португальский вундеркинд Жозе оказался крысой

"Makes the most sense. Someone saw an opportunity to build up a young, photogenic, hard-working poker player into the "next big thing". Another Isuldur. But this time one that would be managed from the background by a small team of expert handlers. Think of a one-man Menudo, or Back Street Boys if you will....

The handlers build him up (marketing hype), train him, finance him, etc. And for their efforts they take a piece of the action (winnings, salary, appearances, coaching fees, etc.).

Perhaps Jose even came up with the idea himself. He was clearly desperate for more training, he clearly wanted to hang with the elite. Giving up a percentage of future earnings to ensure it happens probably seemed like a great idea to him.

As things progress (or, rather, as things fail to progress as fast as desired), it becomes necessary to commit a few "minor" offenses, such as playing for the kid on occasion, etc., but this is justified because "lots of people do it." One minor offense leads to bigger offenses, etc. Or perhaps the plan all along was to use this kid to commit larger frauds. Since Jose was clearly a scammer, something his backers must have realized early on, they were not worried that he would refuse to play along.... In fact, he was the perfect mark, since the guilty can rarely come clean.

So on it goes, the kid is watching all this play out, not really making the money he expected, not getting the respect, still stuck at mid-stakes, and sees a chance to do his own scamming. Perhaps it was to impress his backers as a surprise at his own creativity and ingenuity, or as further argument that they should be financing him at higher stakes. At heart he's a con man, so the Skype scam seemed like a no brainer (which, of course, it was).... So he goes rogue for 50k USD (or whatever he managed to steal), and screws everything up.... Perhaps even psychologically he wanted to get caught, got sick of living this particular lie, and subconsciously committed such a joke scam, guaranteed to get caught. Who knows?

Clearly the kid is guilty from day one, a liar and a scammer. The backers' guilt (whoever they may be) is much harder to ascertain. Perhaps serial multi-accounting? Perhaps chip dumping?

Was the plan to put Jose in position as a well-known high stakes player (Isuldur II) so massive scams could be run, worth many millions? Or was it all to get the kid to superstar status, being content with a percentage of his future revenue, legitimately earned, with only a few minor offenses being committed along the way, just to get him into the elite?

Hard to say... Even harder to prove. Unless Jose starts talking. Or one of the backers - perhaps one with a more minor role? - decides to come clean".