Long time 2+2 reader, first time poster.

I originally started playing pokerstars a few years ago and signed up an account using my exact name, firstmiddlelast, and after a while of playing I thought that might have been a bad idea, so I stopped playing on that account, and started a new one under an alias.

I've been a losing player up until a few months ago, and never attempted to cash out. Now I have a sizable bankroll, and have just found out you are not allowed to have two pokerstars accounts, so I am unsure what I should do.

Will pokerstars listen to my case, and after investigating, and seeing that the two accounts were never used at the same time, or table, process the cashout, or am I screwed?

I became a wining player after watching a few podcasts, signing up to tutorial sites like TPE, and then adjusting my game. None of my winnings will look fishy.


So...in your opinion, what is my best option here?

come clean, stars would have most likely allowed you to change your name in the first place had you messaged them. AS long as you have not been playing on both accounts you *should* be ok

If you try anything shady - chipdumping, player transfers etc with sizeable amounts of money you will get caught 99% of the time i imagine

I think it could be difficult to cash out from your account if you have used a fake name anyway... however I would say the best chance you have of getting your money is explaining your situation to Stars. I don't think they will confiscate your money, but you may find that one or both of your accounts are locked as a result and you will have to find a new site to play on. The standard FTP response was to lock the newest account and move the funds to your original account, though it would not surprise me if Stars had a different procedure.

Sorry, I did not mean that the name assoicated with the account was fake, just that the screen name, is a username now, and not my legal name.

I am currently writing up an email to send off to pokerstars support.

Thanks for all the information you guys have provided so far.

Be 100% honest it's your only option. If you stopped playing account #1 completely after creating account #2, just explain to them why you did it, and you wont have a problem. If you did play on account #1 after opening the new account, my guess is we wont be seeing you at Stars tables again.

I've just emailed them and will update this thread once I get a response.

@P0lar_Bear, I wish I had considered emailing them to change my original account name, but I was new to online poker, and figured it would be more of a hassel for them, when I could just resign up in under 5minutes.

Anyways, I understand I made a mistake, and it's my problem. As I mentioned before, I appreciate everyones responses.

worst idea ever you were better off shipping it back to your first account and attempting to cash out under your real name... no?

both accounts are under my real name.


My first account username was my entire legal name. The account I have been using now, is using an alias as a username, but my real contact information is still registered in the account.

Sorry for the confusion.

Just email support and you will be fine, there not going to ban you due to a genuine mistake.

If your plan is to continue to play on Stars, the only way is to be honest. Let's say you did transfer money to old account and kept playing, you could never feel safe, you would always have to worry about having your account frozen. Should you ever be so lucky to make a big tourney score, you can be sure your account will be reviewed and they will find out if you broke the rules. If what you said in the 1st post is correct, my guess is your problem will be solved in 24hrs. They will ask you to provide foto-ID and proof of adress. Scan or take a pic with your phone of either your passport/drivers license and a recent (no more than 3month old) utility bill.

This is a terrible idea, just because it makes you look guiltier than leaving things as is and telling Stars "Hey, so I just found out this is a no-no".

heh, that is what I was thinking. The last thing I want to do now is anything suspicious.

You should be fine if you send them an email that says your two different names, an explanation of why you made a second one in the first place, and when you realized it wasn't allowed (i.e. actually became a decent player who could cash out, looked into cashing out, and realized second names aren't ok), at least as long as you really did ditch the first name just because it was your full name, and you never played with it after the new name and especially never used them at the same time.

They usually close the second account and transfer everything to the first, but in this case since the first account contains so much personal information they might close that one.

Either way, as long as you didn't do anything wrong aside from opening a second account, going to them first will be helpful.

Looks like I'm in the clear, thanks for all the responses in this stressful time.

Glad it worked out for you, honesty does pay.....at least most of the time.