I don't know who Loni is, but it looks like a lot of fodder for the masses.

More interestingly, what should her course of action be? We've had so many pros handle these things in a death spiral, it's always interesting to see these things at the beginning.

My thoughts are -

- Quickly apologize and admit it was cheating.

- Make it clear you're happy to face the consequences of the cheating.

- Apologize a few more times in places like this thread, admit the tweet deletion was a terrible knee jerk response.

- Say nothing else controversial about any topic publicly for awhile.

That's probably enough to stem the hate and everyone forgets in a month or two, yea?

Did anyone read that article in Card Player 3 or 4 months ago about the writer who went to Latin America and played on a family/friends account for a few days. Could not believe it was published but never saw any big news/stink about. I know Loni was on the cover of a recent CardPlayer mag so maybe she read that article and thought it was okay?

Even dumber than her is obv the original account owner.

None of this; she's a female in a world in which Vanessa Rousso is considered a perfect 10. Unless she literally looks like a monster, she'll be forgiven for pretty much any transgression.

Ladies and Gentlemen (mostly just ladies)...

Luscious_Lon:





Seriously, she proly just wanted to chuck some cards while in the Canadas.

^^

Ok...she might not be forgiven after all.

Y'all need to get your panties out of a bunch.

First off, as most of you know, I am the first one to call out cheating, scamming, or general scumbaggery in the poker world.

However, the only real "story" here is the lame coverup -- provided Loni is telling the truth.

I am seeing people characterizing Loni as "cheating scum", which I think is really unfair, even if she was completely aware of the current attitudes regarding multi-accounting.

First off, it's important to make distinctions regarding cheating in poker. There are some situations which cannot be classified as anything other than cheating, as they violate the basic rules of fair poker play:

Superusing - Definitely cheating

Card-marking or colluding - Definitely cheating

Multi-accounting in the same tournament - Definitely cheating

Taking over for someone mid-stream in a tournament - Definitely cheating



However, there are also areas where the player is being unethical, but not actually cheating.

Routine account-sharing, where two players actively switch off playing on a certain account: Unethical, but not cheating.

Switching accounts in order to get heads up action from someone who otherwise won't play you: Unethical, but not cheating.


Then there are the lighter ethical violations, which while technically frowned upon, are very commonplace and can't really be considered cheating or dishonest, as long as they are not done routinely.

"Ghosting", the act of having a friend or coach help you through hands as you play online - Light ethical violation.

Abandoning one account and starting a new one. For example, if your main account is running bad, you might switch things up by registering an account in your father's name, and playing as him. - Light ethical violation. (NOTE: This is NOT the same as two players sharing an account!)

Borrowing a non-US player's account to play on Pokerstars when visiting another country. - Light ethical violation.



So Loni Harwood claims she is guilty of the last thing above.

I don't see this as a bad thing, provided it really is just an occasional thing she does for a few days when traveling to Canada.

Before you condemn her, picture yourself in the same situation. You miss Pokerstars greatly, and are visiting Montreal. You're on the phone with a buddy you know there, and he says, "Hey, you realize you can play on Stars while you're here, right? You can feel free to borrow my account if you'd like to do this for a few days."

Provided you completely trust the guy not to stiff you of your winnings, are you telling me that you would say no? Very few US players on this forum would turn down the opportunity to do this. You can act high and mighty against "multi accounting", but in reality, this is far different than sharing accounts on a regular basis in order to confuse opponents, or trying to get HU action where you otherwise wouldn't.

If you insist that you wouldn't, then let me ask you this:

If you were visiting this friend in Montreal, and you saw him playing on Stars, would you refuse to sit next to him and discuss the hands as they happen? I'm sure you two would sit together, discuss the best plays to make, etc.

The bottom line is that the "rules" regarding online account sharing have always been really murky, and no matter how high, mighty, and ethical you claim to be, I can come up with a circumstance where you would probably be doing something that others would frown upon.

There are still plenty of networks today that allow having multiple accounts as long as you don't share them! Merge is one of them.

If all Loni is guilty of is going on Stars/FTP for a few days while in Canada (because she can't access her own account), then it's no big deal.

HOWEVER, I'm not sure I believe her.

She claims that she doesn't play online. If that's true, why does she feel the urge to suddenly get on BOTH Stars and FTP the second she crosses the border? A live player would have little interest in that. This sounds like the behavior of someone who really misses their Pokerstars account from pre-Black-Friday, and can't wait to jump back on there as soon as she's in a different location.

It also seems possible that perhaps her story is a lie (after all, it was hard to COMPLETELY deny the situation after the Zach Donovan tweet and subsequent deletion), and she might be a regular VPNer into Stars/FTP.