Nick Vertucci, one of the co-owners of the popular poker livestream Hustler Casino Live (HCL), has been relieved of his duties with the show after coming under fire over allegations that he sexually harassed female players.
Julia McBride, a lawyer who appeared on the show 20 times from July 2022 to June 2024, posted screenshots of a text conversion with Vertucci.
In the messages, Vertucci made unwanted advances, despite McBride’s repeated rejection.
A few days later, HCL announced on social media that Vertucci will “no longer be involved” with High Stakes Poker Productions, LLC, the owner of the livestream.
Key Highlights
- Julia McBride posted screenshots of unwanted, sexualized messages from Nick Vertucci.
- She believes she was banned from Hustler Casino Live because she repeatedly rejected him.
- McBride hopes other women will speak out about similar issues they have had with Vertucci.
- Poker pro Kitty Kuo said Vertucci showed her pictures of his genitalia.
Unwanted, Inappropriate Advances
McBride, who went by “Julia from Palmdale” on HCL, decided to “break the silence” on October 5 by posting screenshots of text messages containing evidence of the harassment.
In the conversation from September 21, 2023, Vertucci asked McBride if she was playing poker that night and if she was “brining [sic] the cleavage.” He followed up by complimenting her figure and asking if she still had a boyfriend.
McBride stayed polite, but Vertucci continued, saying, “We could have so much fun. Ok well I’ll see you there now I have to find a way to focus.”
After that came even more of an overstep, “Can I get a pregame preview so I could work it out of my system?”
When McBride simply said, “um no,” Vertucci tried to recover, saying, “Sorry my T levels go up when I see you,” and agreed to stop.
Banned From Hustler Casino Live
Naturally, some people who replied to McBride’s post on X questioned why she wasn’t more forceful with Vertucci.
She said that she enjoyed playing on HCL and wanted to continue doing so. She was concerned that she would be banned from the show if she didn’t treat Vertucci with kid gloves.
“I didn’t come out with it a year ago,” McBride told PokerNews. “I wanted to just laugh it off and keep being able to play on the stream.”
I can’t think of any reason he’d be angry at me other than the sexual advances that I declined
– Julia McBride
She added on X that she had told him “no” at leave five times before that text interaction. And he persisted, repeatedly asking her why she wouldn’t accept his advances.
Eventually, McBride was banned from HCL. She does not know why, but she has an idea.
“I can’t think of any reason other than Nick being angry at me, and I can’t think of any reason he’d be angry at me other than the sexual advances that I declined,” McBride explained to PokerNews. “But I don’t know … nobody’s told me why.”
Encouraging Women to Speak Out
On both social media and to PokerNews, McBride said that one reason she decided to speak out now is because she hopes it gives other women the courage to come forward.
She firmly believes that others have had similar experiences with Nick Vertucci. Poker pro Kitty Kuo is one of those women.
Replying to someone else’s post about an incident in which she was involved, Kuo confirmed that on the Live at the Bike livestream before the pandemic, she had a disgusting encounter with Vertucci.
At the poker table, during the stream, he showed her pictures of his genitalia. She insulted the size of his manhood, and he got mad. Kuo added that she does not care if that keeps her off HCL.
“I understand people want to keep their job, they want to keep their ability to play on the stream, they want to keep a good relationship with the Hustler stream,” McBride said in her PokerNews interview. “And so those people, they witnessed things. Many of them have had similar experiences and I understand them not wanting to come forward. But I really hope people will start coming forward.
“And then once a couple do, then we can see change and we can see a positive Hustler stream going forward.”
Sources
https://www.pokernews.com/news/2024/10/nick-vertucci-harassment-allegations-47083.htm
https://x.com/HCLPokerShow/status/1844089870261813711
https://x.com/JuliaInPalmdale/status/1842711801877958658
https://highrollpoker.com/tracker/players/1525
https://x.com/kittykuopoker/status/1843119699347009753
