I really want to play the WCOOP. I do not want to leave the USA. I do not want to "relocate out of the USA" I'd like to move out of the USA for 1month to play WCOOP. Can this happen?

I'm basically homeless right now. (Living on air mattress in small office in JJ's apartment.)

I want to/need to play WCOOP. (I'm broke, but obv can be staked and would be great chance to get unbusto, thinly veiled brag I FTd a 1k in both the last scoop/wcoop )

I do not want to move out of the country permanently. I only want to grind for a month.

Pokerstars seems to be intentionally vague/absurd in e-mails to them basically saying "Move and we'll tell you what you have to do"

This is completely absurd. I've given hundreds of thousands of rake over years and it should be out there. I don't see the point for this.

I know often it involves utiltiy bills/proof of address/landline phone call (WTF I HAVENT HAD A LANDLINE IN FOREVER)

Is it really impossible for me to find one of my many poker friends crash on a couch pay them a little rent and be able to grind stars? It seems it would be hard to get bills in my name/other stuff. Especially because I'm really poor/not that great at figuring stuff like this out. Bank account seems hard too.

Pokerstars, can you help me out? Can anyone give advice? I just want to be able to go to Canada or a friends for the month and then figure out the money (if I'm lucky to have money afterwards) I don't have the luxury of being able to coordinate/hunt for places to live outside the country with my current money liquidity.

What is my best/cheapest/easiest plan? Do any of my friends want to have me come visit them? If anyones bustoish/has some mutual vouches I can even give you good coaching!

Friend just told me...

u need to give yourself up to 20 days to get ****ed by stars
so you want to have a lease signed in about 5 days somewhere
i'm sure you can give yourself 10-12 days but def risk missing 1st sunday

I'm playing WPT at end of this month. This is just absurd. Why are they making it so hard on us? I'll ****ing videotape myself outside a famous Canadian landmark or w/e/skype someone. I'm not vpning/pretending to leave country if I do. God, I just want to be able to do my job. It just seems so hard. Do they really want to make you COMPLETELY relocate! I'm homeless now pokerstars! I am living couch to couch and JJ's wife hates me and I'm gonna be kicked out soon...and just got owned by Jamie Gold today (But got invited to his home game!!!!)

Can pokerstars please comment/anyone comment? Just seems so weird/not right why they are being intentionally vague/not helpful to me. Pokerstars is usually the best. I mean I know its to prevent people cheating/rigging the system and playing online in the US. But....why? Sigh, just so tilting, I'm prob not gonna make it out, is it even worth me paying for passport?

Man, I'd play WCOOP alone in the worst hotel in Canada for a month if pokerstars would let me. I just want the ability to.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/61...hread-1025358/

This is all covered in this thread.

Cliffs: if you tell stars you are just going for a month and crashing on a friends couch, I don't think they are going to give you your account back. You should probably be a little less transparent in this thread with your intentions.

Thats absurd, what is wrong with that?

The question is why isn't stars being helpful? Sigh, guess no WCOOP for me.

what matters is residency. it doesn't matter where you are located. if you have residency in the US, then you can not play. if you want them to allow you to play, you must provide them with sufficient proof that you are not a US resident. pokerstars has no obligation to work with players and are mostly just watching their backs. they're being indicted by the department of justice of a very powerful and indignant country, so a little precaution is understandable. i think they'd prefer trying to keep themselves out of jail and in business to making a little extra rake in a grey area.

fwiw, i've had my own apartment in canada since june 1st and it is my only residence, but my account isn't unfrozen yet. true i've spent most of my time either in vegas at wsop or traveling abroad, so it hasn't been my priority, but there are many meticulous steps in their approval process which must be accommodated. i believe that if you were to head up to canada right now, lease an apartment, open a canadian bank account, and install a land line and internet, then obtain official documentation of all of this (utility bills, official bank statement) with your name and new address, then log into pokerstars from your canadian ip while pokerstars calls you on your canadian landline, you'd stand a pretty good chance at playing wcoop. then you can move away from your new residence whenever you like.

Being as smart as you are this is an incredibly dumb thread. Aprilsfool cowered it pretty well - poker is banned for US residents and going on a holiday abroad isn't making you a non-US resident. You need the utility bills and whatever to prove that exactly for the reason that those are the things that make you a non-US resident (if you "officially" live abroad).

WCOOP's like 20 days away, right? I'd say snap move to canada or mexico and contact someone you know to help you find a ****hole somewhere you can immediately move into. 20 days could be enough or at least you'll make it towards the end of WCOOP.

Trying to find a pigeon hole is a dead end here (especially with the doj still after Stars's ass and all I highly doubt they'd allow you to do go around one single requirement no matter how much you've raked), just get on it while you still have time and pack your bags imo.

GL

yeah there's just no way this is going to happen dude. you could head to canada right now, move in somewhere right away, and there is a chance you would still wind up missing some or all of wcoop.

stars' security is top notch also so don't bother trying to just use someone else's account, you'll never see the money if you win something.

stars have made it pretty clear that they aren't gonna let this stuff slide...

just do it the old way and use someone elses account.

the questions you should be asking should relate to advice on streamlining your pursuit of meeting their specific requirements - does anyone have some suggestions for inexpensive utility companies which can get statements to my new apartment the fastest? which canadian phone companies will actually come install a phone? (bell canada missed the first 3 appointments i made with them.) which canadian bank will let me open an account and get me my first official bank statment the fastest? which branch should i go to? what do i need to bring? do i need an appointment? (i walked into scotiabank and the best they could do for me was scheduling an appointment for the following week. i wasn't able to just walk in and open an account even if i sat around there all day, and i needed to show them my canadian apartment lease.)

pimping ain't ez aye?

fwiw pokerstars told me that a utility bill is not necessary if you can provide a rental agreement. they did say the expiration date on the rental agreement would matter so i am pretty sure a month to month lease would not cut it.

Same here, you would basically have to have atleast a 6 month agreement to be considered. 1month lease will not cut it

the rules are in place for a reason. am I happy about it? No. But I give stars the benefit of the doubt because I have so far and they've yet to let me down. Hopefully i'll be up and running by the beginning of wcoop.

In my experience so far with figuring out moving/seeing other people try to move, someone seriously needs to set up a short term service that caters to poker players relocating.

Even if stars let you play how do you expect to cash out if you win? Im assuming bank transfers/checks would not be allowed in the US anymore.

Also the argument that going to another country for a vacation and playing is illegal by US law doesn't make sense. Weed is illegal here so does that mean if i smoke in Amsterdam im doing something illegal?

dont blame stars for their whole procedure, theyre just trying to protect themselves from the US government ****ting on their face.

^^^^^^^ yeah op u cant really be pissed at stars, they just wanna stay of of the u.s.a

Just to clarify it is not illegal for US residents to play online poker while not in the US, nor is it illegal for online poker sites to allow US residents who are not located in the US to play. It is Stars' policy, not the law, that is preventing US residents from playing while abroad.

I don't know you/your history, but it sounds like you're confident and have history of winning, so with that I'd just look into getting staked into a grindhouse in some other country. I'm sure there are plenty of backers out there that would pay living expenses for a couple months while you get situated.

Didn't JJ's Grandma live in Canada? Use her account imo.

So the only thing that is "illegal" is playing online poker on US soil?

Bank fraud is illegal, according to DOJ.

LOL thisreallysucksaments

Technically correct from my interpretation of the settlement Stars made with the DoJ (disclaimer: no law experience whatsoever), playing poker online on US soil supposedly isn't even illegal depending on which legal expert you ask but the bank fraud is of course a big no-no.

Bad jokes (like this one) are way worse than any of JJ's transgressions

I hear Rosarito is beautiful for a vacation in September, no passport required.

best of luck OP, unf that is all I can add