First of all I would like to apologize to partypoker and partypoker Live and also to people who have read my vented posts. This was done out of frustration, confusion and overall lack of clarity to a system I had invested my time, money and future into. I reached out to partypoker via email several times and received no replies, saying that, I could have handled this situation better. I should not have contacted fellow regular players on partypoker to influence them without knowing all of the facts. I also intend to contact the media outlets who picked up my story, and share with them what I have learned to help make this right.
I have been speaking the last few 5 days with a Partypoker Rep who I know and trust 100%, he mediated a discussion between myself, Rob Yong, founder of PP Live, Tom Waters, MD of partypoker. Rob was very annoyed that I had not come it him first instead of using third party social media and forums, but I was unaware that he had a player group where players had direct access to him. I understand now that Rob is the main advisor to GVC for poker and has been since 2014 but he prefers to not do this publicly and does not engage in any form of social media or third party forums.
I would now like to try to clear up some confusion regarding statements I made.
-The PPL$ and leaderboard money are backed and guaranteed by Party Poker. The funds are held in segregated accounts which actually had a balance exceeding that of the amount of the total PPL$ in circulation. I was not privy to directly seeing this information (which is understandable), but the Party Rep was. In any case, Party Poker is directly responsible for guaranteeing the funds and PP Live guarantees and is owned by GVC, a FTSE top 100 company, so that’s the end of that really. I understand that Party Poker and Party Poker Live are effectively the same outfit but for certain jurisdictions where online poker is prohibited but live poker is allowed, PP Live is used to ensure that the PP Live APP can be submitted to locally and payments between live venues can be made smoothly. As we say in the crypto world, your funds are SAFU. This was by far the biggest concern.
-They agreed that the interpretation from posts in the BRS Facebook Group was that BRS players that had won PP Live Dollars were having their balances transferred to a central BRS fund, and then BRS picking the best players to play. Rob Yong had never seen the BRS Screenshots before and was shocked and immediately messaged Paul Jackson, owner of BRS, without any notice and the Partypoker Rep was pasted the replies instantly in real time and conversations retained. BRS were holding their players PP Live Dollars to restrict the level of event that a player played, for example, if a BRS player won a $5K, but was perceived to be negative ROI in a $5K buy-in, BRS would only allow them to play a lower buy-in event. These funds are said to be segregated by player. To be fair to me, when Rob saw the evidence I presented, he initially thought exactly the same thing as me. Given the knowledge regarding the segregation and assurance of our own PPL$ funds, I do not believe any thing that happened placed an unfair systemic risk on others as previously stated.
-One of my major grievances was that PP Live T and C’s initially permitted players to use their PP Live Dollars for Online Satellites. Rob confirmed that he asked PP Live to stop this a few weeks into the Leaderboard, as the intention was that PP Live Dollars could only be used for high buy-in major satellites outside of the PP Live Dollars Tree, such as CPP and MILLIONS World and WSOPE. Rob said it was very unfair to other lower bankroll leaderboard players and also to the live venues that effectively online grinders could win the leaderboard prizes without actually playing a live event by simple re-cycling PP Live Dollars. He admitted that the T & Cs were worded badly. I do think partypoker are doing many good things, but maybe they are running too fast and communication needs to improve, even if their intentions are honorable, they should not just change their T and Cs in 24 hours and not inform us. At a minimum, we should have been given 1 months’ notice in my opinion.
-I asked a number of questions on preferential treatment of stables. Rob was surprisingly open about his views on stables. He said that he looks upon a Stable as a VIP or Affiliate and that stables are a key part of the poker community helping start satellites and growing more feeders and satellites. He said although the accusations were actually false about BRS being able to swap or use PP Live Dollars for online sats, he would have no hesitation giving a preferential deal if a stable added value and its none of anyone’s business what deals he makes with stables, affiliates or VIPS. He said he had offered Leaderboards to stables to help start Satellites and if a stable was putting 10+ players into a Live Event, he would want to do them a deal to help with expenses. He said most of the time his friends who stake players for fun help him out as a favor, he even admitted that one of his friends flew over 50 players to MILLIONS Sochi in 2017 to support him when they missed the guarantee by 1 player, and that he offered to pay for the private jet but his friend declined.
-I do not regret speaking up, people should never be afraid to speak up for what they feel is right. As players a healthy level of skepticism is necessary in this industry given the course of events over time. But not all operators are equal. Party today is not the same company they were in 2006 and I should not have made comparisons with their Monster event 12 years ago. Corporations evolve, and values shift. Speaking with the people at Party, it is clear that they have player's interests in mind. If party don’t want to respond on social media and third-party forums though, they need to make it clear what the right channels are, if I had known that Rob Yong had a player group on Discord, I would not have vented my frustrations publicly. The 2+2 discussion got out of hand very quickly. I accept some blame for inciting this. I had tried to reach out to people at every step of the way but was left feeling like no one at party cared and I did not act with malicious intent towards Party or the growth of poker in general.
-I do regret opening the door for others to take this opportunity of weakness to attack Party with malicious intentions of their own. I understand now competitors jumped on the bangwagon opening fake accounts which I don't think is right, and not something I expected. The discussion got so out of hand with personal threats and details from newly registered accounts on all sides of the argument, that moderators had to lock the thread to clean it up. This is not a healthy way to establish meaningful discourse, and I can't fault Party for staying away from that. I also regret that things I contributed to a thread helped add to this toxicity. While there are genuine concerns in the thread, I don't feel that it serves the interests of the players, and does a lot to damage to both Party Poker and the overall perception/growth of the poker market. The thread is filled with lies, the fake accounts as mentioned, and first time posters spreading misinformation. I feel secure in being able to to recant my statements regarding PPL$ at this point and admit where I was wrong. I won't be contributing to the thread any more, and I think it would be best to just move forward from this issue and have it put to rest.
-In terms of PPL$, the call for action has been answered in my opinion. I am satisfied with the continuing discussions we've had on the matter. Most importantly the solvency of not just my funds, but those of others. I will reach out to the regs/people that have contacted me and make sure this is clear to them in case they miss this post or have any lingering doubts.
I've voiced and shared other concerns about the PPL$ system and Rob Yong seems willing to work on certain areas on qualifying players and live poker, especially to help the recreational players to have a more level playing field by making main events freezeouts and investing in more feeders. He's bounced a lot of ideas to me, and I feel some of the things discussed would be great for the games ahead.
I could see myself rising from #2 to become the #1 player on the leaderboard when I continue playing online after the CPP. I will now be able to put my money confidently into PPL$ and partypoker, although we left initial chats with Rob saying that he doesn’t ever want my business or any other players who does not have Party’s back. He offered to return me the money for my hotel and flights as he doesn’t want me or any other people involved in this chapter at the CPP. I'm stubborn though, so I am here anyways. I spoke with Rob Yong at the CPP. I apologized face to face for the mistakes I feel I've made, while also voicing my frustrations at the lack of communication I received during this process. I also continued offering further advice on areas of improvement for the future. It was a long conversation between the 2 of us, furthering on everything that had been discussed since last Sunday. Another respected player ran into us towards the end, and was also allowed to take part in these discussions. I was delighted with this openness.
I think have said everything I can on this matter now. I still believe that players deserve the three things I talked about: communication, transparency, and security. My faith in all three have been restored over the last days and I felt it was important to share that with all of you. These words are my own, and I believe that they are an accurate representation of the PPL$ situation.
-TJXOLOSFAN1
(also I want to add one more thing from twitter as I am posting here and had to retype everything by hand as my original document didn't auto save on wordpad. I was offered nothing, given nothing. no secret deals. everything is out in the open with PPL$. i may agree or disagree or certain other things we discussed, but the evidence shown and the discussions that took place make me feel comfortable enough to post this. I understand people may continue to be skeptical, but as I said, I will continue to be a part of this system that I had called into question and had among the most to lose. I already have other PPL$ regs reaching out to me to who also share relief in this resolution)
