one important detail that people seem to be missing is that he said that his roommate is a "poker player", not a "poker pro", so rec-like play on the ft means nothing

my best guess is that these are two rec players who shared an account for a while and while it's possible that OP was playing during the tournament, play patterns were likely inconsistent with earlier ones. Rec players I know do it all the time, and often don't even realise that it can get them banned

I think people here are focusing too much on the roommate part, but that may have nothing to do with it, it's just something that OP brought up. Guilty people who claim innocence often either confess to a lesser crime (Tony Soprano is involved in some illegal gambling, he's definitely not in the Mafia), or they defend against something they're not charged with. I'm not saying that OP is guilty, but if he were, that might be the tack to take.

From the phrase 'whacked 2k on roulette' I wouldn't be surprised that this is someone who may have self excluded his account at some point and made a 2nd account, probably thinking that he would never get caught. Party has 2 other skins IIRC, BWIN and Coral.

Gambling operators check everything now. I know of people who have been banned from a site after a merger and their responsible gambling teams pooled their data to see a self exclusion.

If he self excluded and they let him play, then wouldn't it be a massive liability for Party Poker?

Nope. All the casinos have a clause in the self exclusion agreement that sez if a jackpot is won during self exclusion, it will be forfeited. But degens still gamble!

You guys sound like the cops who say “well if you have nothing to hide, why wouldn’t you talk to us!”

If he got the advice of a lawyer I bet the lawyer said to shut up and let him do the talking.

Try to pretend you are OP, you are completely innocent ...and now imagine how you feel about the 160k. You are not “looking to settle”, 100% of that money is rightfully yours !

I don’t think he means settle as in take half or something. Maybe I’m interpreting that wrong.

Whilst true, if in his position being 100% innocent, I'd happily take 130k and call it a day, including permanently closing my account with Party Poker. I'm sure most of 2+2 has no idea of the cost of such a court case, but you're looking at a bare minimum 20k, and that's a super low estimate, I'd easily see such a court case go to 100k+ without breaking a sweat. Add onto this your time, the stress, and ultimately the court possibly not finding in your favour (People have been convicted of murder in the past, and been later proven innocent, you have to remember this kind of lawsuit isn't a common occurrence).

You need to realize how big taking a company such as Party Poker too court really is, it's not as easy as 123, it really is a massive deal, and a super costly one.

If you are 100% innocent why would you take 130k?

Are you thick? Read the post you quoted.

Sent from my SM-G996B using Tapatalk

No, it was posted here. I moved it to IP because that's where threads like this belong, but then I had exactly the thought you mentioned at the end - a win in a big event is something that is a little more newsworthy, as can be seen now by the fact that PokerNews picked it up. It could really go in either forum, so I decided to put it back where it was originally. Sorry for the confusion.

https://help.partypoker.com/en/gener...nd-row#Notices

21.1
If You have any complaints about any aspect of Our conduct of the Facilities, You must ...
... Complaints may not be raised via social media.

21.2.1
... (ii) Our complaints process ends if Your complaint remains unresolved eight weeks (taking into account any pauses for You to provide information) after We received it, or we reach a deadlock or final position in less than eight weeks. We will then write You a final response email on the matter.

21.3
To the extent that You are not satisfied with Our final response through the complaints procedure stipulated above and you are a UK Player. You may contact our alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provider, the Independent Betting Adjudication Service (“IBAS”). ...

All discussions between You and us relating to a complaint or dispute – including details of the dispute/complaint, any enquiries made, and/or any customer services correspondence entered into as part of dispute/complaint resolution – are confidential, with the aim of trying to resolve the dispute amicably. You agree not to disclose the existence or content of any such discussions to any third party (including to the media or via social media/chat-rooms or other similar forums), save that you may disclose details to your advisors (lawyers, financial advisors, health professionals, insurers etc), relevant regulators or law enforcement agencies, IBAS or other dispute resolution services, or as required or permitted by law.

https://www.ibas-uk.com/

... IBAS rulings are legally non-binding on consumers, who are free to pursue any case through the court system after using IBAS. Rulings are binding on registered operators up to the value of £10,000. Above that threshold, operators may demand that the dispute is also heard by a court.

https://www.ibas-uk.com/how-ibas-works/terms-of-use/

The obligation to observe confidentiality
16. IBAS considers gambling transactions to be confidential between the parties concerned. To this end, Operators and Customers are requested to keep the details of the Dispute and IBAS's ruling confidential and, in particular refrain from making any public comment during or after the Dispute process. ...

Yeh, but if they disqualified you from a tournament win for $160K, you might not keep quiet about it and go through their procedures.

3rd place was streamer Jaime staples and he confirmed he got bumped to 2nd^

Sites don't say how they catch players because otherwise cheaters find out and use other loopholes.

I'd have to imagine its VPN based a little bit of the Gordon Vayo case? Remote software probably a little bit too untested at this point. Very possible to have programs running without you realising.

Very possible they have no evidence no one else was playing, just evidence of IP address hopping around or whatever.

A little off topic, but out of curiosity, has there ever been a case where player is disqualified for the wrong reason?

It seems like Party is alleging that when he got deep in the tournament he had someone else play, either remotely or locally. They should not take this action without strong evidence. As pointed out, Party could lose money paying out twice and damage their reputation if they were wrong.

Im still leaning 2 accounts have historically played a lot together and raised the red flags but with OP radio silence on this question (and all others) we may never know

Lol yeah he’s got them now - good take

+1 this theory would be my guess as well. Wonder how many hands they each played (to establish player profile) before Party would take the risk in double paying first place…must have been obvious…

I wonder if OP is going to clarify the situation, he is offley quiet.
If he indeed hired an attorney who requests silence from his client, he could simply state that thats the case and there will be less room for speculation

My guess is when he got deep in the tournament he had a strong pro play it, probably remotely. They could tell by a vastly different style of play and maybe had other evidence of a remote connection. I am just speculating though and maybe OP is totally innocent.

I didn't watch the broadcast but apparently it definitely wasn't a pro playing the FT. He was so clearly a rec that the announcers were opening rooting for him to win and enjoying the action.

Now before the FT, who knows, except PartyPoker I guess. They seem very confident in their decision so its probably legit. OP probably unwittingly violated TOS in some way while playing.

It would really suck if he just had his friend take over for 15 min while taking a **** or something. I have done that with my friend before while playing. He doesn't play but I would just tell him to fold everything except AK and QQ+ and just go all in with those hands then I come back 5-10 min later and most of the time he folded everything.


I dont like that violating TOS is never a concern for these sites until they have to payout a winner. Site is happy to let him continue violating TOS as long as he keeps depositing, but as soon as he binks one they suddenly become aware. Why couldn't they ban him in the moment when they detect suspicious activity?

A 3rd party was playing must be either 1) some form of Ai or bot, 2) another pro via team viewer 3) another player gained access to his account from another location and finished. 4)?

Ppl saying he def looked like a rec bc of his style means nothing.