A couple well known online players, 20 year old ZeeJustin (Justin Bonomo) and 16 year old JJProdigy, were caught cheating on both PartyPoker and PokerStars. Both were caught playing mutple accounts at once within the same tournament. Both have won huge online tournaments and have won hundreds of thousands of dollars. Bonomo even admitted to being at the same table with himself in some of these tournaments, somehow tried to justify his actions, and even posted a rather in depth response online.
Check out the entire discussion on the 2+2 forums. Bill on Bill’s Poker Blog responds nicely to Justin’s response from the 2+2 forums. (I even snagged Justin’s picture from his blog).
This week in poker goes a little more in depth to discuss the actions of PartyPoker vs PokerStars. PartyPoker siezed all money in each of these players accounts reguardless of how the money got there. It could have been deposited, won legitimately, or won with while cheating. PokerStars however did a bit of research and only confiscated the funds it found to have been won illicitly. Both sites banned the players permanantly.
This is a tricky situation - I do believe a player should be punished in some way besides giving back money that was won by cheating. What amount exactly? Well this amount (and probably jail time) is usually determined by a court in the region of the incident. However, online gambling sites are not located in the United States because online gambling is illegal in this country. Neither the sites nor the players have a legal system to turn to to rectify any wrong-doings.
Here are my favorite quotes from Bonomo’s response on 2+2:
I have been at the same table as myself. For what it’s worth, my standard protocol has been to increase my number of tables when this happens. As most of you know, I will very rarely be playing fewer than six tables at a time. If I had 6 tables open and two of my accounts were brought to the same table, I would simply open up 4-6 more SNGs. I felt that this would negate my unethical advantage. With 10 tables open, I just play tight and solid. I can’t even remember the hole cards one account folded after the flop, and I’m certainly unable to pay special attention to that table.
…
Secondly, almost all of you have broken the rules at some point. How many of you have created a second account for rakeback? Neither creating a second account nor receiving rakeback is allowed. Both are expressly forbidden. Maybe you’ll see things my way once all your money is seized for doing that. If I’m a cheater, so are you.
…
Furthermore, I would like to point out, that I did NOT break the rules.
So cheating is OK as long as you make an attempt to negate your advantage somehow….right - I’m sure Bonomo wasn’t playing multiple accounts to get an unfair advantage, he just wanted to add some more money to the prize pool to entice more players into the tournament. In his second quote Bonomo begins pointing fingers…”everyone is doing it, everyone is guilty, wah wah wah”. Quit your crying, sack up and take it like a man. Quote number three…last time I checked, playing multiple hands at a single poker table is cheating plain and simple. I don’t know exactly what the specific language is in Party and Stars rules, but I do know it is against the rules of the game and is very unethical. I don’t care what the rule says (although I am positive he broke them) this is completely and utterly wrong.
I’m sure both JJProdigy and ZeeJustin are great players…They were probably even winning money before they started cheating. Money can do strange things to people and I’m sure a bit of greed set in. Both players got what they deserved and hopefully this will stop others from attempting similar actions.
I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.
after the river…