Hi,

I am posting here to alert the public about my dealings with Winner Poker. I hope someone here can help me find a solution. Also, I think there are other people in the same position as me? Jamie from PokerVIP has been helping me out with the process.

My account along with many others (confirmed by affiliate) was locked by Winner Poker about a month ago. I emailed them as to why my account had been closed. No reply from Winner. Affiliate (pokerVIP) tells me that this is a documentation check. No problem, I submit my documents.

I am a US citizen living in Thailand right now. I submitted my US passport and electric bill which is in Thai. (Auto response) Followed by responses of "we are reviewing your account."

During this time, a Microgaming skin (Betsson) also requested documents. I submitted my US passport and electric bill (in Thai) but wanted to see something in English. OK fine, I submit my lease. Documents approved.

At this time, it had been a while. So I resubmitted documenation to Winner Poker. (electric bill in Thai, water bill in Thai, and lease in English) I assumed that the problem was that the bills were in thai? I wasn't really getting any responses other than (we are reviewing your account etc...)

My account has been closed after a couple days after this. The email reads

"Thank you for contacting the Winner Poker Customer Support Team.
We are writing in regards to your Winner Poker account.

We regret to inform you that your account in Winner Poker will remain closed. This is to coincide with the Terms and Conditions of the website 10.6, which clearly states that,

"We may at any time without prior notice to you terminate your use of the Poker Room and block your Player Account if it considers that you are in breach of any of the terms and provisions of this Agreement or that you are otherwise acting illegally. We will not be under any obligation in such circumstances to refund or otherwise reimburse you for any of the funds in your Player Account.""

Now, I have accounts with Pokerstars, FullTilt, Betsson (Microgaming), and Bodog. All have approved my documents and I have never had my account in poor standing with any of those sites.

I am hoping that the 2p2 community can help or any other people that went through this ordeal will come forward.

Cliffs: Winner Poker closed my account. HELP!

I hope it works out for you.

I just have to ask. You listed having accounts at all those other sites, why not just play on PS and be done with it?

I do not even know what " Winner Poker " is but unless you think you are getting some out-of-this-world rake back deal or something else choosing them, why would you ever play there?

How much have u got locked up on Winner Poker?

Move to another Ipoker skin, easy

I can confirm that the above poster's account at Winner has been locked.

Right now there doesn't seem to be a good reason for the lock as OP has submitted a whole host of documents. As he says, he is good to play on any other poker site in the world, so it's hard to see why Winner believe they are entitled to close his account and seize the money.

I understand that our contact at Winner is looking into this, but this specific situation has been going on too long and with no justification ever given as to why OP is being treated this way.

We are doing everything we can (as an affiliate) to ensure that OP has his funds returned as soon as possible.

Jamie

Well what exactly are they saying you did wrong? Or why are they closing the account?

Its a Sunday morning so I didnt think of this matter at first but like pmarrsouth asked, how much money do you have tied up there?

They can just keep your funds ( I admit, I skipped reading their email response to you originally )

They say you broke the T & C and now free money for them?

These rinky dink sites, this is what I am talking about. You do not have to worry about this happening at some high end site like PS.

I do not know the whole story but if you did nothing to merit this, it is just theft plain and simple. Others should be aware no doubt, so "nice " post.

Again, I hope this works out for you and keep us posted.

You can confirm that this player is not one of the ones that you hooked up with VPNs etc to allow to play from inside USA?

To my own knowledge OP has never used a VPN, but frankly that is not any of my business.

My main concern is to ensure OP gets his money and not for this thread to be derailed with the same VPN discussion which only seemed to hurt players like OP.

It is the operator's remit to ensure players comply with KYC. Affiliates are marketing companies and not licensed to carry out such checks.

The goal of this thread must be to help OP, not to sensationalize this 'VPN' issue further and cause more damage to legitimate players.

As OP says, he plays at a number of other poker rooms, where his accounts are in good standing.

Jamie

P.S. I actually don't think we're allowed to post in the Internet Poker forum, so if a Mod wishes to remove these posts it's totally okay. If anyone has any further queries regarding VPNs etc feel free to post in our support thread.

Pokerstars is BY FAR, the industry leader. My account has been in good standing with them since 2006. They are probably the first to ban someone who would use a VPN. Also, for the Bodog skin, I am on the Asian skin (since I'm based in thailand) , which requires a local bank transfer as well as local documentation. I am also on Microgaming, which is another site that recently approved all my documents and i have never been in bad standing with them.

I failed to mention this since I don't have any money on Party. But, I have successfully closed my old US account and opened a new account on a different skin.

Please do not derail this thread with accusations when I have stated many facts that support that I have done nothing illegal. I have been playing for almost 10 years now and this is the first time an account has been wrongfully closed.

Not a derail attempt at all, was a serious question as this whole winner poker / Ipoker account verification issue came due to it.

You being a US citizen is unfortunately probably the main concern here - the site is unsure that u are actually in Thailand so they are making a MGMT decision and closing your account, which all sites can do. The funds thing is the only issue here, do you have funds locked up on the site?

IMO I would be doing everything to try to prove that u are in Thailand - send all pics of your immigration stamps for Thailand, send them your most recent bank statement from your Thai bank (if they don't provide them then go into a branch and get a letter stamped and signed that u are there), send in a copy of your most recent credit card statement if you have used your US credit card recently in Thailand which will show the transaction being in Thailand, goto a local police station and get them to notarize a letter confirming you are there.

Again if you have no funds on the site just move to a new Ipoker skin

Yes, I have funds locked up on this skin. Otherwise I wouldn't bother making a post about it.

I like the suggestion of sending a scan of a passport stamp indicating you arrived in the country and then anything ( and everything ) else that you can think of.

Heck, I am not sure what popular landmarks are there but I would go get a picture of me standing next to one holding a sign saying " Release my funds 'winner' poker! "

Also, personally, I appreciate Julie for coming in her and helping OP get his money back and showing the support for his case.

Is there a rep for WP on 2p2? Again, I never even heard of this place ( good thing ) but I will be on the lookout for more of this nonsense.

If they can just do this to OP, they can do it to anyone and where is the recourse?

You are a US citizen that signed up to play on iPoker through Pokervip.com. A little research will show you why a poker room would be suspicious of that.

You do not say (or I have missed) whether they kept your money or not, you only quote their T&Cs that say they can. Does this mean they kept your money?

You may have to take this up with the network.

I'm assuming yes.

Ah, I only searched OP for it. That puts OP in very tough spot since skins were told by the network to be on the lookout for US players, especially under this affiliate.

Just to give an update.

I have provided everything to them. It was a week of trying to get their support to reply about the docs i sent

Then they ask for passport photos.

I have provided photos of my passport stamps as well as my 1 year visa for Thailand. In addition to providing them with copies of my passport, passport stamps, visa, lease.

I have also provided Google maps street view outside of my address in thailand which is on my lease. IN ADDITION to this, I have also taken a picture outside my residence with a sign that has my name, account number and date. This was done last week. I have STILL HAVE NOT YET HAD A REPLY.

This is beyond ridiculous.

I have complied at every step of the way. It has been 2 months and still my funds/account are locked

Hello Guys,

it looks like, it´s starting again.

Looking for new sites after Stars boosts the rake again. Seen "Winner Poker" and nice Rakeback action (60% for all players; 70% possible), HUD friendly.

The old information say the server are from Philippines, but now moved to Europe (Bulgaria), so EU Regulations and so on, meant scum free.

Downloaded, but became a warning from my antivirus software, but added to "trusted files", but I was able to start the site the day after. Registered and immediately closed, wow! Don´t even seen the lobby once! Support on the site doesn´t work (I found out, my antivirus still fights), but found the phone number and became an information from customer service, that my account was closed. Answered, you can´t close something, when it wasn´t even opened. The reasons wouldn´t be revealed for me (official statement).

My assumption: "Winner Poker" tries to win recreational players, what sometimes means HUD free. Before I registered myself, I´ve started once WP via PT4 to mislead my antivirus. Didn´t help, but was definitely possible. It´s likely they see it, even when you are not registered (but IP), if you use other tools. I could be wrong, it looks like a lil´ bit like "888" couple years ago.