The day Benjamin Spragg was added to Team Pokerstars he was allowed to change his username from 'LikeCricket?' to 'Spraggy'.

Seems weird to me that Stars allows it's own players to have such an advantage against other players.

When asking PokerStars support to change my username they are perfectly able to explain how they now gave Benjamin Spragg an unfair advantage.

Why do they not extend this simple and fair reasoning to their own players?

When they allow username changes to none Team PokerStars players they at least have the decency to inform other players, as in this e-mail I received recently. No such e-mail about Benjamin Spragg, giving him a further advantage.

Clearly this was not a case where it was necessary to do so, so Stars isn't only giving an unfair advantage to some players, they don't apply their own repeatedly stated policy either.

Is he a frequent opponent of yours like your other example?

explicit usernames are changed quite often

and this pokerstars guy doesn't have an explicit username...I suppose those people have an advantage too, although I imagine their names often get changed pretty early.

I think someone had a joke with juice/jews in it who had his name for a while before it was changed though.

Basicly pokerstars guy has higher status and is allowed to change his name giving him an advantage of user heathens.

Yes. Just checked and had more hands in my DB on 'LikeCricket?' than on the guy they e-mailed me about.

I'm a low/mid stakes MTT grinder. I'm playing the same tournaments Spraggy plays. I haven't received any email regarding this.

Pokerstars may not be rigged as far as their RNGs go, but they're really screwing their users in other ways. Can't wait for the Partypoker software update, as well as the launch of Runitonce Poker.

PokerStars Pro's name changes are almost always when they change to their actual real name, or at least a name more commonly associated with them. Don't see the concern here.

was being vaguely sarcastic, but it could be a licensing issue too. There are 4 pros who are listed as being from "UK & Ireland". Spragg is listed as being from "United Kingdom". Maybe he was .EU before and is now .UK?



If anyone wants to trawl through his videos on twitch and see how is logged in as previously, it might help:

Even if you accept that as valid reason (according to their policy this is NOT a valid reason and giving this player an unfair advantage). Then tell me how you can also justify informing other players with non Team Stars players changes while giving no information this time?

Waiting on negranus position statement befire i form an opinion

But can't you use your brain and ad 1+1 together? His name is now Spraggy which he is was already know by and has a PS badge to confirm him, not really hiding his identity.

This is really just a stupid argument. So you are just relying people to figure out who he is by his new SN? What makes you think he couldn't have changed the name to Luck123 or whatever. It seems pretty clear that he just got to decide it by himself.

The only reason I know is that I happen to watch his stream once in a while (I actually like the guy so nothing against him). Would it have been another new pro I'd have no idea. Also my HUD still has no idea it's the same person playing.

Whatever Stars does to rakeback/promotions is all fair game as far as I'm concerned, however I DO expect them to provide a level playing field among the players, which they clearly don't in this case. They even acknowledge this themselves (while not directly related to this case, but related to the concept of the unfairness of name-changes in general).

lol who cares , there`s like 20 stars pros and anyone in the community would know what their prev. acc was , also it`s been happening for years why make a thread now?

kevin martin xgarlictoast -> kevin martin
jaimes little brother got his account changed from some random name to matt staples and he isn't even part of the team

in the last ~year or so but also tons of other cases in special situations, don't see how it's a big deal

If nobody should care and it isn't a big deal, then why Stars DOES make a big deal out of players wanting to change their 10 yo username once? I for one would pay a 4-figure amount if that would allow me to, so I do see the big advantage and thus how it's a big deal.

The problem is that Stars is giving certain players an unwarranted advantage. They can give all their pro's every good deal they want, but not to the detriment of other players. And they shouldn't blatantly lie about how they apply their policy. Also, they shouldn't cherry-pick the changes they make know to frequent opponents of these players that somehow are allowed to change their username.

This is the 1st time I noticed, hence the thread. Also, there are a lot of pro's who just kept their name after being added to the Pro Team. Easywithaces as a recent example. I don't see what's so wrong with 'LikeCricket?' that it had to be changed (besides cricket being a horrible game maybe?). It'd even have allowed Stars some cross-selling opportunities to their sportsbook business.

same with jason somerville getting his named switched from 'Taknapotin' to jcarverpoker lol , obviously stars will allow changes for a very very very tiny % of their player field aka their 20 team members and this change also makes them MORE recognizable than their random names, I don't see how it is a disadvantage for the rest of players - literally the opposite - everyone knows instantly who they are playing against vs one of the team stars pros and can recall all the info they have on them.

Also it's a one time change to help with their marketability, it's not like they have the power to swap their names every session.

Ike was switched from philivey1234 to 'ike haxton' when he was a team pro member, and when he quit his name was switched back to philivey1234, and that was back in like 2015? How come the high stakes players weren't in a public outrage when instead of philivey1234 they were playing against ike haxton? Obviously they were at a disadvantage right?

If they were changing the SNs without anyone knowing about it, then I'd see why this would create an unfair situation. However, this doesn't appear to be happening in secret; thus, it negates whatever advantage may be gleaned from a name change.

How is this pretty clear?

This is an important thing to be upset about.

OP, do you think the "unfair advantage" gained by a change in username which has been made public and completely transparent, is countered by him (and most others who have had a username change) broadcasting him playing hands and explaining his thought process and strategy? Or not?

How is this even a topic. OP go for a walk, relax if this tilts you.

Unibet does it better.
Anyone can change their player-name multiple times a day.

He's been added to the team because he of his twitch channel, which is called Spraggy, so obviously they want to make it easier to direct people to his channel. Easywithaces' screen name and channel have the same name. Mystery solved.