Zak Young
Pokerstars - Meistro
Skype -zak.young1
2+2 username PokerPlayingGamble
discord zakattack#1380

I started working with Zak in Octomber 2021 , saw his seeking stakes thread on 2+2 and decided to give him a chance
was very naive cause I didn't do a good research before making a deal with him.Saw that he was very active , posting a lot of hands , he was also coaching PLO players for microstakes ( tought this was even better and he must be a trusted member within the community )
*not sure how the mods/admins gave him permision to ask for backing since he was accused before of scams

In the beginning everything was fine , he ran hot and was winning at the tables + making decent amount from rakeback too. I would say the first 3 months everything was good and there wasn't anything bad to say about him. After those 3 months, his volume and effort started to decline and on every upswing he would hit me up and ask for a chop.I know this isn't how things are supposed to work, but at that time I wanted to make sure he is ok and does have everything he needs in order to not be stressed about money so he could keep playing and not worry about financial problems.We complained about players beeing much better and 200plo and that he felt overwhelmed when playing and losing a bunch at those stakes.Told him to drop down in stakes , from 200plo to 100plo if he loses 10bi because I wanted to decrease my risk ( assuming he always made cash-outs and at some point he will be in make-up , didn't want a huge pile of money to add up ), He agreed and continue to play.
On 15 February 2022 he was out of make and wanted a chop for 910/ 2 = 455 his share , however I wanted to help him again and offered to send another 500 on top as a "loan" or he would be 1k in make-up cause 455 is not a lot of money and since he has 2kids I can only imagine.
He took some approved shots at 200plo during 18-19 Feb ( weekend ) and clearly informed him if he lost 2k ( 10bi ) he would need to drop down to 100 again.
In 21 Feb he was -3962 in make-up ( 500 loaned to him so actual make-up at this point -2962 ) and +481 in RB
re-loaded his accounts and left him a message on discord wich he hasn't repplied to
between 22 Feb and 28 Feb he lost another -1194 and received 171 in RB

Since I saw he hasn't been answering on discord , tried to contact him on messenger/facebook and only the I found out he blocked me !
immediatly I knew he scammed me... it's unbeliveable that people never change and this shows he capable of anything when it comes to money. I looked a bit what type of games he played last week and he was playing PLO6 wich he hasn't studied and we agreed he would play PLO4/5. It's also really "strange" cause he lost a ton at one table of 1/2 and I belive he chip dumped/stole around 600$
Tried a bunch of times to reach out to him so he can explain or maybe come up with a plan to re-pay the money owed, but no. He even started applying to other stables and he's currently playing for somebody else NLHE ( obv the guy who backed him didn't knew anything ).

He was accused in these previous threads

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...g#post49647401

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...g#post52115524

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...g#post52117493

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...21&postcount=1

sucks to hear that, how did he get verified as a coach here with a history of scamming?

I have no idea
it looks like somebody didn't do his job or nowdays we wipe the bad deeds from the past and forget about it
obv I should have done a better research, but I was a bit naive and trusted more than I should.

I don't *think* he's been accused of anything under this particular screen name, until now. If someone creates a new screen name, from a different IP, there's going to be no way of us to know they're the same person. So if he applied for Marketplace Approval under the old rules, and hadn't been identified by anyone as a past scammer, he'd be approved. Once that happens, without anyone making the connection and letting mods know, he'd still have it. And notice I said "old rules" - there are no longer any requirements to start such a thread; there isn't a Marketplace Approval process now. This change happened shortly after new ownership took over.

And of course something could have been missed. Mods are volunteers, who do they best they can, but they aren't perfect. Just keep in mind they don't have much more information than you do - IPs might be about it, and in this case, there is no IP match between the two screen names.

Or you're assuming there is a job for someone not to have done. There isn't. Here's the OP of the coaching "What to post here?" sticky:

While I can understand that some people might assume there is a verification process, you'll notice there is no mention of one. Coaches no longer pay for threads, and I don't believe there is any vetting going on.

Under previous ownership, when we had advertising, paid threads, etc., of course we did what we could to make sure we were dealing with reputable companies, coaches, stakers, etc. - but it was far from a flawless process. You should never, ever assume any company advertising anywhere is guaranteed to be reliable.

bobo understandable, but perhaps you guys should consider removing the color change which implies mod/insider/trusted status

also, that account is still listed as a coach, i think that should be removed until he can show innocence - otherwise he can just ride it out and show up again in a few years with the color of authority

Back to the main issue at hand:

My apologies, OP, for not getting back to you sooner on this. I was aware of it, and didn't have a lot of time to deal with it at the time but did check on PPG and found he hadn't logged on to 2+2 since last month; I've checked back in a couple more times since to ensure he wasn't back before I had time to look at this properly. He hasn't been.

I've never quite found the connection between the two accounts, but it seems they're well established as the same person. I'm going to send a PM to PPG asking that he address this before he posts anywhere else on the site. Not sure there's much he can say that would change appropriate action with his account, but I want to provide the opportunity.

I'll also address the issue with ownership, and make them aware of the concerns about coach verification.

If it does, that's been an issue for at least 10 years now. We have a number of posters with pink, purple, yellow names that were given for nothing more than winning a contest or some other reason. I haven't seen it come up a lot as an issue. Green, red, blue have been used pretty consistently as mod/admin and I think that should remain the case. But I'll bring up your concern as well.

I suspect that will be dealt with one way or the other quite soon.

That guy was the biggest joke over on plo formu for years, commetning on mid stakes or even small stakes that he probably played a few times in his life and getting attention from probably newbies thinking that his advise is good, i dont understand how OP staked him when he terribly sucks at plo, you just need to read his comments and know that this is a massive fish, when i saw him offering coaching i had a giigle but thought w/e i guess anyone can do that by paying a few bucks to....i didnt know he scammed before just that he sucks badly

yeah, this is what i meant to convey to bobo and rest of management, i don't play plo so had no ability to comment on his commentary but the few times i misclicked into a plo thread i definitely got the "hey I'm a coach therefore my opinion is more valid than yours" gist to his posts

and frankly, assuming that there was some sort of vouching process regarding the color change status, not knowing anything of plo just took what he said for granted as legit

CojackFlo99, I'm sorry that this happened to you. We'll definitely change the way coaching functions right now. There has to be more protection from scammers.

I've changed PPG profile.


P.S. PokerPlayingGabmle had the word "microstakes" in his profile. I understand that it's not enough to make it absolutely clear that he can't be trusted with middle or high stakes, but I think it's a big clue nonetheless. We gonna change our approach and try to protect our members from scammers.

The cocahing undertitle is so rear that it will strike almost everyone, the microstakes part is less important

He has been acused before under the same name Zak Young
also people wrote his skype and stars nickname
tbh I think the site should change they way they approve somebody for marketplace
I am still responsible for not doing proper research before deciding to back this player
however, it would be nice if 2+2 would adopt a verification process instead of charging money or let anybody offer coaching for free here without knowing the real name or the history behind the screen name
I know money and earnings are very important in every domain, but there should be some sort of backround verification for somebody who wants to offer their services or who seek backing
if I would have known he was accused before of wrong doing, I would have never given him my money.
In this scenario, saw he is very active and coaches people for microstakes ( it doesn't matter the stakes imo ). there are some coaches out there who play 50-100nl and offer coaching for microstakes because they want to help, give something back ( while earning some money on the side ). Would rather back somebody who is active, has a lot of posts , who is studying/talking/giving coaching to other istead of watching netflix.

I had access to very soft plo games and have been doing well so I wanted to "invest" some money into backing
he was a winner on the sample he sent me at 50 and 100plo. plus the fact he was active, commenting and posting hands while offering coaching looked better in my eyes than somebody who has a new account with 5 posts.
after helping him and sending extra 500 for his last chop ( instead of splitting 910/2 = 455 he got 955 ) and then losing/stealing and running away from make-up, it shows his true colours and it's disgusting
came out with this warning so that he can't continue to do this stuff, get a real job and stop scamming people