Rob

Playing the pokers

[Oliver Tree @Olivertree]

Oliver Nickell

June 29th, 1993 – June 14th, 2026

Oliver Tree Nickell, beloved son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, and friend, passed away in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sunday, June 14, 2026, in a tragic accident at the age of 32. Known as Oliver Tree, he was an artist, storyteller, singer, songwriter, producer, director, editor, actor, filmmaker, entertainer, traveler and creative force; he had just performed in São Paulo as part of his 7-continent world tour.

Oliver was born in Santa Cruz, California. From the beginning, Oliver always had the most astonishing and relentless creative drive. He began producing skits, music, and drawings as early as 5 years old. He spent ten years racing BMX, cycle cross, cross country, mountain biking, downhill racing and free-style dirt jumping. Oliver was a DJ in his teenage years and started performing shows under the name "Kryph", where he opened up for big artists in the dance scene. At 17, he signed with R&S Records, under the moniker "Tree", where he put out his first official body of work "Splitting Branches”. During this period, he attended San Francisco State University and later graduated from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 2017. At CalArts, Oliver created the “Oliver Tree” project, which included producing, directing, acting, touring, film-making, and song-writing.

In 2016, “Turbo” was born, a character he developed for the internet, who was loud, colorful, bright and hilarious. That same year, he released his first single on all platforms as Oliver Tree, in collaboration with Whethan titled "When I'm Down". The song became a huge success and went gold. In 2017, Oliver signed with Atlantic Records and shortly after released his first viral hit song “Alien Boy” which was produced with his childhood friend Casey Mattson, as well as frequent collaborator Imad Royal. It was a song that truly encapsulated the Oliver Tree brand. Oliver then went on to release his debut album “Ugly Is Beautiful”, which hit the top 15 of Billboard 200 and reached number 1 on Billboard‘s Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts. Oliver also released a deluxe version of the album which included the song "Life Goes On", a track that was produced with long-time friend and collaborator Getter. This song propelled Oliver into a global audience and was a commercial hit. Followed by the success of Oliver’s song "Miss You”, with Robin Schulz, which became a worldwide hit and was nominated for Best International Song (The BRIT Awards) in 2024.

Oliver never stopped reinventing himself. Each album featured a distinct character in the Oliver Tree universe: Turbo for “Ugly is Beautiful” in 2020, Shawney Bravo for “Cowboy Tears" in 2022, Cornelius Cummings for “Alone in A Crowd" in 2023 up until "Love You Madly Hate You Badly” in 2026, where he removed the fake personas and decided to show the world his true self for his final album which was 100% written and produced by Oliver.

Oliver had a deep curiosity about the world and wanted to experience every country and culture. Over the past two years, Oliver was a global citizen, visiting over 100 countries: eating local cuisine; connecting with locals of all kinds; participating in ceremonies; giving concerts; and recording music on his laptop. He went to the Middle East, sailed in Antarctica and became an honorary Maasai tribal chief in Tanzania.

Oliver was more than a musician; he was a true artist in every sense of the
word, seeing the world as a stage for his performance art. He pushed boundaries in every form of media and life. Oliver was on a mission to bring the world together through art and inspiring other artists to create. Being a forward thinker, Oliver created a non-profit entitled "Dr. Oliver Tree's Extremely Epic Art Grant for Baby Geniuses”. He wanted all of his money to go into funding other aspiring artists in all facets: music, film, installation and performance art projects.

Oliver cared so deeply about spreading art, joy, laughter and love into the world. He blended his characters seamlessly with his authentic self, which left the audience often wondering what is real or a prank. He found beauty in the ordinary and would constantly preach his "Ugly Is Beautiful" mantra on and off stage. He wanted everyone to feel like they had a place to be themselves. Under all the absurdist humor and outlandish stunts, he wanted to create an inclusive environment where everyone belonged and could realize their true potential.

Oliver was a creative force of nature, a true “Alien Boy” among human beings. His imagination was boundless, his laugh was contagious and his creativity and ideas were prolific.

Oliver is survived by his parents, Jesse & Christine Nickell of Santa Cruz, brother Jessup (Zoe), Grandmothers Ann Begin & Lorraine Nickell, Aunts Cynthia Begin, Mia Begin (Bill Schroeder), Uncle Dan Begin (Melissa), Aunts Sheree Kouffeld (Dave Christopher) and Jan Lamascus (Marvin), many beloved cousins, Beth, Breanna, Kaitlin, Kimmy, Maggie, Meadow and Nicolas; and numerous friends worldwide. He considered his team and colleagues his family: Dan Awad, Paul Donatelli; his bandmates: Casey Mattson, Amir Oosman, Jake Jamieson, Jmsey; his creative collaborators: Ethan Snoreck aka Whethan; Ryan Farber; Steve Zilberman; Jacob Dennis; Sebastian Hackett; his love Fiona Chernavskaya, as well as many others who touched his project and helped him execute his vision, who are too innumerable to be named.

We’ll leave you with a quote which Oliver said at almost every show he performed at, his mantra to the world: “No matter how strange you think you look, no matter how ugly you feel, you are beautiful.”

A celebration of his life / memorial service will be held at the UCSC Quarry Amphitheater on July 25th. Due to limited space for family and friends, this event will also be streamed live.

Donations: The family requests donations be made to “Dr. Oliver Tree's Extremely Epic Art Grant for Baby Geniuses”. Oliver’s vision is to support and encourage young artists to follow their dreams. See more at https://t.co/XY1lQhixpQ

[Oliver Tree @Olivertree]

Rest in peace Oliver Tree Nickell June 29th, 1993 - June 14th, 2026

Your legacy will live on forever ❤️ Thank you to everyone who has reached out, shown love, support and has done incredible tributes for Oliver. The constant love, support and positivity is helping the family, friends and collaborators make it through these extremely difficult times.

Oliver is now back in California where he can finally rest. His legacy will live on through his foundation/endowment named “Dr. Oliver Tree’s Extremely Epic Grant For Baby Geniuses” coming soon. This is something that Oliver had put together before his passing, written in his will. We will make sure his wish comes to fruition so that more joy, love and art can be spread into the world, that was his final wish.

Love you all so much, Oliver would be so proud of every one of his supporters, friends and family.

Peace be with Oliver … ❤️

[Rob @ROBMCMURREN]

@WPN_CEO Feel better soon Phil!

[Rob @ROBMCMURREN]

@WPN_CEO @iPlayPLO Some kinda fun promo or marketing to juice up cash game traffic beyond majorly reg-only games. Enjoy the site a lot though and the low rake Phil!

[Made In Canada @MadelnCanada]

Us Canadians all have to do our part 🇨🇦

[Rob @ROBMCMURREN]

@CoinPoker_OFF @AbsoluteTopUp It might be fun to include how many hands each person has played so far in the daily update as well

[Tommy Siegel @TommySiegel]

a thread of some of my dumbest bird-related comics of late

[Rob @ROBMCMURREN]

@KevinRobMartin Is this just speculation that it's soon based on that article or do you have insider info? Not excited if this is truly happening

[Rob @ROBMCMURREN]

@CoinPoker_OFF Realistically I think creating software that is very fun and friendly to play while also marketing hard to get a committed recreational base of players would be the biggest impact for growing the site. HS arena could be fun but needs to be executed/marketed to railbirds well too

[Rob @ROBMCMURREN]

@George_ymb @GGPoker So ridiculous. Endless greed

[Mobius Poker @mobiuspoker]

Players Report Bots and Colluders Bypassing Ignition’s Security to Steal Hundred of Thousands of Dollars

Players have sent evidence of cheating to @IgnitionCasino and have not been refunded. This thread will share that evidence.

Please consider liking this post for visibility.

[Mike Posner @MikePosner]

on my 26th birthday, i wrote I Took A Pill in Ibiza…10 years ago. The song became popular several years after i wrote it. Yesterday i celebrated my 36th birthday. i feel proud to look at the song lyrics and know that NONE of them are true anymore. I’ve grown into a completely new man…one that i’m proud of. check this out… 🧵

[Mobius Poker @mobiuspoker]

ACR does in fact have a major bot problem

It's disappointing that their security team cannot see this, when so much work in discovering these bot rings has already been done for them by members of the community

There is enough evidence at this point that it would only take me about 10 minutes to convince any reasonable person beyond reasonable doubt that ACR has many bots at low-mid stakes. However, to share this information publicly would also educate bot rings on how to avoid detection in the future

I can sort of understand the thinking behind proposing a challenge like this, but it is totally unnecessary and will only further erode players' trust in game integrity

The sense I get from @ACR_POKER is that they are trying to keep the games safe, but they simply don't have the resources right now. If ACR is serious about solving this problem, please reach out to me. My DMs are open

P.S. Please consider liking this post for visibility!

[Rob @ROBMCMURREN]

@CMONEYMAKER @berkey11 You as in anyone repping acr or your security team*

[Rob @ROBMCMURREN]

@CMONEYMAKER @berkey11 Did you reach out to the OP on twoplustwo for in depth reports on how he found the bots playing on your site ? Have you ignored these reports in the past ?

[Mobius Poker @mobiuspoker]

This post is to raise awareness around the apparent recent spike of collusion on Ignition/Bodog. Likes and reposts are much appreciated

In the past, Ignition has generally done a good job at policing games (imo) and has offered generous refunds when cheating has occurred

Lately, collusion has reached what I consider to be nearly unplayable levels. No one in my network has been issued a refund despite consistently reporting blatant collusion like the examples below:

[Phil Galfond @PhilGalfond]

Wow.

Suspected superuser on GG Poker:

https://t.co/l2DWboRlbz

We haven’t seen a superuser scandal in MANY years.

Last time, the players uncovered it. If these stats are accurate, evidence looks strong & well-gathered - nice work!

I expect GG will get to the bottom of it.

[florescent @florscnt]

I used to be a fan of yours when i was younger, seeing the person you portray yourself as and the person you are becoming over the last couple years is quite sad, you are OVER double my age and yet you act like a child on the internet all day. I’m not one to hate much but I genuinely feel bad for the minorities/lgbt/poc you had to work with in your career, something im sure you dont care about though, wonder how they think of you now. Please take a look in the mirror, bigotry and sexism isnt generally considered being a “cool kid” (also im too young to play top level valorant and i can guarantee you i will be there and do just fine 🥰)

[Rob @ROBMCMURREN]

@Barry_Carter Assuming gto wizard works with the site all it takes to clear your name is them confirming it isn't your gto wiz account, no?

[Rob @ROBMCMURREN]

@MikeHoltzPoker Do you have examples with turn and rivers matching? Cuts down on false positives by a massive amount