In the beginining of july 2010 the account "gordylamb" started playing high stakes PLO and NLH on pokerstars. Previously the account had very little cash game experience and primarily played low stakes MTTS since early 2007.

The gordylamb account was linked to pocketfives user Rochustler

http://www.pocketfives.com/profiles/rochustler/

In the profile it says hes from Rochester, NY. His username on Pokerstars is Gordylamb, and on FTP it is ISHWER.

Here is Gordylambs PTR

http://www.pokertableratings.com/sta...arch/GordyLamb

In about 4 months time, playing against some of the best players on the internet, this lowstakes mtt player went on to win nearly 1 million dollars.

Around the end up August Gordylamb disappeared from the games on pokerstars.

Stars invesitaged this account and found enough evidence to perma ban this player from their site.

At the same time Gordylamb account appeared to start playing High stakes PLO and NLH, ISHWER on FTP started as well.

http://www.pokertableratings.com/ful...-search/ISHWER

Only July 17th this account started playing and stopped playing July 21st, after dropping nearly 120,000.

Both accounts had little cash game experience before July 2010.

I heard rumors that owner of the gordylamb account was friends with poker player boobysmiles/ugotabana Harry Kaczka.

After hearing this I emailed stars wondering why neither account had appeared since august 2010.

Here is stars response
"PokerStars is aware of the players that you have mentioned, and we have taken appropriate action. We are unable to divulge any further details as our Privacy Policy precludes us from commenting to third parties about the accounts of other users"

After a few more emails it became clear that there was a connection between the two accounts and that both were banned.

Only 1/13/2011 2p2 user Jrosealm confirmed that Harry Kaczka was playing under the Gordylamb account and that both accounts were banned and that Pokerstars allowed the funds to be cashed out.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/15...l#post24126887

This isn't the first time Harry had been accused of playing under another account

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/15...money2-710166/

http://www.pokertableratings.com/ful...rch/coolmoney2

Jrosealm confirmed that Harry had "ghosted him" while playing 4 tables hu vs sootedjokers on ftp. After an investigation on FTP they found enough evidence to ban him, but allowed him to cash out the funds won.


I am unsure if ISHWER is banned from FTP, I am not even sure if Harry Kaczka played under that account. But I think there is a strong possibility that he did.

After allowing Harry Kaczka to cash out the money won on gordylamb, both the gordylamb account and Boobysmiles got permanently banned from pokerstars.

This past week Pokerstars was running the PCA in the Bahamas. Harry Kaczka was allowed to play in the main event down in the Bahamas, after being permanently banned from Pokerstars.



Cliffs

7 figures stolen from poker community by Harry Kaczka, playing under gordylamb.
Investigated by stars, enough evidence to ban, not enough to confiscate funds
Stars allows Harry Kaczka to play in their flagship Live tournament after being banned from their website.
Harry Kaczka is a cheater.

I knew he was a cheater. First he steals my girlfriend and now this.

Another MA-thread WOOOOT

tl;dr

I could tell he was shady watching 2m2m.

About tree fiddy

thanks op for the info

Well at least he busted from the PCA like this.

[ ] Stolen

The thing that bothers me the most is that this was somewhat common knowledge in HSPLO forums/community for at least a month or so (possibly for even longer), and it's only now that there's a thread made about this.

The attitude of poker community is quite sad, somebody just posted "oh btw, xxx is yyy" in LC thread just like it's not a big thing. When people hear something like this, it would really benefit the community if they took a little time to inform others about it. I understand that if they have informed the poker site it might not be the best idea to warn the cheater to allow him to cashout all his money, but immediatly after you get an answer from poker site you should publish what you know.

Anyway, glad someone involved in HSPLO community finally made a thread about this.

The thing is no one really cares if xxx is playing under yyy as long as they know who the person behind the yyy account is. If xxx is playing vs xyz and xyz is unaware that xxx is now yyy that's when **** hits the fan.

Thats where I spend most my time on 2+2, know a ton of PLO guys, play 25/50 on the regular and I had no idea about this until a few days ago... I really don't think it was common knowledge until it opened up HSNL thread (I think?).

The real issue is this the sites continue to just let people cash out after locking their accounts down for this kind of thing... it really doesn't send a good message... practically gives incentive to MAing and the like.

btw this has happened a number of times and the normal protocol is poker site simply responds saying 'they'll look into it' you don't get another e-mail with info or a resolution and they silently lock account in question and no money is returned. Pretty depressing when one day the account is active, the next is the last day its seen yet no money is ever redistributed.

The thing is, there is a 0% chance that sites are going to make it standard to redistribute funds from MAing especially from cash games. It's not in their best interest to do so, and the violation of their TOS is not severe enough to warrant it.

It's impossible to know without having access to a site's database (which would be impossible to obtain), but it's a safe assumption the type of MAing that people get upset about makes up a small % of the MAing that occurs. Everyone only cares about a good player MAing and using it to get action or an edge.

I'd guess that there are a ton of casual, losing and break even players that MA as well. Ignore the MAing that you're talking about (HS players) and think about how many people make a new account just because they don't like the name they started with, or they think the account is unlucky, or because they forgot their password, etc. etc. There are a ton of other reasons to make a new account and all those reasons also violate the site's TOS. It would be insanely bad for a site's bottom line if they start to seize funds from anyone who made a new account, but already had one.

Look at the **** sites currently get when they close supposedly 'legitimate' accounts and allow the people to cash out. There are numerous threads where people are complaining about even the big sites doing that.

FWIW I don't MA, nor do I condone it, but it's naive for everyone to think that sites are going to do anything more than they currently are to change it. There will always be an inherent risk to playing pseudo-anonymous online poker (I mean there's never a guarantee the person behind the name is the same person day in day out).

yeah you are right bigfoot

I guess I just don't think its unreasonable to expect protocol to encourage a fair game though... the answer isn't giving $ back, its completely anonymous play, screen name changes or whatever.. I'm on board with any solution that offers a level field.

Guess I'm just jealous of MAers and their edge hah

Oh Harry...dude...

Pokerstars could have set a precedent by banning, confiscating funds but instead they decided the bottom line is more important. I understand it's a business, just like poker is a job. A job where playing under multiple accounts will yield you higher profits. The risk/ reward of maing is way worth it. I mean FFs after Harry was permanently banned they let him play at pca. They don't care about the player who is honest, loyal , and abides by the rules. If the same player multi accounted , they would be treated the same in stars eyes.. So long as you pay rake

kids got game

please explain to me how this money was "stolen"? people lost $$ to a better player? he won this money with no advantage over other players

Playing under a different SN vs someone you have history with gives you a huge edge.

You are dumb.

He is dumb

We played around 30k hands together under his normal acounts. He knew how I played and vice versa. He plays me under Gordy, who at the time I thought was a fish. If you can't figure out why this is a massive unfair advantage then maybe poker is not for you.

i wouldnt call it huge