I have to say that it looks really bad by Stars thinking they have contacted the Police when they in fact haven't done so. I would not be impressed if I were in Jeans shoes.

Also, on the liability thing... I saw some comments from presumambly North Americans who say the hotel can not be held liable. This is impossible to say for non-Spanish jurists. In most EU member states there is liabilty for the hotel in these cases, there even is a treaty on this (from 17 decembre 1962), but if I remember properly, Spain is not a party to this treaty. However, the only person who could provide good information on this is a Spanish jurist, and I would highly advice to contact one. For the sake of liability, please also go to the police yourself, because you are directly involved, and not PokerStars.

My advice is, you are internet guys, scatter the internet with this story, only facts and mention the hotel name everywhere. Make sure everyone who ever googles the hotel name reads your story. That's really the only pressure thing you can do, and in my opinion a very good one.

I've been refunded losses 3 times in the last 6 months by PStars, but have not been given a specific reason other than a vague intimation toward inappropriate play at various tables I had been playing at, is this because of old fashioned team play/chip dumping or have PS picked up on the problem being discussed here. Have tried for a more specific explanation as to what has happened but just told the players involved had been banned, very worrying especially as I'm thinking they've picked up on it at these 3 tables but has there been others where it has not been detected?

Maybe jeans put a sick bad beat on some high stakes player

maybe it was isludur and this is all a joke gone to far we all know isi likes a good prank?

lol_5_star_hotel

Maybe Jeans should start messing with this guys head and sit at .01/.02 cash table.

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, perhaps it's too obvious, but have you got in touch with the respective organisations of which pieces of software you have/had on your laptop? I'm sure you have multiple poker rooms, potentially Skype/other messaging systems. If you haven't done so already, contact the companies to see if there were any failed/successful login attempts to any of those applications. You can then see if the times of the login attempts correlate to the times that you were without your laptop.

Doing this could potentially help you to understand the motives of the people involved in this. I know sauce alluded to the fact earlier that this all could be a target against rich people in general as opposed to just poker players. It could also allow you to figure out their motives in relation to what they wanted to achieve in the theft. I know people in the thread are envisioning criminal IT masterminds, it could be the case that they're opportunistic thieves who can bypass a windows password, attempt to guess your stars password and dump some funds. Or alternatively it could be an elaborate plan to scam you at a later date through seeing your hole cards or whatever.

Sorry if this is rather obvious and you've done this all already.

My second point could perhaps be more naive, is it possible to pinpoint where the laptop was connected to wifi, in terms of geographical location. I mean it may be entirely possible to check where the laptop was during the times it was missing and essentially lead to narrowing down who's responsible.

Good luck getting to the bottom of this.



Also, lol at thecooler101.

It sucks that you were colluded against but your example demonstrates they are doing something about it, which is more than you can say for a lot of online poker sites. Have you ever been contacted by another site to say you've been colluded against?

FWIW it's highly unlikely you were cheated in the manner being discussed in this thread.

Good point

To me it seems very clear specifically highstakes pokerplayers were targeted

Thanks, this was actually what henri told me we should still do after we had given up on everything else, before running into ignat. Also I don't think it hurts if more of you let ritz carlton know of this case, I think I should do that myself once I have time.

1) I figured something like this also, makes most sense.
2. good questions and I have so many more good questions and points but the problem is noone wants to listen. It's pretty ridiculous. We'll see if I get a chance to present them to someone from the national police
3. same answer as 2.
4. indeed. Especially the logs synced with hotel cameras could give some good answers.

The biggest reason I posted about the logs though was that this was the sole evidence used to judge my friend as the criminal. I mean think about that for a minute. I can't even think about that anymore because I get beyond tilted. And after waiting 1 and a half days for the pokerstars investigation to finish, they suspect the same thing. And only because of the same ***** entrylogs. OK now im tilted agian.

0human0 is the perpetrator because just when I was about to give up on the investigation and leave back home he gives me reason to stay and find out more? And someone got caught on the camera to his room?
Use your brain before you post again, and lets not try to get this thread filled with anymore stupid posts like this.



I did come to the same conclusion as was said in a post I can't find now. I think I interrupted their plan so they panicked and returned the laptop to my room. They then realized it was full of evidence so they had to get it again to get rid of all the evidence, they then left it in the hotel so nothing had gone missing which would make the investigation harder. This seems to make most sense.

They didn't give us the codes, they showed us them on the meeting. My friend was smart enough to take a photo of them before they took them back. He also took a photo of the hotel security manager but I wasn't sure if it was legally smart to post that photo in this thread.

BTW is there anyway to highlight my replies in this thread to make them easier to find? Atleast perhaps a mod could copy my reply about the national police to the original post? And maybe write down there which post numbers are my replies.

I will read more and give answers tomorrow. Now that I'm back in finland and it's saturday I have to get totally hammered.

do a search on yourself on your "My 2p2" and see all your latest replies

Easyish way to find your own posts is just could your username and find posts

Edit apparently it takes me 7+ min to read this thread on phone

To see who posted in a thread, click here:





To see Jeans's posts, click here

Seems like every time there's been a "crisis" and Lee Jones has responsibility for managing it he manages to totally **** things up. I remember how he messed up so bad with Cardrunners and now he's messing up here. Not sure why people hold him in high regard.

Everyone should leave a negative review here imo: http://www.tripadvisor.ie/Hotel_Revi...Catalonia.html

linking back to this thread.... Hotels REALLLLY care about their Tripadvisor reports

I would think, in a serious instance like this, you will be better served taking some time out of your party schedule and actually participate in some of the suggestions being offerd.

You seriously need to think about your decisions moving forward at this point.

Not only are you helping yourself in this matter, you need to understand you will be directly helping others that may be vulnerable to attack in the future.

Im sorry this happened to you, I truly am. But you have a rather large opportunity (&platform in 2+2) to benefit this community as well as the poker community in general IMHO.

Its honestly not only all about you at this point given the situation IMHO. Think about the others you can help. Go big or go home.

For yours,mine, and the communities sake, please do not quit on this one... take the time and do what needs to be done.

When this is over with the happy ending that it deserves, I buy you a 5th and help you finish it.

Regards,
Jonathan

My question is this: whomever is doing this can't they just break in to these people's houses and mess with their computers? (granted, doing it in a hotel gives them the opportunity to kill more birds with one stone)

Amazing story, my head is spinning with the incompetence (hopefully it is incompetence otherwise a bad story is even worse if it's all part of a cover up) of the people involved.

Barcelona is a great city, but crime is amazingly rife.

I went in the early days of the EPT and know of at least 2 poker players who were attacked and lots significant sums of money. Having been specifically targeted as having been seen holding a lot of money in the casino.

Nothing has been done to tighten up security, it just seems like no one cares. The casino, Pokerstars or the hotels.

They should have abandoned the Barcelona stop years ago if security couldn't be guaranteed.

We were staying at the Arts too.On Tuesday 3rd September I was playing poker & my girlfriend was at the beach. When she returned, her diamond ring had grown legs,walked off the table & disappeared out of the room.We had the same issues with our keys not working in the door.The hotel told us that they have drawn a blank.There certainly appears to be some security issues with this hotel.

Am i the only one who finds it weird that

'Head of Communications' Lee Jones or anyone else from pokerstars is unable to communicate to its customers that were in barcelona thru either twitter, email, pokerstarsblog or phonecalls?

Absolutely unbelievable

quite right. pokerstars should abandon the event because people cannot use common sense and lock away their valuables and not walk about with wads of cash in the theft capital of europe.

He is not letting this be, he is just going out and intoxicate himself which I can completely understand. Besides, what do you propose he should do tonight if he is not going out to get hammered? Back in Finland and PokerStars security doing their thing he is of no use at this moment. He can only wait and hope Stars contacts him within the next few days.

Let the man drink after such an ordeal. I know I would.

You are the one with the asinine post, my friend.

You apparently have no clue about how important reputation is to luxury hotels.

It's bad enough if some European poker player claims his stuff was stolen/tampered with, but at least the hotel can hope that it's only one individual claim, and unlikely to do a lot of damage or attract a lot of attention.

If a major organization like Pokerstars pulls out of the event due to thefts and incompetence (or complicity) in hotel security, that looks absolutely TERRIBLE for Arts, as well as all brands associated with it. And that sort of thing happening is likely to get some media attention, as well -- at least enough to show up prominently in google when people search for Hotel Arts Barcelona.

So, yes, the hotel has a major incentive to solve the situation if Pokerstars gets aggressive with them, whereas they have less incentive when they feel they can just snow some individual with lies and insist that his roommate was the culprit.

Shame on Stars, and shame on you for giving them a pass on this.

I dont think people should have to lock their valuables in a 5 star hotel. Security is why they pay $600 a night in a hotel like this. Walking around Barcelona with wads of cash in their pockets is surely stupid, but leaving valuables in the room without locking them away is not really that stupid. Customers should be able to trust that random people cant just walk into their rooms and steal their stuff.