The aim was to call out lock pros who are active members of the 2+2 community.

Melanie is most certainly active and one of the better known Lock Pros.

I don't even know who pros like Ricardo Pereira https://twitter.com/rickpereira7 are never mind trying to figure out if he is active on 2+2.

She is a Lock Pro that actively represents the company at live events and in social media in order for the company to make the brand known so they can get new players to deposit. She is looking for staking but won't accept funds on Lock, but will accept money on stars and FTP. Which means she doesn't think Lock is a safe place to keep money on or make withdrawals from. So she is helping lure people to a site that she doesn't even trust to have money on herself. I'd say it is rather easy to see why many people are attacking her reputation because of it. Her actions have warranted the reaction she is receiving but all other Lock Pros deserve the same level of scrutiny.

This

not if every other payment method gets you a payout in cash. Otherwise it is an implicit admission that there is huge default risk on lock funds, which brings us back to the whole 'why are you actively promoting them' question.

Yeah, it seems like 5 maybe 6 people have ethics in the poker community.

I think this thread should be merged with the "call to action thread" here:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/19...-pros-1327784/

Just make it one thread calling out all the pros, and post it up here in NVG. It will have more chance of accomplishing it's goal in NVG, and won't be a post calling out just one player.

Good post

i agree with the ethics argument that if she full well knows what's going on with Lock then she should take action or call them out, but i also understand that this is her job and lock sponsorship is probably her main source of income right? tough spot for her imo

This pretty much is my thought. If you work for a company that you believe is not trying to do the right thing, and you stay, then you are no better then them.

LOL complete ignorance.

Casey Jarzabek (aka bigdogpckt5's) promotes lock tourneys and what not all the time on his facebook

I don't think calling out one specific Lock pro is the right title for this thread, but I do think this needs to happen. Also, Melanie is not the only Lock pro with a 2+2 account, there's definitely at least a few others, if not most. I get that her selling action in the marketplace spawned this though.

If this tweet from Jon Aguiar is accurate it makes me pretty sick.

Rumor (fact) has it that @annette_15 and @thegrinder44 have been receiving 250k/year from Lock. Many other pros receiving 6 figures

I don't really understand. So many companies do shady things that employees are not responsible for. Nike was caught having little kids work 16 hours/day making shoes for pennies. Should all the employees quit because of this? As far as I know lock poker has broken no laws, for if they did someone would be suing them. What's ignorant is that you all blame Melanie for problems that aren't her fault. So few of you would stop accepting a pay check from the company you work for due to their employer's mistakes.

IMO any of us (Americans) dumb enough to play on any poker site are making a pretty big gamble and it feels pretty irresponsible to try and blame a site's sponsored pro if things take a turn for the worse. It's obv not her fault. We all know there are risks. You don't like? You don't play.

Players standards for a site have dropped out of desperation for a spot to play. It's pretty hard to blame people for Lock. Fortunately in the US those days soon will be behind us.

Yes she should be accountable. It's not ok to endorse a POS website when you know innocent people won't get paid. That's the same as giving a kid a can of gasoline and walking away and expecting to take no flak if it's drunk.

I'm sorry that she will have to quit her job to keep her name, but making decisions like that is what gives you a good name to begin with.

You're goddamn right employees should quit if their employers are doing things like this. I know everyone has to make ends meet, and in large companies many things are going on that aren't disclosed to all employees. But have a ****ing backbone and make personal sacrifices (i.e. working elsewhere, changing career paths, ending contracts that may include penalties, etc) rather than tagging along with a company that does miserable things.

This is ridiculous. Of course they have broken the law. If you aren't aware of that then you just haven't been keeping up with online poker over the last 8 years or you are willfully turning a blind eye.

But it really isn't about whether they've broken laws or not. They've regularly misled customers, withheld services, changed policies with little or no notice, and generally tried every possible angle shot to bilk customers out of their money. This is what has people so concerned, and it is totally separate from whether they have broken the law (which they of course have).

Have you ever heard the saying:

- The rich won't fear the poor for as long as other poors will be willing to sell themselves to fight other poors, the rich won't ever be bothered

Corruption breeds corruption.

Lol @ comparing some shady things done by other corporations to the fact that Lock Poker is broke and flat-out not paying what they owe

Lock Pros are being paid with stolen money and their feet should be held to the fire

I agree with this, I'm not at all defending Lock Poker. I thought PS/FTP was indicted due to bribing banks to allow for ACH deposits/withdrawals as well as wire transfers to and from US banks. As far as I know Lock does not support those methods, which is likely why they haven't been shut down yet.

Their mistreatment of customers is not breaking the law though was my point.

+1 I think this is a valid discussion to be having, and there needs to be a venue in case one of them decides to step up and actually answer questions about it, whether it's Weisner, Bigdog, Annette, whoever.

OP title should probably be changed though.

I mean it's not exactly fair to signal MW out, should be a thread listing all lock pros bumped daily and asking why they are knowingly taking money stolen from the poker community

She is definitely aware of Lock's situation as she offered to facilitate some form of cash out for a steep vig. The offer was made in a PM in response to a post trying to sell Lock funds.

Happy for the title to be changed to something else fwiw

I do realize that some of the Lock pros, including perhaps Melanie, may be in a tough spot here.They may or may not have become aware of these issues until recently. They may have significant funds tied up themselves - there have been conflicting reports about whether sponsored pros receive preferential cashout treatment. Or they may think taking action (quitting, publicly renouncing Lock, applying private pressure) will be either ineffective or actually make things worse. If Lock is at this point a pure Ponzi scheme, then a bunch of pros publicly quitting should accelerate the death spiral. I suppose one could argue about whether that would be a good result or a bad one.

But I do think it is pretty distasteful to be personally profiting from a scheme that you know is fraudulent. Whether or not that is the case with these pros I couldn't say, but I do think it's worth asking the question and exposing the potential problems with these sponsorship relationships. At the very least, we need to make it so that none of these pros can plausibly claim that they are unaware of the significant failure of Lock to deliver for its customers.