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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PokerStars Support
We believe that an important part of poker is knowing an opponent. This is because the more you play against someone, the better you know their style of play, and thus how to react to it. If someone changes their Stars ID, the other players will think it is someone new, but that person still knows them, thus gaining an experience advantage at the tables.
While we can appreciate your strong desire to change your Stars ID, this policy protects everyone, including you. It would not be fair if one of your opponents, who knows your play very well, changed their Stars ID, and hid behind a new identity, using their experience of your play to beat you.
We hope you understand the reasoning behind our policy decision.
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PokerStars Support
We are writing to inform you that a frequent opponent of yours 'SmallKindB' will be using a new account 'ASAP JARDA'.
We normally do not allow Stars IDs changes. However, there are also situations where it is necessary to do so, due to various reasons, including licensing regulations. This happened to be one of those instances.
As we do not want this player to gain an advantage by hiding behind a new identity, we are ensuring his frequent opponents are aware of this change.
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.