Questioning the Sites Part I

PokerStars.com (Part I)

(UltimateBet and FullTilt will be parts II and III, if and when I ever get
emails back from them)

Email sent 2/20/06:

To Whom It May Concern,

As I'm sure you're support department is aware, a well known online player named JJProdigy has admitted guilt to cheating in the 2/12/06 PartyPoker 500K guaranteed by playing multiple accounts, and has had his accounts closed and has been banned by Party Poker.

Therefore, my question to PokerStars is: What are your policies on this form of cheating and do you plan on banning this player from your site since he's been banned from PartyPoker, as UltimateBet does?

Reply #1:

Hello Tanya,

We also do not allow players to play multiple accounts within the same
tournament. With that said, we are not prepared to divulge information about another players account based on incidents that occurred at another site.

Regards,
LarryPokerStars Support Team

My reply:

Larry,

That is understandable so maybe you can tell me PokerStars policy in general, not on a particular player. For example, UltimateBet states quite clearly in their terms and conditions that if a player is banned from another site then they may ban them as well, does PokerStars have any set guidelines or rules in general for players who have been found to have been banned on another site?

Thanks,
Tanya Peck

Reply #2:

Hello Tanya,

I think it is best for our Poker Room manager to continue this discussion. I have forwarded your email to Lee Jones for consideration.

Regards,

LarryPokerStars Support Team

Reply #3:

Hi Tanya -
Thank you for reporting this to us. Needless to say, we're aware of the situation regarding the player known as "JJProdigy". We are reviewing his play on PokerStars and will take action based on what (if anything) we find. We can not use public reports as our evidence - only as a starting point for our own investigation.

Again, I appreciate your contacting us; you can be sure that we are taking this review seriously.

Best regards,

Lee Jones

My reply:

Lee,

I had no doubt that PokerStars was aware of the situation and is probably doing an investigation of their own specifically in regards to JJProdigy, but my biggest question right now is not specifically against him, but in general.

If a player is banned from another online site, does PokerStars have any policy of also being able to ban that player on PS, even if no rule infarctions was found to have occurred on PS? I ask this because UltimateBet has this policy and was curious if PS had this policy as well.

Thank you for your time,

Tanya Peck

Reply #4:

Hi Tanya -No, we would not bar a player simply because he/she had been barred by another site. Barring a player from our site is a strong and drastic step - before we took it, we would have to have our own confirmation that this player was indeed cheating. And that would require us to find evidence of our own, within PokerStars.

Best regards,
Lee Jones

Also received in email regarding the similarity of JJProdigy and El Capitan / Exclusive incidents:

Sent:

This was posted on RGP. Is it true? If so, it makes partypoker look better and better.

"I never heard much about the incident regarding Exclusive and El Capitano, with Noah Boeken playing both accounts and winninga Sunday $215. So I wasn't aware of the similarities between that incident and the incident with JJProdigy.

As found on www.PocketFives.com :

"Ok guys , ill explain it all to ya. El capitano is registered as Marcel Luske's account but he doesnt use it much because he hasnt got much time to play online.Last sunday a friend of mine was here and right before the 215 on stars was about to start i asked him if he wanted to play on el capitano next to me so we would have 2 shots on winning and i would pretty much play 2 accounts at once because i was helping my friend out what to do, as soon as i busted on exclusive in 600t i took over the el capitano account and took it down :) Hope u guys enjoyed the show and hope ill be back soon on whatever account ;)

Noah "exclusive" boeken

www.noahboekenpoker.com "

So, here we have an incident where Noah admitted to playing on two accounts, two entries, into a PS event.

What's the difference between the two incidents? Nothing, as far as I can see.

However, PS never did anything while PP took measurements which seem to have sit well with the online poker community (except for with JJ's friends, of course).

A few questions, did PS ever say anything in regards to Noah's admission and how does the general online poker community feel about PS not doing anything while PP took the actions it did?

I admit to being surprised and impressed by PP stance, but now that I know about PS and how they didn't do anything, I feel a little leery about PS and PS is my ALL TIME favorite site.

What say you??

PS Response:

Thank you for your Email. While the two cases do share a degree of similarity, they are not identical.

In the PartyPoker case, the account was created by JJProdigy ostensibly for his grandmother, but was in fact never used by the grandmother. It was used exclusively by JJProdigy on a regular basis in more than this one event. It was therefore a second account of JJProdigy's created with the sole purpose to play multiple entries in tournaments.

In the Exclusive/El Capitano case, the two accounts were clearly owned and used by two different individuals. El Capitano was not a front for Exclusive to use, but was in fact Marcel Luske's real account, played by Exclusive on that one occasion.

At the time of the Exclusive/El Capitano incident, the rules on PokerStars were unclear as to whether this was a violation of the rules. While we take the integrity of our games very seriously, we also could not take lightly the decision to confiscate a player's money when there was no clear rule forbidding his action.

As a result of the El Capitano/Exclusive incident, our rules regarding such matters were strengthened and clarified. The new rule is our tournament rule #21, which you may read here: http://www.pokerstars.com/tournamentsrules.html

Had the Exclusive incident occurred under these new rules, I am certain that the outcome would have been the same -- Exclusive would have been disqualified, his winnings confiscated, and the rest of the field moved up.

Had the JJProdigy incident occurred on PokerStars, we would have disqualified JJProdigy under both our old rules and the new rules that grew out of the El Capitano incident. JJProdigy's possession and use of two accounts would have been a violation of our rules at all times.

PokerStars will not tolerate cheating of this nature, and we take our obligation to ensure a fair game for all very seriously. We appreciate your concerns, and we thank you for your kind words regarding PokerStars.

Best Regards,
JeffPokerStars Support Supervisor