Tommy Tallarico was once famous for his long-running series of video game music concerts and impressive list of composing credits, but in more recent times, his name has become associated with fraudulent claims and the ill-fated Intellivision Amico.
The full scale of Tallarico's career of deception was exposed by the YouTuber HBomberguy three years ago, and since then, he has stepped away from the world of video games to reposition himself as a backgammon champion.
It appears that HBomberguy's exposé has hit Tallarico so hard that he's now participating in backgammon events under the name 'Sammy Salazar'.
A post on Reddit (thanks, Alex Donaldson) flagged that, during a match at the 2025 Players Cup Miami between "Sammy Salazar vs Jay Levy", Tallarico's voice is clearly heard at several points, making it pretty clear that he's one of the players taking part.
If you need more evidence, then another video uploaded a few days ago which lists the participants as Tommy Tallarico vs Kit Woolsey" should seal it – the name card shown in the footage says Sammy Salazar and not Tommy Tallarico. Other videos (one of which goes as far back as 2023) give us more evidence.
Perhaps Tallarico is spicing things up a little on the backgammon circuit by adopting a stage name, but a more likely explanation is that he's realised his real moniker carries too much stigma, even away from the world of video gaming.