancel our dinner date. At which point, you went completely off on me, a complete 180. I apologized and said we could reschedule.  (I guess this is when you looked me up and saw this report). You then were rude and hung up on me and wouldnt take my calls or texts.

That is when I said I am glad we didn't meet, you were not my type with this attitude, that you act like you are above everyone. This obviously set you off even more, as you found the need to write about me here over nothing really LOL. A police restraining order? Are you crazy? I would never have anything to do with you and your mean attitude. I have zero interest nor would I ever contact you again ever.

Lastly, you titled this 'Still at it'... Is that so? How bout for the real and truthful update on what's been happening in my life since this report came out: I have not worked with any investors in MANY, many years. Seeing how these people respond IF you lose their money trying your best while gambling I learned just was not for me. I do not play Poker (or Blackjack) or take investors/backers money anymore, as it increases the stress of an already hard job. I have been on my own and doing just fine on my own all these years. I focus on Sports Handicapping now and Sports Consulting.

I help people to win by advising them who to bet on. I am not a con man or a scam artist at all. I have no criminal background at all. Those that know me know my skills and passions for this work. They also know I am glued to the games and studying all the sports lines day in and day out. I work tirelessly at this year round. If you care to look a small sample size of my stats you can go to a website for Professional Sports Bettors called Cappertek.

Jmaguire11.cappertek.com is my individual site to my picks and history. There is no Ripoff or scamming involved in any way. Maybe next time dont believe everything you read and remember there are TWO sides to every story. That is all I have to say about that.

  I met Mike on a business app. He seemed okay so we exchange numbers. After I did my research on him and found out that he was a scam artist, I politely told him that I wasn't interested in doing business with him. I'm a relatively attractive professional female and he expressed that he had other interests besides business in me. Which I ignored.

It's been over a month and I've had to block his phone number, he calls me from private number every single day and leaves outrageous voicemails and threats. I have gone to the police and I'm going to get a restraining order. Even though I don't live anywhere full time, this has to stop.

I can imagine that I'm not the first or the last woman he will do this to. I have about a hundred voicemails from him.

Hello, thought you victims of this awful scammer might like an update on what Lester has been up to.

The story:

Lester plays free online poker for play money through pokerstars.com/net EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK. I know this because I am a frequent player there myself, and I have only rarely not run into him at the 9-man sit n go games. He is an awful staple there, and well known to the regulars on certain levels of the site. 

Playing under the username "JMAGUIRE11," his M.O. is to constantly berate other players by telling them (in all caps) "HOW MUCH YOU SUCK AND I AM AWESOME AT POKER, I PLAY IN $100k GAMES IN VEGAS, BRO." Or, comments along the lines of "DUDE YOU COULDN'T HANG WITH ME, I BASICALLY OWN THE POKER ROOM AT BELLAGIO, BRO." He also likes to challenge other users to compare bank accounts (bro.)

Lester is VERY fun to get wound up, and making him tilt is as easy as suggesting that he is in fact a BAD player. When this happens, he tends to play horribly and declare that he "CHALLENGES ANYONE TO COME TO VEGAS SO WE CAN PLAY HEADS UP, BRO." He even is generous to offer to pay for flights and accomidations. Making Lester angry online is a very fun and easy passtime to say the least. 

One night, after trolling "JMAGUIRE11" into a frenzy, he was stupid enough to spam his personal phone number in the chatbox of an international, online play money poker site in order to "CHALLANGE THE LOSERS" of said free money online poker. Intrigued by the brazen act of idiocy, I googled his phone number and found this website. Needless to say, pointing out to him that the first google results for this number was scamreport.com immediately ENRAGED him and he promptly stacked off all of his chips. 

The only thing left for me to add is that this guy really isn't very good at poker at all. In fact I have logged over 200 sit n go games with him over about a year, and my stats tracking software informs me that I have lasted longer than him in about 80% of the games we have played ranking him exactly in the bottom 22% of opponents played by me; I am in no way an exceptional poker player.

He also seems to have a pretty funny temper, and is constantly getting made fun of at the tables. I can't think of a single other player tilts so badly online, and I've become familiar with scores of regulars. I'd also like to reiterate that between sessions of "MAKING MILLIONS AT THE BELLAGIO, BRO" he is online at the play money pokerstars site at least 6 days a week from about 9:00PM onwards. Where oh where does he find the time?

Again, if anybody wants to find this guy he plays the play money poker side of Pokerstars.net nightly under the username "JMAGUIRE11."

Hello "Barry"

Your timeline of events sure is interesting because Lester was working with me at the same time he was working with you.  And between April of 2008 and September of 2008 he couldn't make the rent and supposedly filed for bankruptcy.  It sure is amazing that he could be both a prince and a pauper at the same time.  And then for the next 2 years contact me every few months asking for more money to restart his gambling project.  Isn't this the same time that he was  making oodles of money for you, "Barry"?  All people have to do is read my post with Lester's sordid emails and compare Lester's own words with your success story.

I am glad that you made money from Mike but I am skeptical of that! Here is why. Mike started with me doing online poker and sports betting and this was during Basketball, he failed miserably. the excuse was his parents were getting divorced, then his girlfriend and he broke up, then his had had a heart attack, then his mom had health issues, then he had to move home to help his parents financially. it was lie after lie after lie. Mike pulled out of Online poker and sports betting to concentrate on poker but he failed miserably at that as well. He went from I would never gamble with more than 2% of our bankroll which was $8500 to losing every dime or lying about losing and pocketed the $. What PROFESSIONAL gambler loses and entire bankroll not to mention the additional $14,500 that he said he was up? I am a business owner and I have recovered his SS # and ol' Mike will be getting a w-9 for the entire amount that he was entrusted with. its not much but it's a chunk of change that he will have to pay taxes on. I do not believe that Mike was that successful.......EVER! I have since found 3 additional people that have lost $ w/ Mike not to mention the gentleman that made another post about Mike. How is it that there are a Handful of people that want a piece of Mike over their $ and you come in and say he did wonders for you. Nothing personal but I would bet that you like know Mike on a personal level, if you are not simply Mike in disguise. He is a POS and I have made it my mission to inform everybody, including his parents of exactly what and who their son is. For the record, if you look in LA's financial services section, wonder boy is at it in LA as well. I will flag and post replies on every post and ad I find of his. He is a crook and a con man. I have called him, numerous times and he will not take my calls. DO NOT TRUST THIS CON!

I just wanted to briefly state my experience with Mike Lester. I found Mike on Craigslist years ago answering his ad for a backer and then met him in person at a Sportsbook in Las Vegas. I personally cannot speak to Mikes Poker play or card playing abilities because I never personally watched him play. I did however use Mike for his Sports Handicapping services from June 2008- August 2010, so just over 2 years. I have to say he did amazingly well for me in that time period. Football was his weakest sport, which was unfortunate because it was my favorite sport to watch but in the other sports he was extremely consistent. I dont want to state the exact amount of money he made for me but it was well beyond the amount you guys state you lost working with him. I felt so confident in him that after 6 months of his picks I started giving his plays to my friends as well, because he had a proven track record at that point and in my mind it would continue to be successful. They obviously made money because of Mike as well. We parted ways on good terms last summer because Mike stated he now had a solid bankroll built up and wanted to focus fully on Poker. I respected that and I figured he wouldnt work with me forever, hoped but knew he wouldn't settle for just a percentage in time. It is unfortunate to see this news on here and see that some money was lost. He was always reachable for conversation via email or phone and seemed to be fully focused on our business and the task at hand day in and day out. I guess I was one of the lucky ones then, I could not have been happier with his performance and the results we achieved together.

Terry ~ I am sorry to hear about your recent run-in with Lester and that you were swindled out of your money.  It's unfortunate that you were not able to read about my experience with Lester before investing in his "business" idea.  For those of you out there who wish to read more about this prolific liar and cheat, my report is listed under Michael Adam Lester.  His picture is in my report.  I'm sure he will soon be responding in like fashion to your report and telling the world that you should be a man and contact him directly to get your money back.  If all of his victims band together, perhaps we can take our case to the IRS.  We won't get our money back but maybe we can put him away so others don't get scammed too.  
~ Fong